An Update on Computer Knowledge of Construction Students  

Introduction

Many faculty members have commented that they sometimes encounter students who are intimidated or plead ignorance about how to use computers even though most students are comfortable with them. There seems to be a small group of students who are not knowledgeable about computers and require extra attention and help, no matter what level they are in college. This is true even though most high schools have computers available. The pattern of knowledge and usage has changed over the past ten years. This is due to the increased availability of computer applications at the junior college and high school level, a lessening of gender, age, experience bias, and a change in student attitudes toward the use of computers (Morahan-Martin, 1992).

 This paper contrasts the computer knowledge of construction related students from ten years ago to the knowledge of current students. Current students surveyed included current first or second year college students (from both four year and community colleges), as well as high school students from a number of schools in the area.

Past Surveys

The requirement for computer knowledge in construction education is obviously not new. More than a decade ago, computer applications had been used for some time by construction programs and documented by the Associated Schools of Construction. An early survey found that a wide variety of software was being used in construction programs. (Associated Schools of Construction Computer Committee, 1991) in the Final Results of the 1991 ASC Computer Committee Survey. However, just a few years later employers reported that 33% of engineering and construction employees lacked the appropriate training in computer applications (Rebholz and George, 1996). The same paper theorized that since the principals in firms would likely be in the age group over 50—they would not have had any exposure to computers in college and thus would highly value the academic utilization of computers in the curriculum with their increased needs in industry.

The following information on computer knowledge was gleaned from a paper ten years ago that is being used as the primary basis of comparison for current students. That study was conducted in 1992 and involved 79 Bradley University students, most of whom were majoring in construction, plus another 58 students from the local community college that were either Architectural Construction Technology majors or enrolled in Pre-Architecture (Rebholz and George, 1993). One interesting observation from that study was that only 82% reported that they had used computers before entering college. However, 90% indicated that they had played computer games. The fact that playing games on computers was not perceived as utilizing the basics of computers was ironic. Tasks such as loading the game and saving high scores, were not recognized as loading software and saving files. It is believed that users of games are likely to place the emphasis on the game and are merely pushing buttons rather than using a computer. Perhaps the only benefit is that “computer anxiety” is decreased for these students.

A previous study at a university competing for the same type of student (Sullivan, 1989) found that one-half of the students surveyed had previous experience with the use of computers. This percentage was the result of the lack of regular computer usage and no motivation for using computers in classroom applications. The most likely reason behind the jump in computer literacy over the three-year period from 1989 (50%) to 1992 (82%) was both faculty and student familiarization with more acceptance of various computer applications. A later study at another competing university (Furst-Bowe, 1995-96) found that 54% of their students possessed basic computing skills. However, these universities administered the survey across a wide variety of curricula, some of which were not as computer intensive as others.

As much as possible, many of the same questions from the 1992 survey were used again in order to determine the change in student abilities over the last ten years. This presented some interesting responses to the original survey questions. For example, one question had asked for a response to “I have used a DOS computer”. Initially, students did not have a clue as to what “DOS” was about. Obviously this, as well as some of the other questions were reworded for the current students. Other questions were added to account for some of the newer aspects in the use of computers.

Current Students and Comparisons

A new survey of structured questions was conducted by the authors in the fall of 2002 to determine the knowledge of current students. Structured questions as opposed to open-ended questions were chosen because they produce more relevant and comparable responses (Bradburn, 1983). Several of the pertinent questions asked are shown in the appendix at the end of this paper. The students surveyed included 108 current first or second year college students from Bradley University and two area community colleges. An additional 30 high school students with technical interests that were from 12 schools in the area were also questioned. The high school students that were surveyed consisted of students that came on campus for the department balsa wood bridge building contest. These students have a technical interest and were sponsored by a high school teacher in either the science or drafting areas. These are the two pools that construction majors at Bradley University are drawn from. Department of Civil Engineering and Construction first year and sophomore year college courses were selected for distribution of the questionnaire at Bradley University. On occasion, there was a question from a student and an explanation would be made to the group about the type of information being requested. The questions that were actually used in the paper are those in the appendix.

