How Are Undergraduate Students Using Technology?

As the time passes by, people look for more ease in work and are moving in sync with technology. Students love technology and these days they not only prefer online learning but also look for ways to convert many of the old methods into the new

technologically based experiences. With numerous reasons to use technology
, it has become an essential aid to communication and a means of engagement. Now the question comes which technology is most important to students and how does it help their academic experience and achievement?

Devices

The first and foremost thing every student today uses are their devices . Students these days carry with them a lot of  fancy gadgets. Smartphones, e-reader, tablets. They have it all. Although even now 84 % students have printers and 85% computers, there are about 62 % students owning a smartphone and 68 % USBs with 12 % owning e readers. So the students are way ahead in using devices, much more than we know.

Brands used

Majority of these gadgets belong to big brands in the industry like Apple, Andoid, Kindle. Amongst e-readers its Kindle that has a majority of 59% and 24% is Nook. While in case of laptops Apple users are less around 21% and Windows users are 76%. Also an interesting fact to know is while students think tablets are good tool for communication and gathering information, they agree they’re awkward tools for producing academic work.

Most Important To-Dos from a Mobile Device

66 % access course websites or syllabi, 64% use course or learning management systems and 57 % can be done for checking grades.

Learning Environments

With time students are choosing online classes over classroom lectures. Thanks to the presence of numerous blended learning environments, in 2008 15% say that they took a class completely online. In 2012 it increased to 31%. As you see there is a growth in the need for online classes more, MOOCs  have seen sudden rise in popularity .

Using Technology for Communication

Students say that technology helps them stay connected to what’s going on in their institution, to other students, as well as to their instructors. Students now choose to take up online courses. 74 % of students have taken at least one course that includes online components. 54% are more actively involved in courses that include online components and 16% of the students skip classes when the course lecture is available online. Also many of the students desires have changed. Now 53% wish instructors communicated more through face to face interaction, while some believe in course learning management systems , others believe in mail and text. But mainly the greatest changes that have been seen in the forms of communication which students use for academic purpose is that there is 26% increase in the social studying sites,18% increase in Twitter, 21% in Linkedin and 20% in other social sites, however there is a 7% decrease in Facebook.

I believe that students consider their gadgets as the ultimate way to use technology and form the proper blend of technology leading them towards a more finer method of learning.

Check out this beautiful infographic by BachelorsDegreeOnline which visualizes the above mentioned points. These data are from the EDUCAUSE Center for Applied annual report of undergrad students and technology. Over 195 institutions and over 100,000 students participated in the survey in 2012. The findings above are based on a stratified random sample of 10,000 undergrads from that population selected to match the most recent IPEDS profile of U.S. undergrads. More information is available at: http://www.educause.edu/ecar/about-ecar/ecar-annual-study-students-and-it

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