Opportunity to Participate in Survey on Student Use of Tech at Your Institution

Yesterday I was looking around for samples of institutional surveys that ask students what tech they use and how they use it. The most recent driver was a faculty member’s observation that students didn’t always have a device for viewing the e-text that was used for application work in their course, nor was there a way to easily display the e-text for the entire class.

Here is a no-cost opportunity that I came across by the very dependable Educause’s applied research wing: http://www.educause.edu/ecar/about-ecar/ecar-annual-study-students-and-it/participate-ecar-study-students-and-it

ECAR provides this intro:

Why Participate in the ECAR Student Study?

The primary benefit of participating in this study is to gain an understanding of how your students use technology, their assessment of their technical skills, the extent to which they use information technologies in their courses, and their perspectives about the impact of IT on their academic experience. Participating institutions will receive an aggregate-level summary that compares their students with students at similar institutions. Institutions will also receive the responses of their students in digital form (i.e., raw data files) so that they can conduct further analysis. The estimated time for the online version is twenty minutes. Institutions have two options for student participation: students can submit their email addresses with the survey for a random drawing for gift cards, or the institution can exclude that option.

A detailed checklist and clear directions for participation are provided from application, to IRB options, to delivery of data to participants. Institutions have until January 31, 2013 to indicate their wish to participate and survey activity ends in April, 2013.

What an opportunity to have the feedback for institutional practices that provide even more support for student learning. Will your college be participating?