2005 UW-Madison

Most faculty, staff, and students use desktop computers, laptop computers, or handheld devices for work- or school-related computing. Some respondents use more than one computing device.

80% of faculty/staff and 84% of students use Windows NT/2000/XP on their desktop computers. 64% of faculty/staff and 78% of students use Windows NT/2000/XP on their laptop computers.

There is a significant population of Mac users on campus. Almost 16% of faculty/staff and 8% of students use Mac OS X as the operating system on their desktop computers. Overall Mac OS X usage is even higher on laptop computers (31% & 16%).

Wireless Network

80% of students and faculty/staff have wireless network capability on their laptop computers. Furthermore, about 72% of students who have wireless capability use the wireless network on a regular or semi-regular basis compared to 66% of faculty and staff who have wireless network capability.

Students and faculty/staff respondents agree that they would be more interested in using the wireless network if all campus buildings were included.

Handheld Device

Handheld devices are somewhat popular on campus, with 20% of faculty and staff and 8% of students using them. Among handheld devices, faculty, staff, and students own Palm with a higher incidence (59% among faculty/staff and 56% among students) than other devices that are available of those who own handheld devices.

Faculty, staff, and students predominantly use their handheld devices for the calendaring ability. The second most popular usage of the handheld device is for email.

Browsers

80% of faculty/staff and 82% of students regularly use Internet Explorer for work- or school-related computing. Netscape is dropping in its use and is used with a much higher frequency among faculty/staff (30%) than students (13%).

Among the most frequently cited browser homepages are My UW-Madison, UW-Madison homepage, and Google.

Email

Faculty and staff are most likely to use an email program (e.g. Eudora, Outlook Express, etc.) when checking their email. Almost half of students use only a web browser to check email on their computer. For faculty and staff this proportion is only 7%.

70% of faculty/staff and 87% off students have more than one e-mail address.

Students report using a wide variety of email clients, most often citing Outlook and Outlook Express. Eudora is utilized by 39% of faculty and staff. 24% of faculty and staff use Outlook to read their mail.

WiscCal

74% of faculty/staff and 90% of students do not use WiscCal to schedule work- or school-related meeting and appointments.

About 33% of faculty/staff and 21% of students use a calendaring system other than WiscCal.

Faculty and staff WiscCal users are more likely to access WiscCal using desktop software such as Oracle or Corporate Time. Students are not enthusiastic WiscCal users but those who use it prefer to access WiscCal using a web browser.

24% of faculty and staff would be more likely to use WiscCal if it was used by their colleagues on campus. 23% of students want better integration with My UW-Madison and 22% of students would like an easier way to get to the calendar.

Media Habits

Wisconsin Week (62%) and Isthmus (52%) are the most widely read campus-area media among faculty and staff. Students read The Badger Herald (62%), The Daily Cardinal (55%), and The Onion (52%) the most.

Faculty and staff who read The Badger Herald or The Daily Cardinal are slightly more likely to read The Daily Cardinal and The Badger Herald on Mondays and Fridays. Students readership of these newspapers peek midweek.

UW Computing Issues News

66% of faculty and staff and 55% of students prefer to receive news about UW computing issues via email. The most preferred option after email is to receive news via the web site.

Faculty/staff and students most commonly suggested receiving computing news monthly.

Text-based news feeds were more interesting to students than to faculty and staff.

Real-time online video collaboration tool

43% of student respondents are interested in using a “real-time” online video collaboration tool to learn. Faculty and staff are less interested in using this new tool, particularly for teaching.

Interestingly, both students and faculty/staff had the same top 3 rankings for most important collaboration tool: 1) Viewable PowerPoint presentations,

2) Video with audio of presenter and 3) File sharing.

Blog and Wiki Interest

97% of faculty/staff and 90% of student respondents do not have a Web log (blog). Most faculty, staff, and students are not at all interested in having a blog provided by UW-Madison. However, some respondents (25% of faculty/staff and 30% of students) are moderately interested in having a blog.

Only 3% of faculty/staff and 2.5% of students currently have a wiki. Most respondents are not interested in having a wiki space with about 23% of faculty/staff and 23% of students moderately interested with the prospect.

Background

Since 1998, DoIT’s Architecture group has sponsored three surveys of UW-Madison faculty, staff, and students. These surveys provide a detailed and representative picture of software use on campus. As with these past surveys, the current report summarizes the campus use of a variety of software in which Architecture was interested. The Communications group included some general computer and media use information. Specifically, the objectives of the survey were to:

Determine breadth of use of popular software applications
Ability to analyze data by respondent classification and usage patterns
Obtain information on how to best communicate with DoIT customers
Determine customer preference for migrating applications to the Web

Methodology

The 2005 Architecture Survey was sent via email to 1,200 randomly selected UW-Madison faculty and staff and 1,200 randomly selected students on February 3. 2005. After drawing the sample, bad/invalid email addresses were removed, resulting in 2,213 potential Web respondents. Of those, 647 completed the survey, which corresponds to a 29.24% response rate.. The email messages contained a unique URL for each respondent. Three follow-up email reminders, including the URLs, were sent on February 9, 25 and March 16. Data was collected until the end of March, 2005.

