2003-04 UW-Madison Faculty/Staff Computing Survey

 

March 31, 2004

 

 

written by:  Kathi Dwelle

contact:  kjdwelle@wisc.edu

Division of Information Technology (DoIT)

University of Wisconsin - Madison

 

Background and Objectives

 

 

The 2003-04 UW-Madison Faculty/Staff Computing Survey was the latest in DoIT’s annual efforts to gauge IT needs, concerns, and performance on the UW campus.  Specific objectives of the survey were to:

 

·        Continue to monitor faculty/staff awareness and use of computing services

·        Obtain respondent perceptions of DoIT’s performance in providing products/services in a competitive environment

·        Document changing information technology behavior

·        Determine relative importance of and preference for new product and service concepts

·        Provide actionable research for training

 

An Overview: Survey Highlights

 

Computer use (questions 1-5)

·        Ownership of information technology equipment increased modestly in some areas and remained level in others:

       Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) ownership has been slowly increasing from 10% to 26% over a three-year period.

       Personal cell phone ownership appears to have leveled off around 58%.

       The percentage of overall laptop owners remained level from a year ago at around 40%.  However, regular use of laptops at UW has increased to 35% from 29% a year ago.

       Adoption of tablet pcs and wireless handheld devices is low (2-3%).

·        Faculty evidence a significantly more mobile work style than staff.

-       Faculty are much more likely to own a personal laptop (80%) than staff (31%), and their regular use of one is significantly higher.

-       More than half of the faculty responding report owning both a laptop and a desktop (65%) which may indicate that they are not “average” faculty members.

-       Faculty are much more likely to own a PDA (41%) than staff (23%).

-       Faculty use of a portable storage device (34%) is twice that of staff (16%).

·        With respect to operating systems used on personally owned computers:

       At least 40% of personally owned pcs have older Windows operating systems, creating security vulnerabilities.

·        On computers regularly used at UW:

       While many have upgraded, around 20% still use older Windows operating systems at the office, again opening up possible security vulnerabilities.

       A little over a quarter of the respondents report using a Mac at UW and 16% are now using OS X.

       Linux OS, while still a minority operating system, has increased to 9% of the UW-Madison market.

 

Internet use (questions 6-9)

·        WiscWorld modem pool use by faculty and staff dropped for the third year in a row and is now at 41%.

·        Use of both cable modem (23%) and DSL (19%) continued to increase.

·        Cable modem, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) and direct network connections scored the highest satisfaction ratings for Internet access and all ratings increased from the previous year.  Commercial ISP dial modems received the lowest ratings. 

·        Better speed was the number one reason for using DSL and cable, but keeping personal use separate from work was also an important factor.

·        A quarter of the respondents report using streaming music or video.

·        A quarter of respondents are using commercial instant messaging.  Staff are significantly more likely to use it than faculty (30% vs. 11%).

·        The faculty who responded are more likely to use peer to peer file sharing than staff (20% vs. 16%).

    

Tech Store and DoIT Services (questions 10-15)

·        “Purchasing support” for technology goods and services is clearly the most important computing service, relative to five other Tech Store services.  For that service respondents are most likely to rely on their departmental expert, followed by DoIT.

·        Respondent’s top choice for post sales support was strongly DoIT, followed by the department expert.

·        Respondents tend to think first of department experts and then equally of DoIT and themselves when they need installation, repair, and desktop support.

·        Respondents tend to think of DoIT and then themselves when they need training.

·        Of the Tech Store services presented, the online catalog and Help Desk continue to be the most-used services within the past six months.

·        The survey indicates solid improvement in purchasing satisfaction from DoIT.  When rating their most recent purchase, the overall satisfaction score increased from 3.9 last year to 4.3.  High scores were given to the quality and delivery of the product, and to the accuracy of information, knowledge and professionalism of DoIT staff.

·        Product pricing and helpfulness of the online catalog received the lowest satisfaction ratings at 3.9 and were the only ratings below 4.0 on a 5-point scale (5=very satisfied, 1=very dissatisfied.)

