Abstract:
Faculty members(n=63) in a college of agriculture were surveyed to determine the information and communication technology (ICT) tasks they required students to complete in identified courses during the fall 2009 semester. A mean of 8.46 (SD=6.20) tasks were required per course. The six tasks required in more than one-half of all courses were: receive email (80.7%), send email (73.7%), search the Internet (64.9%), send email attachments (57.9%), use Blackboard® (54.4%), and type a lab or project report (52.6%). Of 40 specific tasks, 19 were required in less than 10% of all courses. The least frequently required tasks included: program a database (0%), create an Excel® pivot table (1.8%), create a spreadsheet macro (1.8%), use file transfer software (1.8%), and create a web page (3.5%). There were significant, positive correlations between faculty members' self-perceived computer competency and the number of spreadsheet tasks required and between course level and the number of word processing, spreadsheet, computer graphics, miscellaneous, and total ICT tasks. A majority of faculty members planned to maintain their current level of required ICT use. Most undergraduate agriculture courses require a core of basic ICT tasks, but few intermediate or high-level tasks.
Keywords:
communication technology tasks, undergraduat agriculture courses, computer competency, computer graphics, ICT tasks
 Cox_JUNE 2011 NACTA Journal-3.pdf | [ ] | 140 kB |
