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Survey sheds light on computing

January 9, 2002

Faculty and staff continue to warm to the use of computers and the Internet, a new survey shows.

The results are in from the third annual survey of faculty and staff computing, conducted by the school’s Division of Information Technology. The survey was directed to 1,000 respondents, randomly selected, to learn more about their use of computers, the Internet and instructional technology on campus.

Among the findings:

  • About half of faculty/staff are now using instructional technology, to communicate with students, enhance lectures and access online resources.
  • Internet use appears to have increased substantially, from an average of 10 hours per week in last year’s survey to almost 19 hours this year.

“We also see interesting trends in IT ownership,” says DoIT researcher Barry Radler, who conducted the survey. “The ownership of personal digital assistants increased by 50 percent, from 10 percent of faculty/staff to 15 percent. We also measured cell phone ownership for the first time, and see that 44 percent of faculty/staff now own a cell or mobile phone.”

More findings:

  • Nearly all faculty and staff now use a computer at home or at work.
  • Most faculty/staff now have antivirus software installed on their UW computers, and most would use Norton antivirus software if it were available to them.
  • There is a substantial increase in the use of both cable modem and digital subscriber lines (DSL) for connecting to the Web while away from the university.
  • Interest in training climbed to 66 percent, up from 47 percent three years ago. The top training interests are databases and graphics/presentation.
  • Technical support is clearly the most important computing service, rating ahead of seven other services listed.
  • There is a substantial increase in the use of Windows NT/2000 among owned computers. There is also a migration toward NT/2000 and away from Windows 95/98/ME among UW computers. Linux use has increased from 3 percent to 7 percent.

The full survey was the first in the series to be conducted entirely over the Web, and achieved a 30 percent response. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 6 percent. The results will be used in campus IT planning.