WiscCal, WiscMail, My UW Madison   (questions 12-14)

·        WiscMail has the highest adoption rate with 89% aware of it and 75% of those aware using it daily

·        WiscCal has the lowest adoption rate with 42% aware of it and only 41% of those aware using it.

·        Slightly under half of the respondents (48%) make some use of My UW-Madison with 25% making regular use (defined as daily or weekly).  Regular use by the faculty respondents is considerably higher than staff (46% vs. 21%)

·        Satisfaction with WiscWorld and WiscMail was significantly higher than WiscCal and My UW-Madison.

 

Wireless  (questions 16-19)

·        Despite increased regular use of laptops at UW-Madison, growth in the use of wireless hot spots to date is still slow.

·        About a quarter of faculty and staff have used wireless hot spots, either on or off campus.  Home was the most frequently used location.

·        Interest in wireless, however, is rising.  A third of respondents say they are likely to be using wireless in the next 12 months, an increase from one fifth stating interest the previous year.

·        Respondents without laptops chose lack of the right equipment as the primary barrier to using wireless, while others state that having more locations and especially one near them would remove a barrier.  However, some did not see a need for the technology since their work at UW was not mobile.

 

Training (questions 20, 21)

·        Only 24% of respondents expect to receive training in the coming year.

·        Respondents chose DoIT and themselves equally for obtaining training.

·        The topics requested most for training were web page development and design, databases (Access), spreadsheets (Excel) and presentation software (Powerpoint).

 

Instructional Technology (questions 23-26)

·        About half of the respondents whose primary role was instructional did not understand the difference between a department classroom and a general assignment classroom.

·        Around 40% of instructional respondents do not know how to reserve a technology-enhanced classroom, but would like to know.

·        Instructors in a typical 15-week semester say they would make use of technology in the classroom an average of 15 times, or once a week.

 

One Area for Improvement

·        Sixty percent of respondents did not make a suggestion for improvement.  Of those who did the top two themes involved improvement in communication and decision making (5%) and in Help Desk and assistance (5%).

 

 

Computer and Information Technology Products ownership

 

Overall personal ownership of a computer now stands around 88%.  One interesting finding is that 65% of the faculty responding reported personally owning both a laptop and a desktop compared to 24% for staff.  Cell phone ownership has leveled off around 58%.  PDA ownership continued a modest but steady 3-year climb from 10% to 26%.  Wireless handheld devices and Tablet Pcs are at a low level of adoption.

 

1.  Which of the following information technology products do you own?

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 2001

(n=467)

 

Nov 2001

(n=252)

 

Nov 2002

(n=462)

 

Dec 2003

(n=527)

 

 

Desktop

 

80%

 

85%

 

84%

 

81%

 

Laptop

 

29%

 

25%

 

40%

 

39%

 

Cell/wireless phone

 

-

 

44%

 

57%

 

58%

 

PDA  (PalmPilot, PocketPC, etc.)

 

10%

 

15%

 

22%

 

26%

 

Portable Storage Device

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

19%

 

Tablet PC

 

-

 

-

 

-

2%

 

Wireless Handheld email device

 

-

 

-

 

-

3%

 

None

 

 

 

6%

 

 

All these products were analyzed to see if there were differences in ownership between faculty and staff. We also performed some selective comparisons by department when we were aware of initiatives in those areas that might affect ownership.

 

Overall, faculty report owning equipment that is indicative of a more mobile work style.  Faculty were much more likely to own a laptop – 80% vs. only 31% for staff.  While we found no difference in cell phone ownership, faculty are much more likely to own a PDA (41%) than staff (23%) and their use of portable storage devices (34%) is also significantly higher than staff (16%).

We also found a significantly higher use of PDAs by Medical School and Pharmacy respondents (42%) who reported using them for medical databases, keeping track of patients, etc.

