Have They Changed? Five Years of Survey on Academic Net-Generation

At Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) a questionnaire amongst freshmen is carried out each year since 2007. Aim of this poll is to check IT and Web 2.0 competences and skills of the new students coming to TU Graz in order to adapt the e-learning services for their study at TU Graz. Furthermore the results mirror current trends and changing behaviors of young people said to be the net-generation often postulated to which we and our teachers will face to. After five years of investigations time has come to take a look back and reel up processes and progresses not only because five years match the standard duration of a study at TU Graz. Which trends have been established, which assumptions did not arrive, what happened totally unexpected? This paper targets the main changes within the last five years due to this subject. It compares the five study years and outlines the current study results of 2011 in. One of the main results over five years is that the net-generation did arrive but slowly adapt their study life to what they are already used to do in private.