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, others are instructed to skip a question. Because of this, the number of respondents is usually included in each Table in the Frequencies 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 sometimes sum to more than 100. In the Frequencies 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 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.

Frequencies and Analysis

This section presents the frequency counts, in percentages, for the questions asked on this survey. Additional analysis, where appropriate, is also displayed. Each question appears in the same sequence as it did on the actual survey.

1. What is your classification?

From a sample of 1,200 students and 1,200 faculty and staff, there were 322 student completes compared to 375 faculty and staff completes. The overall response rate for students was 26.8%. The overall response rate for faculty and staff was slightly higher at 31.3%. There were 66 respondents that did not identify their classification. The following table shows the breakdown of completed surveys from each category.

	n	%
Undergraduate student	213	27.9
Graduate student	109	14.3
Classified staff	127	16.6
Instructional academic staff	31	4.1
Non-instructional academic staff	154	20.2
Tenured faculty	33	4.3
Non-tenured faculty	30	3.9
No response given	66	8.7

2. How many of each kind of device do you use for work- or school-related computing? [Check all that apply]

Usage of desktop and laptop computers for work or school-related computing remains high. The use of handheld devices is more common for faculty and staff than it is among students.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
Desktop computing	95.7%	78.0%
Laptop computing	49.1%	58.1%
Handheld computing	19.5%	7.8%
None	0	0

3. Which operating systems do you use on these computers? [Check all that apply]

Usage of Windows NT/2000/XP continues to rise. At the same time, Mac use appears up from previous years. Note: the bases include only those respondents who indicated they use a desktop or laptop computer in Q.2.

Desktop Computers

	Faculty/Staff (n=359)	Students (n=251)
Windows NT/2000/XP	80.2%	84.1%
Windows 98/ME	11.6%	15.9%
Mac OS X	15.9%	8.0%
Mac OS 9.x	2.8%	1.6%
Linux	3.3%	5.2%
Unix	2.2%	2.4%
Other	2.5%	0.8%

Laptop Computers

	Faculty/Staff (n=184)	Students (n=187)
Windows NT/2000/XP	63.6%	78.1%
Windows 98/ME	9.8%	4.8%
Mac OS X	31.0%	16.4%
Mac OS 9.x	2.7%	3.2%
Linux	.5%	2.1%
Unix	--	.5%
Other	--	1.6%

4. Does your laptop have wireless network capability?

Among respondents using laptops, nearly 80% of students and faculty/staff reported their laptops have wireless network capability. Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use a laptop computer in Q.2 were asked this question. 2 Respondents that indicated they use laptops for school or work-related computing did not indicate whether they were part of faculty/staff or student classification, this is why the student percentages do not add up to 100%.)

	Faculty/Staff (n=184)	Students (n=187)
Yes	79.9%	79.7%
No	16.3%	14.4%
I don’t know	3.8%	4.8%

5. Do you use the wireless network on campus?

66% of faculty/staff and 72% students take advantage of the campus wireless network on a regular or semi-regular basis. Note: Only respondents answering, “Yes” to Q.4 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=147)	Students (n=149)
Yes, daily	10.9%	21.5%
Yes, occasionally	55.1%	50.3%
No	34.0%	27.5%

6. Would you use the wireless network more if there were additional locations on campus?

One of the reasons for the limited amount of regular wireless network usage may be lack of wireless network locations on campus. Faculty/staff and students with wireless network capability would be interested in using the wireless network if more locations became available. Note: Only respondents answering, “Yes, occasionally” to Q.5 were asked this question.)

	Faculty/Staff (n=80)	Students (n=75)
Yes	81.3%	86.7%
No, I am not interested in using the wireless network	3.8%	4.0%
I don’t know	15.0%	9.3%

7. If all buildings on campus were included in the wireless network, would you use the network:

The data shows there would be a significant increase of wireless network usage among both groups of respondents if all buildings on campus were in the wireless network.