 

 

 

 

2.  Which operating systems do you use on the computer(s) you own? 


Not surprisingly the percentage of personally owned computers with a network OS such as NT, 2000, or XP increased steadily over the past three years.  However, around 40% of pc users still report using older operating systems, which impact both support and security upgrades.  Linux use on personally owned computers is holding at 6% and Macintosh use is holding around 25%.

 

 

 

 

 

Feb 2001

(n=467)

 

Nov 2001

(n=244)

 

Nov 2002

(n=408)

 

Dec 2003

(n=470)

 

Windows NT/2000/XP

 

9%

 

21%

 

59%

 

59%

 

Windows 95/98/ME

 

61%

 

60%

 

54%

 

-

 

Windows 98/ME

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

41%

 

Mac

 

21%

 

23%

 

      26%

v.9< = 11%

v.8> = 15%

 

25%

OS X  14%

v.9.x   11%

 

Linux

 

2%

 

4%

 

6%

 

6%

 

Unix

 

0.4%

 

1%

 

4%

 

2%

 

Other

 

0.5%

 

5%

 

3%

 

6%

 

3.  Which of the following information technology products do you regularly use at the UW?


Regular campus use of desktop computers has now topped 92%.  While staff use (93%) is higher than faculty use (88%), the difference is not significant.  Use of laptops, after remaining relatively level for three years, showed an increase to 35% this past year.  Regular laptop use by faculty respondents (60%) is significantly higher than staff (29%).  Regular Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) use is stable.  PDA use among faculty (39%) is significantly higher than staff (17%).  The high cell phone use reported in November 2001 also included the use of mobile phones for that survey.  With respect to cell phones only, regular use by faculty (40%) is significantly higher than staff (22%).  Likewise faculty are three times as likely to regularly use a portable storage device (30%) than staff (10%).  To date tablet pcs and wireless handheld email devices have low adoption rates.

 

 

 

 

Feb 2001

(n=467)

 

Nov 2001

(n=252)

 

Nov 2002

(n=462)

 

Dec 2003  (n=529)

 

 

Desktop

 

80%

 

85%

 

88%

 

92%

 

Laptop

 

29%

 

25%

 

29%

 

35%

 

Cell/wireless phone

 

-

 

44%

 

23%

 

26%

 

Personal Digital Assistant (PDAs: PalmPilot, PocketPC, etc)

 

10%

 

15%

 

20%

 

21%

 

Portable Storage Device

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

13%

 

Tablet PC

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

2%

 

Wireless Handheld email device

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

3%

 

None

 

 

 

 

1%

 

 

 

 

4. If you own/use a Personal Digital Assistant, what do you use it for? (open-ended question)

 

Responses primarily included calendar, scheduling, addresses, phone numbers,  quick notetaking, and contact information. Use for medical/drug reference and patient information was cited by Medical School and Pharmacy respondents.  Several respondents mentioned email, wireless network access, alarm feature to remind them of critical deadlines, keeping public transportation schedules, data collection and using the calculator feature.  A couple cited MP3 playing, taking photographs and using a GPS add-on.

 

5. Which operating systems do you use on the computers you use at the UW?


Networked operating systems are in much greater use than three years ago, now reaching 76%. 

However, one out of five of campus pc users still have older operating systems.  Use of Macintosh operating systems have remained level around 27% during the last three surveys, although the mix has changed.  Linux use, while still a minority operating system, has increased to 9% of the market.

Windows 95 was removed as a choice this year, so those who still use it would be included in the “other” category.

