Student Computing Survey 2010-2011: Undergraduate Results

Check out these selected results of the annual Student Computing Survey for undergrads, conducted through the month of April 2011. Click here for Graduate survey results or visit the survey result archives.

• Demographics
• About Your Personal Computing
• About Your Resident Computer Consultants (RCC)
• Residence Computing Spaces
• Public Computing Spaces
• Computing in Your Courses

Demographics

This year, 968 undergrad students responded to the survey, with more women responding to the survey (54%) than men. Respondents consisted of:

• 31% first-year students
• 25% sophomores
• 21% juniors
• 21% seniors

About 36% were in the School of Engineering, 15% in Humanities, 23% in Natural Sciences, 25% in Social Sciences, and the remaining either undeclared or other major.

About Your Personal Computing

We asked students about their device ownership and usage patterns. Of those who responded to the survey:

• Almost 100% have their own computer
• At least 21% have 2 or more computers (not including other computing devices, such as smartphones)
• 89% have a laptop computer
• 56% have a smartphone (e.g. iPhone, Blackberry, etc)
• 7% have a tablet computer (e.g. iPad)
• 63% have their own printer
• 62% have an iPod or other media player (not including smartphones, e.g. iPhone)
• 15% have a Game console (XBox, PlayStation, etc.)

In terms of platform:

• 40% have a Windows PC desktop or laptop
• 56% have a Mac desktop or laptop
• 6% have a Unix or Linux computer

What personal desktop or laptop computer(s) do you have?

Which of these following devices do you have?

How old are your computing devices?

Most students say they use their computers between four to eight hours a day, with 32% four to six hours a day, 32% six to eight hours a day, and 18% more than 8 hours a day.

Students were also asked about their email and scheduler use: 68% of students said they used both the general Stanford email service (@stanford.edu) and Gmail accounts regularly. 6% of students use the Stanford Calendar service (Zimbra) and 41% use Google Calendar. 41% continue to use paper organizers.

Off-Campus Students

Almost all undergraduates live on campus. However, students who live off-campus were included in the survey. Of those who responded-- only 2% of those who answered the survey-- the most popular ways of getting computer help were:

1. Friends of family (75%)
2. Non-Stanford websites (Google, Microsoft, Apple, etc.) (60%)
3. Stanford Campus Help Desk (5-HELP or HelpSU) (20%)
4. Academic Computing / Student Computing website (10%)
5. Local computer store (including Stanford Bookstore) (10%)

To use their iPhone, computer, etc. on the network while on campus, most off-campus students used the Stanford Network Self-Registration service (80%), while others got network help from their department, HelpSU, or did not register any devices.

Multilingual Computing

This year the survey included questions about multilingual computing practices.  Among undergraduate students, 51% reported using at least one language other than English for computing. Of these, 21% reported using two or more non-English languages on their computing devices with the maximum being five languages. Undergraduate students specified computing in 40 different languages with the most common being Spanish, Chinese, French, Japanese and German.

Of the undergrad students who use more than one language on their computing devices, over 70% use their devices for both reading and writing in a non-English language. 37% also use computing devices for audio and video conferencing in a language other than English.

What non-English language(s) you have used most on a computer or handheld device in the past year?

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About Your Residential Computing Consultants (RCC)

Resident Computer Consultants (RCCs) are students who live in each residence and serve on house staffs as local network managers by supporting residential network connections, educators by running residential programs on computing and working with students in general, consultants by helping residents with computer problems, cluster technicians by helping to take care of the residence clusters, and more. They are managed by the RCC Manager (and the Resident Fellow(s) where applicable) and receive support and training from the StuComp central staff. RCCs are the first line of support for residential students and are an integral part of residential life. For more information about RCCs, see http://rcc.stanford.edu

62% of students said they have asked their RCC for computer related help or advice, with 97% of these students having asked for help one to five times this past year (the survey was conducted through the month of April 2011). The majority of questions were related to use of the wireless network (62%). Other questions also included use of the cluster printer (30%), a personal printer (16%), and email (12%). 12% of students said they asked their RCCs questions unrelated to technology (e.g., academic or personal issues).

What kinds of questions have you directed to your RCC this year?

On average, 88% of requests were resolved within two days, with 92% of those requests being resolved within 24 hours. Of course, in some cases it takes a longer time to resolve issues. In those cases, 73% of students responded that students felt that the RCC's response time was reasonable.

64% of students rated their RCC's knowledge as excellent or good and 68% rated their RCC's availability to help as always or usually available.

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Residence Computing Spaces

Student Computing, a department of Academic Computing, supports a computer cluster in every residence, roughly 360 public computers in 80 locations.