Note: Only respondents answering, “Yes” to Q.4 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=147)	Students (n=149)
Daily	58.9%	60.8%
Occasionally	34.9%	37.2%
I am not interested in using the wireless network	6.2%	2.0%

8. Which handheld device do you use to access data?

Volunteered responses to the “other” category are located in the Appendix.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use a handheld device in Q.2 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=73)	Students (n=25)
Blackberry	1.4%	--
Cell phone	--	--
Palm	58.9%	56%
Treo	4.1%	--
Pocket PC	--	--
Tablet PC	--	--
Handspring	1.4%	8%
Pager	4.1%	4.0%
Other	4.1%	8%
No response given	26.0%	24.0%

9. How do you use your handheld device?

The most popular way to use a handheld device among both faculty/staff and students is for calendaring. After calendaring, faculty and staff use their handheld devices for email and web access while students use their devices for email and text messaging.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use a handheld device in Q.2 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=73)	Students (n=25)
Email	27.4%	16.0%
Calendar	75.3%	72.0%
Text messaging	6.8%	16.0%
Chat (instant messaging)	1.4%	--
Web access	20.5%	12.0%
My WebSpace	1.4%	4.0%
My UW-Madison	4.1%	4.0%

10. Which distribution of Linux do you use?

Volunteered responses to the “other” category are located in the Appendix.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use Linux in Q.3 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=12)	Students (n=13)
Red Hat	25.0%	7.7%
Fedora	16.7%	15.4%
Debian	8.3%	--
Suse	8.3%	--
Mandrake	--	7.7%
Other	8.3%	--
No response given	33.3%	69.2%

11. Which of the following computer applications do you regularly use for work- or school-related computing? [Check all that apply]

Not surprisingly, nearly all faculty/staff and students regularly use email for work and school-related computing. Other commonly used applications for students include Learn@UW, Chat (instant messaging), and My Webspace. Many faculty and staff regularly use the calendar in addition to email.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
My WebSpace	13.9%	24.2%
Email	96.5%	96.0%
Calendar	40.5%	12.1%
Chat (instant messaging)	9.9%	40.7%
Learn@UW	11.2%	57.5%
RSS (text-based news feed)	2.9%	4.0%
DATN (Digital Academic Television Network	1.3%	1.6%

12. Which browsers do you regularly use for work- or school-related computing?

[Check all that apply]

Internet Explorer is the most popular browser among faculty, staff, and students. Netscape usage has diminished dramatically since the 2001 survey. Furthermore, many respondents in both groups use more than one type of browser for work- or school-related computing.

Volunteered responses to the “other” category are located in the Appendix.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
Netscape	29.6%	12.7%
Internet Explorer	79.7%	81.7%
Safari	15.5%	11.2%
Mozilla	14.7%	18.9%
Fire Fox	21.3%	27.6%
Opera	.5%	1.6%
I don’t know	.5%	--
Other	1.2%	2.1%

13. What do you use as your browser homepage? (e.g., My UW-Madison, Yahoo, etc.)

The most popular responses are recorded in the table below. To view all volunteered responses to this question, please see the Appendix.

	Faculty/Staff, Students, and those who did not define their classification (n=763)
My UW-Madison	12.3%
UW-Madison	11.0%
Google	10.8%
Various department homepages	6.2%
WiscMail	6.0%
Yahoo	6.0%
MSN	5.8%
Netscape	1.7%
CNN	1.4%
Apple	0.8%
Other	23.7%
No response given	14.3%

14. How many email addresses do you currently have?

It is common for faculty/staff and students to have more than one email address. Two email addresses is the most popular response given for both groups.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
None	1.3%	1.2%
1	28.5%	12.1%
2	34.4%	40.1%
3	17.3%	25.2%
4	5.9%	9.3%
5	3.2%	3.1%
6	1.3%	1.9%
7	.3%	1.6%
8	.3%	--
9	--	.3%
10	--	.6%
15	--	.3%
19	.3%	--
20	.8%	.6%
21	.3%	--
22	--	.3%
25	.5%	.3%
30	.8%	--
35	.3%	--
50	--	.9%
60	.3%	--
62	--	.3%
99	1.1%	--
No response given	3.2%	1.9%

15. What is the domain name of your primary school or work-related email account?

The most popular responses are recorded in the table below. To view all volunteered responses to this question, please see the Appendix.

	Faculty/Staff , Students, and those who did not define their classification (n=763)
wisc.edu	60.8%
doit.wisc.edu	1.8%
engr.wisc.edu	1.8%
bus.wisc.edu	1.6%
ssc.wisc.edu	1.4%
yahoo.com	1.3%
Other	19.2%
No response given	12.1%

16. When you check your email on your computer:

a. What percentage of time do you use a web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Safari, etc.)?