 

 

 

 

Feb 2001

(n=467)

 

Nov 2001

(n=244)

 

Nov 2002

(n=426)

 

Dec 2003

(n=524)

 

 

Windows NT/2000/XP

 

38%

 

53%

 

70%

 

76%

 

Windows 95/98/ME

 

50%

 

34%

 

37%

 

(see below)

 

Windows 98/ME

 

-

 

-

 

-

 

21%

 

Macintosh

 

20%

 

26%

 

25%

v.9< = 11.4%

v.8< = 13.8%

 

27%

OS X< = 16%

v.9< = 12%

 

Unix

 

9%

 

9%

 

8%

 

8%

 

Linux

 

3%

 

7%

 

6%

 

9%

 

Other

 

2.1%

 

3.3%

 

2.6%

 

4%

 

 

 

Internet use

 

6. When you are at home or off-campus, how do you access the Internet? [Check all that apply]


Off campus and at home, fewer faculty and staff are using the campus-provided WiscWorld dial-in pool to connect to the internet.  Use declined from 51% a year ago to 41%.  Use of a commercial ISP also declined to 16%, although the drop was not statistically significant.  Those providers seeing increases from the previous year were cable modem from 14% to 23%, and DSL from 7% to 19%.  Both cable and DSL enjoyed high satisfaction ratings, on a par with having a direct broadband connection.

 

Analyses on Internet access were done by faculty and staff to see if there were any differences.  Staff (13%) are more likely than faculty (1%) to not access the internet at all from off-campus. We found faculty members more likely to use DSL (29%) than staff (17%), but no difference in their use of cable modem.

 

 

Since use of the campus modem pool is declining, we looked at use by department or unit.

We found no significant difference in use of the WiscWorld dial-in pool by faculty and staff, but did find differences by department.  Departments with the largest percentages of staff still using the pool are from Pharmacy (56%), Business (54%), Agriculture and Life Sciences (51%), Letters & Science (49%) and Engineering (47%).  Lower use was reported by DoIT (28%), Administrative Offices -non-academic (32%), and Veterinary Medicine (33%).

 

 

7.  Overall, how satisfied are you with the performance of [insert each applicable Internet mode from q6]?


There was a strong upward movement in satisfaction across all providers from a year ago.

However, faculty were less satisfied with commercial ISPs (2.8 on a 1 to 5 scale) than staff (3.7).  That dissatisfaction may explain their migration to DSL.

 

 

 

Nov 2002

(5-point scale)

 

Dec 2003

(5-point scale)

 

Cable modem

 

4.2

 

4.5  (n=139)

 

DSL 

 

4.0

 

4.5  (n=91)

 

Direct network connection to campus

 

3.6

 

4.5  (n=25)

 

WiscWorld modem pool

 

3.5

 

3.8   (n=213)

 

Commercial ISP

 

3.3

 

3.4  (n=43)

Wireless

 

-

 

4.3  (n=24)

 

8.  Why do you use a commercial provider to connect to the Internet? [check all that apply]


A follow-up question was asked of commercial ISP, DSL, and cable modem users in order to determine why they paid for such a service when a free one (WiscWorld) was available to them.

Over half the respondents checked the superior speed of the commercial product.  Additionally, 38% said they wanted to keep their personal use separate from work.

 

 

 

 

Dec 2003

(n=282)

 

 

Speed is better with my commercial provider

 

51%

 

To keep personal use separate from work

 

38%

 

Quality is better with my commercial ISP

 

16%

 

Already had a commercial ISP before working at UW

 

14%

 

It’s a long distance call to use campus modem pool

 

9%

 

Service was pre-installed on my computer

 

1%

 

Other

 

18%

 

 

 

9.   Which of these Internet applications do you use?


Around half of the respondents surveyed say they use one or more of the Internet application choices listed (i.e., something beyond a browser).  About a quarter of the respondents indicate they now use a commercial instant messaging service.  A quarter also use streaming music or video.  Staff are much more likely to use instant messaging than faculty (30% vs. 11%), but there is no difference in the two groups’ use streaming media.  Faculty are somewhat more likely to use peer to peer file sharing (20% vs. 16%).  As yet, not many are doing desktop video conferencing, but of those faculty responding, they were more likely than staff to use it (7% vs. 1%).

