Computer Instructor Looking At Whether Students Who Own A Computer Perform Better In College

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Do college students who own computers perform any differently in school than those who don't?

To find out, Debra Burhans, a computer science lecturer at the University at Buffalo, has divided the basic computer course she teaches into sections of "owners" and "non-owners."

The sections were organized in part to gain information in preparation for a university-wide requirement that all incoming freshmen have access to computers starting in Fall 1999.

According to Burhans, the students in the course for the most part are not science or engineering majors and so are an excellent general population to study. About 70 percent of science and engineering majors at UB own computers, while the number is about 50 percent for nonmajors.

"The purpose of this pilot project is to find out what skills students need to make owning a computer in college 'worthwhile,'" she said.

The results of the study will be the basis of a report and will be used to develop educational software to be used in teaching basic computer courses.

To gather data, Burhans will use detailed questionnaires at the end of each lab project, a method that will allow her to keep tabs on how students' use of computers is changing throughout the semester.

One litmus test for finding out how technology-savvy both owners and non-owners have become, Burhans said, is whether they start using the computer for purposes that have nothing to do with the class, such as for projects in other classes and for personal information-gathering.

Where students do their computing also is an important consideration.

"We'll be asking student owners if they do a substantial amount of computing in on-campus labs even if they have a computer at home," said Burhans.

She expects that this will be the case because labs have become centers for socializing.

At the same time, she said, with commuters making up the majority of students on campus, increased use of computers probably will help to bring students closer and provide more community, even outside of class.

Burhans cautioned that some assumptions about computer ownership are not necessarily true.

"I want to know if students who own computers are any more computer-literate to begin with," she said. "I know from my previous classes that just owning one does not a priori make you a better student.

"At the same time, using a computer to educate isn't a priori better than using blackboards and chalk. We need to see where the computer really can make a difference in education and communication among students and faculty."

Burhans also will be asking both sets of students to look at their initial experiences at the course outset and compare that with how computer-literate they feel by course's end.

The pilot project also will be used to gather information on how well the university's computer network is serving its students.

"A key question will be, 'How long does it take you to dial-in to the network from home?'" she said.

In addition, she noted, the project will shed some light on what kinds of learning are enhanced through interaction with computers and which are not.

The project received seed money used to re-equip an undergraduate computer science lab from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, the Office of the Provost and the Office of the Vice Provost for Educational Technology.