Although the vast majority of students report experience in using computers (see figure 1), there is still a remnant of about 5% who are still not comfortable enough to report being computer users. The percentage that reported using computers is well up from the 82% in the survey that was conducted ten years ago as previously cited. The students who also indicate a lack of keyboarding skills have a further hindrance to using computers and this may in fact be a demotivating factor in acquiring further computer skills.

Faculty members often hear comments (or even make such comments themselves) about preferences for and capabilities of different operating systems. In 1995 it was reported (Furst-Bowe, 1995-96) that 51% of their students surveyed used an IBM, 27% used a Macintosh, 20% used other types, and 2% used multiple computers. Figure 2 shows that the PC is still the most commonly used computer as compared to the Macintosh. However, a surprisingly large number of students report using both types of computers. This provides some clues about how many students actually are comfortable with and feel competent in using different computer operating systems. Students will have to confront other types of changes in operating systems. The networked version of Windows looks different from other versions of Windows, and the Macintosh OS X is totally different from older versions. Operating systems will certainly look different to students in the near future and so exposure to different operating systems in the curriculum may lessen the intimidation of working with a new system.

The high school background of the students surveyed was also of interest. Most students had taken courses in the college preparatory high school curriculum as shown in figure 3. However, many had taken vocation courses with a number of students taking courses from both areas. One of the unexpected results that the 1992 study reported ten years ago was the greater experience with CAD and spreadsheets that the vocational students had reported. It was known that CAD was frequently taught in the vocational path, but the greater spreadsheet use was a surprise and attributed to those students being more comfortable with computers after being exposed to CAD. However, that conclusion no longer seems to be true. In fact, the college prep students exceeded, or were about the same in using computers in all areas of software when compared to the vocational students. The only significant advantage reported by the vocational students was that they owned computers and that their high school had computers available to them.

A recent study (Olsen, 2000) reported that in the fall of 2000, half of the freshman class arrived at college with their own computers. They were proficient at using Windows, word processing software, the Internet, and electronic mail. The authors’ study confirms that a great majority of students have easy accessibility of computers, either in their high school or ones that they own as shown in figure 4.

As expected, figure 5 illustrates that virtually all students have played games on the computer. Many faculty members in the past may have felt that when students reported that they felt comfortable with computers, they were just indicating that they had used the computer for games instead of any academic use. A surprisingly large number of these students had used relatively sophisticated gaming programs such as the Sim, Civilization, and Age of Empires series of games. Once again, it should be noted that using computer games is not synonymous with computer literacy and that the primary advantage is a likely reduction of computer anxiety for the student.

The applications of the computer provide valuable information for construction programs and their curricular needs. More detailed questions were asked about how students actually used computers. Since the Internet has become so prevalent in recent years, questions were added to the survey to investigate current use. The results are shown in figure 6. While students have used most of the applications they were questioned about, it is particularly noteworthy to see how many have used the Internet for coursework. However, much fewer have actually created web pages.

When the results from ten years ago are compared to recent results (figure 7), it is apparent that students are much more experienced in computer applications than in prior years. Word processing has continued to be a major activity. In 1993 one study (Smith & Furst-Bowe) indicated that 90% of the students used word processing. Each application that was questioned reported more usage in 2002 than had been reported in 1992. In some cases the difference is quite dramatic. For example, using a modem jumped from 21% in 1992 to over 91% usage in 2002. This can be attributed, no doubt, to the widespread introduction of the Internet. The use of spreadsheets has also increased significantly. A different study (Larson & Smith, 1994) also indicated that the majority of first-year students had some degree of computer experience—with word processing being the most common but that spreadsheet experience was limited at that time.