81% of students said it was important or very important to have study space within their house equipped with technology such as computers, printers, and shared displays for laptops.

85% of students said they have used a residence computing space (computer cluster) this year for any purpose (computer use, printing, study, etc.). Of those students, 67% used it often or regularly (at least once a month) and 33% used the cluster rarely (once or twice a quarter).

The top five most significant reasons for using the residence clusters are:

1. Printing (65% of cluster users)
2. Study space away from room (61%)
3. Availability of specialized software (Matlab, Mathematica, Photoshop, etc.) (56%)
4. Multimedia production (scanning, video editing, etc) (46%)
5. Availability of group/partner work space (46%)

Regarding the reliability of the printers in residence computing spaces, 97% of students say that the printer is always or usually stocked with paper and 99% say that the printer always or usually has sufficient toner.

How important is it to have a study space WITHIN YOUR HOUSE equipped with technology such as computers, printers, and shared displays for laptops (as opposed to regionally, such as in your dorm complex but you would need to go outside, or centrally, e.g. in Meyer or Tresidder)?

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Public Computing Spaces

Academic Computing Services, Student Computing's parent organization, also provides central public computer clusters, equipment for checkout (e.g., laptops, video cameras, projectors) and study space in Meyer Library, Green Library, other branch libraries, Tresidder LAIR and the community centers. Technical support and customer service is also provided at the Meyer Tech Desk. 71% of students who answered the survey say they have used one of these spaces this year.

Students were asked how often they used specific public computing or study locations. Students said they used the following spaces regularly (at least once a month) or often (more than once a week), in order:

1. Green Library (other study or computer spaces) (36% of cluster users)
2. Meyer Lobby (1st floor) (35%)
3. Old Union meeting rooms (32%)
4. Meyer 2nd floor study/computing space (21%)
5. Any library other than Meyer or Green (19%)

The most significant reasons students used public computing or study spaces in Meyer, Tresidder Computer Center, or Green Library are, in order:

1. Study space away from residence (68% of cluster users)
2. Availability of group/partner work space (55%)
3. General printing (51%)
4. Availability of specialized software (Matlab, Mathematica, Photoshop, etc.) (42%)
5. Social environment, atmosphere (36%)

The second floor of Meyer also houses the Multimedia Studio. Students who use the space use it for a variety of multimedia purposes, such as digital video editing (61%), image scanning (43% of Multimedia Studio users), and image editing (31%).

For what activities (if any) do you primarily use the Multimedia Studio in Meyer?

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Computing in Your Courses

 Students were asked about their use of the online and software tools for learning within and outside of their classes.

CourseWork by far, was the most widely used CMS at Stanford during 2010-2011. Blackboard, CCNet, CourseWare were used by specific departments (School of Education, Electrical Engineering, and Computer Science respectively) so it was expected that their usage would be low relative to CourseWork.

Which course / learning management system(s) have your courses used this academic year?

Students were asked to rate their satisfaction level with CourseWork. Overall, 74% were satisfied or very satisfied. 15% were neutral. 10% were dissatisfed and 2% indicated they were very dissatisfied.

Students were presented with a list of possible improvements in CourseWork, from which they could select up to three choices. The options were a mix of desired improvements as specified in the last CourseWork survey (conducted in 2009) that have not been addressed, known usability issues that have not been addressed, and new capabilities not available in CourseWork but available within the Sakai project that were considered potentially of interest/value to students. Students were also given an “Other” option to specify wishlist item(s) not available as a pre-identified item. The top 5 most desired improvements included:

1. Ability to view important dates (project/assignment deadlines, exam dates) for all of your courses within a single calendar (70% of CourseWork users)
2. Ability to view class lectures through CourseWork (52%)
3. Ability to create and manage checklists of various types (e.g., track progress on a big project, your doctoral dissertation, requirements for your major) (29%)
4. A better way to organize and name course sites (27%)
5. Easier way to upload/download multiple files/folders in Materials and Drop Box (23%)

We asked students about their experience with the CourseWork site for mobile devices. The top five features undergrads indicated they would often or sometimes use on the mobile Coursework site included:

1. View assignments (77% of CourseWork users)
2. View course announcements (75%)
3. View the course syllabus (71%)
4. Access grades (70%)
5. Find course location (69%)

OUTSIDE OF face-to-face meetings of your classes at Stanford, rank each tool's/method's effectiveness in facilitating learning. If you did not use a tool/method, please select N/A. (An example for "Learning Management System" would be using CourseWork to conduct peer review of assignments.)

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This concludes the selected results of the annual Student Computing Survey for undergrads, conducted through the month of April 2011. Click here for Graduate survey results or visit the survey result archives.