 

 

 

 

Dec 2003

 

Commercial instant messaging (AOL, Yahoo, MSN)

 

27%

 

Streaming music or video

 

25%

 

Peer-to-peer file sharing

 

17%

 

Live video conferencing (scheduled event, larger audience)

 

4%

 

Desktop video conferencing (one-to-one with workstation camera)

 

2%

 

Campus WiscChat online chat

 

1%

 

 

 

None of these

 

51%


 

Computing services and DoIT’s “position” as a provider

 

10. Below is a list of factors that can affect the experience of owning or operating computers and other information technology. Assuming you had $100 to split up among them, how much would you allocate to each of the following services?  If you don’t want to allocate any money to an area just write “0.”


Enabling the purchasing of technology goods and services is preferred by our audience far more than any other of the other services asked about.  Product information and recommendations is the least-preferred service.  Not surprisingly, faculty allocated more money to instructional technology support, while staff allocated more to general training.

 

 

Relative preference for six computing services


11. Thinking about your computing and information technology needs, indicate the one provider you are most likely to choose for each service using the scale below.

 

      1=Self

      2=Local retailer (e.g., Advantage Computers, Madison Computer Works, etc.)

      3=Friend/relative

      4=DoIT

      5=Department or resident expert

      6=Large chain store (e.g., Circuit City, CompUSA)

      7=Mail order (e.g., Dell, NewEgg.com)

      8=UW school or college support units

 

When asked to pick among eight possible providers, respondents signaled a key role for their departmental or resident experts.  Those experts were the top choice for purchasing IT goods and services, for desktop support and for product information and recommendations.  The experts came in 2nd for post sales support and instructional technology support. DoIT was the top choice for post sales support (help desk), instructional technology support and training.

A number of respondents relied on themselves for training and for desktop support.

 

 

Provider Preference

Computing Service

 

Top Choice

Second Choice

Purchasing IT Goods & Services

Dept. or resident expert (25%)

DoIT

(20%)

Post Sales Support (Help Desk)

DoIT

(40%)

Dept. or resident expert  (24%)

Desktop Support (Installation & Repair)

Dept or resident expert (38%)

Myself /DoIT

(18%/18%)

Training

DoIT

(30%)

Myself

(28%)

Instructional Technology Support

DoIT

(30%)

Dept or resident expert (25%)

Product Information & Recommendations

Dept or resident expert (27%)

Friend/ relative

(21%)

 

 

Tech Store

Except for the Online Catalog most Tech Store services showed a decrease in customer awareness from the previous year.  The phone-in Help Desk had 85% awareness, but that was lower than the previous year.  Fewer than half the respondents were aware of the Help Desk by web (Help Online).  This year we split apart the components of getting product information and making the actual sales purchase.  The sales component has high awareness (82%), but the product information service reflects only half the degree of awareness (40%).  In retrospect we probably should have added “showroom” to the generic description. 

 

12. Which of the following DoIT-provided services are you aware of? [Check all that apply]


Overall, awareness seemed to show the normal survey-to-survey fluctuations with the exceptions of Installation and Repair and Help Desk by web, which showed more noticeable drops.

 

Awareness of Service

 

Feb 2001

(n=475)

Nov 2001

(n=275)

Nov 2002

(n=406)

Dec 2003

(n=521)

Help Desk by telephone (264-HELP)

85%

91%

90%

85%

Tech Store sales - walk-in

83%*

85%*

87%*

82%

Online catalog

-

67%

63%

68%

Tech Store sales - telephone

-

-

-

62%

Help Desk walk-in area at DoIT

62%

63%

61%

55%

Installation and Repair

70%

71%

65%

48%

Help Desk - by web (Help Online)

70%

56%

60%

47%

Product information and recommendations

*

*

*

40%

DoIT Rentals (renting laptops, zip drives, etc.)

-

35%

29%

29%

* Sales and product recommendations were bundled together in these surveys.

