[publication] A decade of first-semester students surveys concerning IT equipment and communication applications and effect of Covid-19 related experiences for first-year students in 2021 #edil22 #tugraz

One of our contributions to the EdMedia + Innovate Learning 2022 is about “A decade of first-semester students surveys concerning IT equipment and communication applications and effect of Covid-19 related experiences for first-year students in 2021

Abstract:
The technical equipment of first-year students and their preferred communication applications are changing, perhaps also influenced by their experiences in the Covid-19 pandemic concerning digital teaching and learning. This paper presents the 2021 survey of first-year students at Graz University of Technology (N=1,207) and compares the results concerning devices and applications with the results of the surveys conducted since 2011. It is striking that there are no striking changes in the endowment of the that can be interpreted as an effect of Covid-19 pandemic. A question introduced in 2021 about experiences with distance online instruction and experiences with online courses before and after Covid-19 shows clearly that new students’ prior experiences with online learning here have dramatically changed as a result of school closures in Austria.

[Full paper @ conference homepage]
[draft @ ResearchGate]

Reference: Nagler, W., Schön, S., Mair, B., Ebner, M. & Edelsbrunner, S. (2022). A decade of first-semester students surveys concerning IT equipment and communication applications and effect of Covid-19 related experiences for first-year students in 2021. In T. Bastiaens (Ed.), Proceedings of EdMedia + Innovate Learning (pp. 1060-1067). New York City, NY, United States: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). Retrieved July 12, 2022 from https://www.learntechlib.org/primary/p/221412/

[publication] Should You Go for Smartphones at School? How the Use of Modern Media in Class Influences IT-Competences #netgeneration #tugraz #digitalnatives

At this year Ed-Media conference in Amsterdam we published our research work about “Should You Go for Smartphones at School? How the Use of Modern Media in Class Influences IT-Competences”.

Abstract:

Since 2007, Graz University of Technology has been conducting an annual poll amongst its first-year students about their IT preferences and competence. On the basis of more than 8600 data records, this long-term survey reports the changes regarding students´ITstudents´IT device ownership, communicative behavior via IT devices, and use of apps as well as social media services over a time period of eleven years. Furthermore, this publication answers the question, whether the use of emerging technologies in classroom has an influence on these changes or not. It can be stated that an “IT-friendly” environment (most of all internet access) and teaching at secondary school level significantly promotes IT and coding skills but does not intensify the use of social media applications.

[Draft @ ResearchGate]

Reference: Nagler, W., Grandl, M., Haas, M., Schön, M. & Ebner, M. (2018). Should You Go for Smartphones at School? How the Use of Modern Media in Class Influences IT-Competences. In Proceedings of EdMedia: World Conference on Educational Media and Technology (pp. 735-743). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE)

[publication] Confidence in and beliefs about first-year engineering student success: case study from KU Leuven, TU Delft, and TU Graz #research #STELA

One of our intellectual outputs of the STELA-project is a case study amongt our partners. We did a study about how students feel in the very first beginning of their study and published it at the SEFI-conference.

Abstract:

This paper explores the confidence freshman engineering students have in being successful in the first study year and which study-related behaviour they believe to be important to this end. Additionally, this paper studies which feedback these students would like to receive and compares it with the experiences of second-year students regarding feedback. To this end, two questionnaires were administered: one with freshman engineering students to measure their expectations regarding study success and expected feedback and one with second-year engineering students to evaluate their first year feedback experience.
The results show that starting first-year engineering students are confident regarding their study success. This confidence is however higher than the observed first-year students success. Not surprisingly, first-year students have good intentions and believe that most academic activities are important for student success. When second-year students look back on their first year, their beliefs in the importance of these activities have strongly decreased, especially regarding the importance of preparing classes and following communication through email and the virtual learning environment. First-year students expect feedback regarding their academic performance and engagement. They expect that this feedback primarily focuses on the impact on their future study pathway rather than on comparison to peer students. Second-year students indicate that the amount of feedback they receive could be improved, but agree with the first-year students that comparative feedback is less important.

[Full Article @ ResearchGate]

Reference: de Laet, T., Broos, T., van Staalduinen, J.-P., Ebner, M., Langie, G., van Soom, C. & Shepers, W (2018) Confidence in and beliefs about first-year engineering student success: case study from KU Leuven, TU Delft, and TU Graz. In: Proceedings of the 45th SEFI Conference, pp. 1-9. Azores, Portugal