IT in Academic Learning: Views from Student Survey Projects

Students entering the higher education instructional arena are likely to encounter various forms and levels of IT integration. Although they may be labeled "Digital Natives", these students may not know how to employ technology-based tools strategically to optimize learning experiences in university settings. As they become exposed to the affordances and challenges of employing IT for learning, they form views and concerns which are of interest to educators and researchers. One way of gaining access to the students' own perspective is to provide opportunities for students to identify issues related to IT in Academic Learning which they find relevant, formulate research questions, prepare and distribute survey questionnaires and analyze the collected data. Thus, they can probe views and behaviors of students in their own and other institutions and departments and develop a wider perspective concerning these issues. Such an opportunity is afforded by the Survey Project framed within our first year Social Science Research course. The Survey project presents a performance task that encourages students to actively integrate and apply knowledge and produce meaningful products, even at the early stages of their undergraduate studies. We will describe the instructional design and provide evidence for the instructional effectiveness, based on student products from the 2010-2011 academic years. The analysis will deal with survey topics, survey questionnaires, samples and methods of collecting data, research questions, data processing and methods of information representation. Using 6 survey samples we will show how the survey topics and questionnaire items reflect students' views and concerns related to IT in academic learning.