2006-07 Student Computing Ownership and Use Survey

Now in its 17th year, IIT’s Student Computing Ownership and Use Survey continues to provide IIT and the college as a whole with valuable information for resource planning.  Plus, the survey results provide us with a fascinating historical view of the rise of the importance of computing on campus.

Computer Ownership

Participation was, as usual, quite high as 2,556 students elected to participated in the survey that was distributed each night at the fall registration.  Ninety-seven percent (97%) of the students indicated that they owned a computer.  This is up 1% from last year; 5 years ago ownership was at only 82%.  Between the classes, ownership varies only by one or two percentage points.

An area we continue to watch is computing ownership among the SSS students.  In past years the SSS students had significantly lower computer ownership levels and we did not see any growth.  This past year we were pleased to see that ownership had risen to 86%; the junior class reached 90%.

Probably no surprise to anyone who has been following business trends or the stock market, Macintosh computers are making a big return to the higher education market.  Back in the 2000-01 academic year, Mac ownership had dropped to 15%.  Today, Apple holds a 25% market share.  Among the first year students, ownership is up to 31%, the highest level we have ever seen in the 17 years this survey has been conducted.

Last summer, IIT completed a project to expand wireless networking to all of the residence halls.  It appears as though the project was completed just in the nick of time as laptop ownership has skyrocketed up to 77%.  Five years ago only 26% of the students reported owning a laptop. Sixty-nice percent (69%) of the students reported that they use the campus wireless network.  First-year students lead in the use of the wireless network with 77% reporting that they use the network. 

Computer Lab Use and Printer Ownership

Use of the St. Olaf provided computing resources has not diminished significantly over the years even though computer ownership has gone up dramatically. Eighty-five percent (85%) of the students indicated that they used the St. Olaf computing labs.  The percentage hasn’t fluctuated substantially over the past seventeen years.

Residence halls remain the most popular public computing spot on campus with 74% of the students indicating that they used the labs in the halls.  This is up slightly from last year (70%).  Seventy-nine percent (79%) of the students use the St. Olaf-provided printers located in residence hall labs, public labs, and departments.  It is interesting to note that the number of students who own a printer has been steadily declining the last few years.  In 2004-05, 60% of the students came to campus with a printer.  This year printer ownership is down to only 39%. 

Student Satisfaction and Comments

This year, in addition to asking students to provide general comments about IIT and the services we provide, we specifically asked the students to rate their overall satisfaction with IIT services.  These results were positive, but yet they do suggest that IIT needs to find ways to better meet the changing needs of some of the students. 

Probably the most helpful information IIT gets from the survey are the general comments.  This year, 583 students chose to write down one or two comments about IIT’s services.  While we often do not agree with what the students write or can find a reason for their comment, the student perceptions are what count.  These comments help us shape our services in ways that improve the student perceptions and services to the student body in general. 

For the first time in three years, positive comments about IIT services was not the most common issue listed by the students.  Requests for more reliability and a faster wireless network took the top spot.  In some cases the students provided us with enough information so that we could resolve the problem (such as a specific residence hall room with poor signal strength) but in most cases the students simply listed “Better wireless.”  Because we did not receive enough detailed information to resolve or fix any problems, IIT will set up a Wireless Network reporting form that we hope students will fill out when they experience problems.

The third issue on the list involved student requests for printers.  Just over a quarter of the comments about printer access had to do with requests for more printer access in Ytterboe Hall.  With the continued decline in printer ownership among students the rise in the number of requests for college-provided printers is not unexpected.

One of the most interesting areas of the comments involved the speed of the Internet.  Forty four students commented that St. Olaf needed to provide a faster Internet connection.  This Fall, IIT increased the campus commercial network bandwidth by 50%; we now have 20 T1 lines serving the campus in addition to our Internet2 connection.  One can only speculate that while the bandwidth is more than acceptable for academic purposes (email, web surfing, library access, etc.) the bandwidth is not meeting the recreational needs of the students for downloading music or vidoes, gaming, etc.  In fact, for the first time there were enough comments about Network Gaming to warranty the creation of a gaming category. Recreational computing has never been a concern or focus of IIT, however, it is an area that we will need to monitor.  The students are coming to campus expecting to have access to some of the same recreational activities that they did at home.  IIT is not in a position to fund recreational activities but the “netgen” students are much more dependent upon the Internet for all of their activities and therefore it is an issue the college needs to address.

The remainder of the Top Ten issues received under 30 comments each — not enough to be anywhere near significant but still enough to warrant discussion.  One area that IIT will address are the student concerns about our technical assistance.  The volume of comments was great enough to split out the general category of “Customer Service.”  Unfortunately, the majority of the comments were so general in nature that it is impossible to take action.  Some, however, were more specific such as requests for improvements to our Mac skills.  Given the growth in the number of students who own Macs, it is not unreasonable to see this type of comment. 

It is always interesting to see the fluctuation of the Top Ten issues through the years.  We see some of the same issues year after year but others appear for a year or two and then disappear.  Many have a direct correlation to a new technology or one that has grown in importance to the students, i.e., Internet gaming or to a specific campus technology event that occurred right before the survey was distributed.