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Do You Teach With Technology? Faculty Survey Results Revealing

UW faculty are well positioned to use technology to enhance student learning.

Last year, faculty who had taught in Winter, Spring, or Autumn Quarter 2000 were asked to complete a 20-minute Faculty Survey on Instructional Technology. Of 5,246 faculty invited to participate, 1,879 (36%) responded:

"This is the first campus-wide attempt to get baseline data on use of technologies for educational purposes at the UW," explains Scott Macklin, director of PETTT (Program for Educational Transformation Through Technology), which underwrote the survey.

Lack of Skills? Not Really

Although 92 percent of those responding rated their computer skill level at intermediate or higher, 48 percent said they don't have the necessary skills in using information technology to do their work at the UW. Is this a contradiction?

"Maybe they're just not sure what is needed to make it happen," says Kurt Kors, educational technology analyst with PETTT.

So when three-quarters of the faculty surveyed said they prefer to learn from their colleagues, PETTT set about to revitalize the WebEd group to increase opportunities for that sharing to happen (see article in this issue WebEd: Learning From Your Colleagues).

Using the Tools: Catalyst

Concerns about technology
  • Don't have time: 54%
  • Don't have the skills: 48%
  • No incentive: 31%

Tools used (daily/weekly)

  • Email: 91% (82/9)
  • Word process: 85% (65/20)
  • Web access: 82% (64/18)

Want to use the Web to

  • Mount course materials: 70%
  • Access online archives: 61%
  • Access online reserves: 54%
  • Submit final grades: 53%

Knowledge of the basic desktop applications-which most faculty use daily or weekly (see box) -- are all they need to use the Catalyst tools.

"If you can browse a Web site, use email, and word process, you can use the Catalyst tools," says Macklin, "to do things like create online surveys, allow students to collaborate via peer reviews, and set up virtual cases."

Follow Up and Focus Groups

A number of people on campus--from the Center for Instructional Design and Research, Undergraduate Education, Arts & Sciences, and health sciences, to name a few--helped craft the Faculty Survey questions and are examining the resulting data.

Focus groups of faculty and teaching assistants will meet during Winter Quarter 2002 to help shed more light on the picture of learning technologies at the UW. For information about participating, send email to pettt@u.washington.edu

Survey Findings on the Web

The Faculty Survey on Instructional Technology 2001 was sponsored by the Provost's Office, Faculty Senate, and Faculty Council on Educational Technology. The Office of Educational Assessment carried out the survey, and you can read about the methodology and preliminary findings at www.washington.edu/oea/0106.htm

Two UW Teaching With Technology Reports on the Web

"Pathways to Excellence in Undergraduate Education: Setting High Expectations and Achieving Excellence," published in March 2001 by the UW Teaching Academy, examines students' academic experiences and perceptions of faculty expectations and UW Distinguished Teaching Award recipients' views (www.washington.edu/oue/academy/pathways.pdf).

"Enhancing Student Learning," a College of Arts & Sciences task force report, says engaging learners through discovery and inquiry is a key goal (www.artsci.washington.edu/asreports/).

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University of Washington Computing & Communications
Windows on Technology, No. 26, January 2002
newsltr@cac.washington.edu