 

Other Central Services

This year we also checked awareness of several other centrally provided services that are available to all faculty and staff.  The campus email service (WiscMail), the internet access package (WiscWorld) when it was sold on CD, and the My UW-Madison portal were all recognized by at least 70% or more of the respondents.  However, only 38% of the respondents knew about WiscCal, the campus calendaring system with staff being slightly more aware of it than faculty (39% vs. 34%).  Conversely, 85% of faculty were aware of My UW-Madison compared to 70% of staff.  Bucky Backup is a service that is more likely to be used by the departmental expert, so its low awareness is not as surprising.

Awareness of Service

 

Dec 2003 (n=521)

WiscMail  (university email)

89%

WiscWorld - on CD

79%

My UW Madison (web portal, MUM)

72%

WiscWorld - downloaded

55%

WiscCal (calendar & scheduling)

38%

Bucky Backup

26%

 

13.  About how many times did you use each of the following DoIT -provided services during the past six (6) months?


The online catalog and telephone Help Desk continue to garner the most use.  Use of Help Online by aware respondents has increased considerably from a year ago, although overall awareness has dropped.

 

Use of DoIT-provided services among Aware respondents

 

Used Fall 2002

Mean frequency Fall 2002

Used Fall 2003

Mean frequency Fall 2003

Online catalog

69%

4.0**

56%

3.6

Help Desk by telephone (264-HELP)

67%

3.1

63%

2.3

Tech Store Sales -walk-in

56%*

1.8*

49%

1.5

Product information and recommendations

*

*

46%

1.4

Help Desk - by web (Help Online)

29%

0.9

38%

1.7

Tech Store Sales -telephone

-

-

32%

0.8

 

Used Fall 2002

Mean frequency Fall 2002

Used Fall 2003

Mean frequency Fall 2003

Help Desk walk-in area at DoIT

25%

0.6

30%

0.6

Desktop Support -Installation & Repair

37%

0.8

29%

0.7

DoIT Rentals (renting laptops, zip drives, etc.)

6%

0.1

7%

0.1

WiscWorld - downloaded (aware n=247)

-

-

41%

4.2

WiscWorld - on CD (aware n=339)

-

-

33%

9.1

Bucky Backup (aware n=133)

-

-

21%

10.7

** Note:  This mean is inflated by outlier data.  The median is 1.

* Sales and product recommendations were bundled together in this survey

Of three other centrally provided services, WiscMail was the most frequently used service with about two thirds of the respondents using it daily (75% of those aware of it used it daily).

Regarding the My UW-Madison portal, slightly more than half (54%) of the respondents reported they did not use it.  About a quarter of all respondents made regular use of it (defined as daily or weekly) with faculty regular use higher than staff (46% vs. 21%).  Of those faculty reporting they were aware of the portal, only 18% did not use it at all.  By contrast aware staff are more likely to use it monthly (30%) or not at all (39%).

 

WiscCal has by far the lowest adoption rate with both low awareness (42%) and low use by those who are aware (41%).  The regular users of WiscCal were DoIT staff with 71% reporting using it daily.  They accounted for 43% of the daily users while constituting only 6% of the total survey respondents.

 

14.  Using the scale provided, please rate your satisfaction these DoIT-Provided services.


Of those Tech Store services measured previously, all satisfaction ratings increased over the previous year with the exception of rentals where the sample size (11 respondents) is too small to be measured for statistical significance.

 

Mean Satisfaction Ratings

 

In assessing satisfaction with other centrally provided IT services, WiscWorld (both on CD and downloaded), Bucky Backup and WiscMail rated noticeably higher than the My UW-Madison portal and the WiscCal calendaring service.  In examining subpopulations faculty were slightly more satisfied with My UW-Madison than staff (3.8 vs. 3.6) while staff were more satisfied with WiscCal (3.6 vs. 3.0).

 

15. Thinking about your most recent purchase, please rate your satisfaction with each of the following areas:


About 20% of respondents indicated that they had made a recent purchase from DoIT. The overall satisfaction experience was up noticeably from a year ago to 4.3 from 3.9.