Conclusion

It is readily apparent that students have greatly increased their use of computers within the last ten years. At the same time, it can be seen that there is still a group of students that actually do not use computers. The types of applications that students have used have implications for construction educators. Most programs have a CAD course that is taken by their majors, yet the majority of students have already had instruction in programs such as AutoCAD. The majority of students have also used spreadsheets. The obvious question that educators need to ask is “How much knowledge of these programs do the students actually have?”. Even though almost everyone has used computers for word processing, there are many features that are quite sophisticated and aspects available that a basic user is not likely to be aware of the potential use. This is even truer with spreadsheets that have many applications in construction.

Approaches to address deficiencies in the computer knowledge of construction students can vary. Some programs may offer non-credit seminar type courses to teach the use of computer software. The Bradley University College of Business offers a 1 semester hour pass/fail course on using Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and web page development. Students enrolled may elect to either take the course in the classroom or gain credit by examination instead. Other departments may spend a single class or more within the course where the software is actually required as a tool to help solve problems in order to get the students acquainted with the basics of the program. The Bradley University Department of Civil Engineering and Construction has just introduced a course at the first year level on emerging technologies that will expose students to advanced uses plus software that is new and not familiar to most students.

The authors feel that regular questioning of incoming students is necessary to assess the computer skills of their majors. This will determine if remedial help needs to be provided for any deficiencies that are needed for the minority of the students that lack skills in basic computer literacy. Such surveys also will indicate areas in which students lack the necessary background of software that will be used in the curriculum. The program then needs to accommodate instruction in these areas, either with a totally separate course or within the course in which the software is used. If a separate course is used, the needed content becomes obvious from the results of the survey. The remaining question of whether credit toward the degree should be granted for remedial computer courses needs to be addressed within the institution. Specific construction oriented software such as may be used in estimating and scheduling courses, are more likely utilized to illustrate concepts within that subject matter and certainly have academic value. These should certainly be used for granting credit toward graduation requirements.

If colleges and universities possessed a greater understanding of their undergraduates computer literacy they would be able to eliminate misconceptions about their undergraduate's abilities, develop curricula that would more closely meet the needs of their undergraduates, and supply industry with graduates possessing the necessary tools to be successful in the workplace.

References

Bradburn, N.M. In P.H. Rosse, J.D. Wright, & A. B. Aderson (Eds.). (1983). Handbook of Survey Research, pp 289-328, New York Academic Press.

Furst-Bowe, Boger, & Franklin (Winter1995-96). An Analysis of Required Computer Competencies for University Students. Journal of Research on Computing Education, 28, 175-186.

Larson, Jane & Smith, Marian A. (1994). An Assessment of Computer Literacy and Computer Attitudes of Incoming First-year Students at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. Proceedings of Selected Research and Development Presentations, National Convention of the Association for Educational Communication and Technology, 10.

Morahan-Martin, J. (1992). General Differences in Computer Experience, Skills, and Attitudes Among Incoming College Students. Collegiate Microcomputer, 10, 1-7.

Olsen, Florence (November 3, 2000). Campus Newcomers Arrive With More Skill, Better Gear: A Look at Freshman Computing Life Styles at 5 Institutions. Chronicle of Higher Education, v47, n10, 39-43.

 Rebholz, F. E. & George, B. F., III (1993). Educating Construction Students on Computer Usage. ASC Proceedings of the 29th Annual Conference, 13-19.

Rebholz, F. E. & George, B. F., III (March, 1996). Employer Preferences for Engineering Job Skills. Proceedings of the Illinois/Indiana Sectional Conference, American Society for Engineering Education.

Smith, Marian A. & Furst-Bowe, Julia (January 29, 1993). An Assessment of the Computer Skills of Incoming Freshmen at Two University of Wisconsin Campuses. Association for Educational Communications and Technology Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA, 188.

Sullivan. What Computer Experience to Expect of College Students Entering a Computer Classroom. Journal of Technical Writing & Communication, 19, 53-68.

Appendix

Sample of Survey Questions