Teaching and Learning notice board ICT Skills survey results

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1. Catherine Fenn Staff Warwick Medical School

   #1 15:06, Fri 25 Nov 2011

   Hello Please see http://blogs.warwick.ac.uk/wmscpdstaff/entry/results_of_student/ for an overview of the results collected so far this term for Masters & CPD students. How can these results help inform the way we support students? Cheers Cath
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2. David Davies Staff Warwick Medical School

   #2 10:09, Mon 28 Nov 2011

   Re: ICT Skills survey results

   Interesting. So what does it mean do you think? If I’ve read the table correctly the students are confident with email and Internet searching, but less so with spreadsheets and databases? Cheers, David.
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3. Catherine Fenn Staff Warwick Medical School

   #3 10:41, Mon 28 Nov 2011

   Re: ICT Skills survey results

   Hi David Yes you’ve read the scale correctly and the greatest levels of confidence are with use of email and internet. We could possibly assume that these are the “everyday use” tools for this group of students? Although interesting to note there are still a significant number of students who feel they need to gain more confidence. From an assessment viewpoint, the students surveyed will be expected to produced assignments using Word (or similar) that are a minimum of 3000 words. 65% scored less than confident in the use of Word, what impact does this have on their ability to complete their assignments? Is it just the time factor? In terms of communications, we have forums available for use across the whole of our taught provision. 90% of students not confident in use of forums. If we had data on staff would we get a similar result? Should we be addressing this? Or should we seek alternative ways of pulling together online group discussions? Databases, here students appear to consider (from text in the additional comments section) we have strayed into jargon. On the little understood end of the scale we get the smallest count for “confident”. Possibly indicative of need for grounding on basics of definitions and choosing the right tool for the job in hand? Just a few of my own thoughts. Would be very interested in hearing the thoughts of other staff who teach and support students. Cheers Cath
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4. Samantha Johnson Staff Library

   #4 11:59, Thu 1 Dec 2011

   Re: ICT Skills survey results

   Looks like there’s still plenty to do on the literature searching side of things! It’s interesting that they are more or less confident in using the internet but not the databases and presumably don’t see the link between the two. I guess it’s the more structured nature of the databases that causes the concern. The other issue is the lack of momentum between modules and that for some modules they need to do a “proper” search, ie UReCA and then they continue muddling through until they get to their Professional Project/Dissertation and have to do another “proper” search. In between, I suspect they are doing minimal literature searching and surfing the internet, which they are happy to do – although, of course, you can question how good they actually are at this in relation to academic research. But if you are finding enough references and don’t have to provide any evidence of where they came from or how systematic you’ve been, then surfing or using known journals, is “fine” and you are confident with using the internet. (I have to say, a lot of the above applies to staff and researchers as well!!) Sam
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