When asked about their most recent purchase, the three highest satisfaction areas involved quality, delivery of the product, and accuracy of information from DoIT staff.  Only two services scored slightly below 4.0  (scale: 1=very dissatisfied, 5=very satisfied): pricing of the product and the helpfulness of the online catalog. 

 

Average satisfaction ratings among Tech Store customers


Wireless

Wireless “hot spots” where internet access is available to laptops and other devices allows users to surf or check email at speeds similar to a direct network connection.

UW-Madison has installed a wireless network with access points at over 15 public locations.

 

16.  Do you currently use wireless computing (either on campus or elsewhere)? [check all that apply]


About one quarter of faculty and staff have used wireless internet access at some location.  Of those who personally own a laptop, 43% say they have used wireless.  Of those who use a laptop at work 51% say they have used wireless.

17. If yes, where have you used wireless computing?


Home is the most popular place (66%) where faculty and staff use wireless.  Department locations and public campus locations came in second and third.

 

 

 

18. How likely will you be to use campus wireless hot spots in the next 12 months?


The likelihood of using a wireless hot spot in the future has increased to 33% from a year ago when 21% reported they were either already using it or hoping to in the next 12 months.

 


19. What would it take for you to use wireless hot spots? [check all that apply]


Since roughly 60% of respondents indicate they do not own a laptop, it is logical that the lack of right equipment is seen as the primary barrier to using wireless.  Having more locations and especially one near them would help others, presumably those with laptops.  Among the “other” inducements that respondents wrote in were “a real need for it” plus a combination of needing more information and training about its use.  Some said their off-site location precluded using the campus spots.  A few respondents mentioned money as a factor, and another small subset said better security was needed first.

 

Inducements to using a wireless hot spot

Dec 2003

(n=402)

Laptop or other portable device

53%

A wireless card

25%

A location in my building

26%

More locations on campus

20%

Easier to use (set up)

17%

Other

21%


Interest in Training

 

20. Do you plan to receive training in the next year?


Only 24% of respondents expect to receive training in the coming year with another 32% undecided.   This compares to 53% last year who said they would like training in computing.  This question was reworded from the previous year since it was expected that the economy would affect training, and we wanted to know the likelihood of respondents actually taking a course.


21. In what areas would you like to have training? [open ended]


Similar to the previous year, training in web page development and design (Dreamweaver, etc.), databases/Access, spreadsheets/Excel and presentation software/Powerpoint were frequently mentioned.  A wide range of other topics from Microsoft Project to administering Netware to ISIS to OS X to java script to Linux were cited.  One area showing a greater interest than before was security and firewalling.

 

 

22. What is your primary role at the University?

Role

Dec 2003

Teaching or instruction

11%

Teaching or instructional support

4%

Research

24%

Research Support

7%

Administration

12%

Administration support

24%

Other (library, medical, outreach, athletics, IT support, clinical, advising, marketing, etc)

17%

 

Several questions regarding the use of classrooms and the use of technology in them were asked only of those whose role involved teaching or instruction.  The goal was to determine whether there really is a lack of technology enhanced classrooms or a lack of understanding how to get one. Fifty one teaching (faculty) and instructors completed this section.

 

23. Do you think you understand the difference between department classrooms and general assignment classrooms?

About half of those associated with instruction did not understand the campus classroom differences.  General assignment classrooms make up 70% of the classrooms available on campus.

                        Understand Classroom Differences

 

Dec 2003

(n=51)

Yes

51%

No

49%

 

24. Which of the following are true for you when reserving a technology-enhanced classroom? [check all that apply]

Forty-one percent of instructional respondents do not know how to reserve a technology- enhanced classroom. Another 18% say they don’t need a classroom with technology, and a small number (5%) report not getting one when using the reservation process.

 

Instructional faculty & staff statements about technology-enhanced classrooms

Dec 2003

(n=48)

I don’t know how to reserve a technology-enhanced classroom, but would like to know

41% (n=17)

I don’t use or need a technology-enhanced classroom

18%  (n=11)

I’m familiar with the reservation process

18% (n=9)

I’ve used the reservation process, but couldn’t get one

5%  (n=2)

The reservation process is working fine for me

16%  (n=7)

I’ve used another process and was able to reserve a classroom as needed

23%  (n=12)

 

25.  Regarding the course that you could not get a technology classroom,

            a. What day(s) of the week and time of day was your course offered?

            b. How many students are in this class each semester on the average?

 

No significant findings were discovered in analyzing this question as there was only one response.

 

26. Assuming a 15-week semester, how many times would you actually use the technology in the classroom for your course?


Instructors in a 15-week course say they would use technology in the classroom an average of 15 times, or once a week.  However, the standard deviation is quite large (12.6), which indicates a wide range for this group. The mode is 30, or twice a week.

 

Demographics  (before weighting)

 

What is your classification?

 

 

What is your department or unit?

 

 

In what one area would you recommend DoIT improve?


There were 152 staff, 36 faculty and 18 others who responded to this open-ended question (38.6%).  Many suggestions were one of a kind, but themes developed in six areas, reported below.  One-of-a-kind recommendations are not included in the table.

 

6 Top Themes in order of frequency mentioned

Dec 2003

(n=206)

Communication and Decision Making – clarify roles, less leading/controlling & more partnering, trust, create environment of cooperation, base decisions on business needs, better project updates, accept more input

4.5%

Help Desk and Assistance – waits, conflicting advice, runaround, accuracy, niceness, response time, better staff training

4.5%

Customer Service – response time, returning calls, use lay language, bureaucracy impedes getting help, present as a unified whole

3.6%

Prices and costs – prices should be lower for products, services, & training or free

2.3%

Email – faster, don’t like portal version, web is clunky, provide an 800 number, improve stability, spam

2.3%

Doing a good job now or can’t think of anything to improve

3.6%

 

Methodology

 

The 2003-04 Faculty/Staff Computing Survey was e-mailed to 1,200 randomly selected UW‑Madison Faculty and Staff on November 19, 2003. Three follow-up e-mailings were sent on November 21, December 1 and December 10.  Returns were collected until December 17.  The survey was in the field for four weeks. 

 

Of the 1,200 emails initially sent out, 54 were judged undeliverable. Of the remaining 1,146 respondents, 533 completed the survey for a final response of 47% (533/1146 completed surveys). An additional 71 respondents started the survey but did not finish it. These individuals are not in the computation of final response rates.

 

The distribution of respondents’ classification (faculty, instructional staff, academic staff or classified staff) and department was compared with the UW’s actual distributions.  A weight which took into account the slight disparity between the two distributions was computed and applied to the data.  An approximation of the survey margin of error is +/‑4.6 percent.

 

The questionnaire took an average of 12 minutes, 35 seconds to complete, but this time is inflated by outliers. A more telling statistic is the median completion time, which was 11 minutes.

 

The survey was fielded by DoIT’s E-Business Group.  Population sampling and data analysis was done by DoIT’s Academic Technology Solutions Dept.  Survey design, and report writing were conducted by the DoIT Communication, Organizational & Student Initiatives Dept.

 

 

Notes on Data Analysis

 

The number of respondents upon which percentages are calculated can change from question to question.  Some respondents simply skip a question and for others the software will automatically skip a question, depending on answers to a previous question.  Because of this, the number of respondents is usually included in each Table in the Frequency Runs and Analysis section.  Generally, the figures reported here take into account only those individuals who answered the question.

 

Respondents were often encouraged to respond to all relevant response options within a question.  In these cases column percentages will usually sum to more than 100.  In the Frequency Runs and Analysis section, these cases can be identified by instructions at the end of the question, [Check all that apply].

 

In general, care should always be taken in interpreting data, keeping in mind the web-based nature of the survey, the context and wording of the question, what response options, if any respondents were asked to choose, etc.  Where a specific response scale was used (such as a Likert scale, ranking, etc.) this information is highlighted in or at the end of the question.