While only about 1/3 of faculty and staff never use a web browser to check their email, nearly half of students always use a web browser for this purpose.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
None	30.7%	16.1%
1	8.8%	.3%
2	4.5%	--
3	.3%	.3%
5	13.9%	3.4%
10	15.2%	3.4%
15	.3%	.9%
20	4.8%	2.2%
25	2.1%	3.7%
30	2.4%	.9%
35	--	.6%
40	1.6%	1.6%
50	4.8%	10.9%
60	.3 %	.3%
67	--	.3%
70	.3%	1.2%
75	--	1.6%
80	.5%	1.6%
85	.3%	.3%
90	1.1%	1.9%
95	1.3%	.6%
98	--	.9%
99	--	.3%
100	6.9%	46.6%

b. What percentage of time do you use an email program (e.g. Eudora, Outlook Express, etc.)?

About 50% of students never use an email program to check their email while about 25% of faculty and staff respondents always use an email program to check their email.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
None	11.5%	50.3%
1	--	.3%
2	--	.9%
5	1.3%	.6%
10	1.1%	1.9%
15	.3%	.3%
20	.5%	1.6%
25	--	1.6%
30	.3%	1.2%
33	--	.3%
40	.3%	.3%
50	4.8%	10.9%
60	1.6%	1.6%
65	--	.6%
70	2.4%	.9%
75	2.1%	3.7%
80	4.8%	2.2%
85	.3%	.9%
90	15.2%	3.4%
95	13.9%	3.4 %
97	.3%	.3%
98	4.5%	--
99	8.8%	.3%
100	26.1%	12.4%

17. What email program do you use to read your mail? [Check all that apply]

Faculty, staff, and students use a wide range of different programs to read their email. Eudora is the most common email program among faculty and staff. For students, Outlook and Outlook Express are used as well as various other programs.

Volunteered responses to the “other” category are located in the Appendix.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
Thunderbird	7.2%	6.5%
Mail.app (Mac OS X)	6.9%	5.3%
Eudora	38.9%	5.6%
Groupwise	11.7%	1.9%
Pine	.5%	1.2%
Outlook	23.5%	12.4%
Outlook Express	6.7%	12.4%
Mozilla	2.7%	7.1%
Other	12%	21.4%
None	1%	3.1%

18. Do you use WiscCal (Oracle Corporate Time) to schedule work- or school-related meetings and appointments?

WiscCal is the free campus-wide calendaring and scheduling application. WiscCal is available to all faculty, staff, and students. However, relatively few respondents use WiscCal. There are significantly more faculty and staff that use WiscCal compared to students.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
Yes	18.9%	4.3%
No	73.6%	90.4%
I don’t know	2.4%	1.2%
No response	5.1%	4.0%

19. Do you use a calendaring system other than WiscCal?

About 33% of faculty and staff and 21% of students indicated that they use calendaring systems other than WiscCal.

The most popular volunteered responses to the “yes” category included Groupwise, iCal, Microsoft Outlook, and Palm.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
Yes	32.5%	20.5%
No	43.2%	69.9%
No response given	24.3%	9.6%

20. Do you schedule meetings with others though WiscCal?

50% of students and more than half of faculty and staff who use WiscCal use this service to schedule meetings with others.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use WiscCal in Q.18 were asked this question.

Faculty/Staff

(n=71)

Students

(n=14)

Yes

56.3%

50.0%

43.7%

50.0%

21. Do you access WiscCal using a web browser?

About 54% of faculty and staff who use WiscCal access the service using a web browser. While WiscCal is used by very few students, those who do access WiscCal using a web browser.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use WiscCal in Q.18 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=71)	Students (n=14)
Yes	53.5%	78.6%
No	42.3%	7.1%
I don’t know	4.2%	14.3%

22. Do you access WiscCal using desktop software (Oracle, Corporate Time)?

Faculty and staff are much more likely that students to access WiscCal using desktop software.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use WiscCal in Q.18 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=71)	Students (n=14)
Yes	67.6%	21.4%
No	22.5%	57.1%
I don’t know	9.9%	21.4%

23. What features would you like to see added to WiscCal?

The most popular responses are recorded in the table below. To view all volunteered responses to this question, please see the Appendix.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use WiscCal in Q.18 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff & Students (n=85)
More user-friendly items	22.2%
Synchronization with other operating systems	11.6%
No features needed	7.0%
Better accessibility	5.7%
Other	1.7%
No response given	51.8%

24. What WiscCal performance and/or user interface issues would you like to see improved?

The most popular responses are recorded in the table below. To view all volunteered responses to this question, please see the Appendix.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they use WiscCal in Q.18 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff & Students (n=85)
More polished and user focused	38.7%
No improvements needed	9.4%
Synchronization with other operating systems	7.1%
Other	2.4%
No response given	42.4%

25. I would be more likely to use WiscCal if it:

To increase the likelihood of using WiscCal, faculty and staff placed a higher value on shared use by colleagues, easier way to get to the calendar, and better integration with My UW-Madison, including easier sign-on. Students would like better integration with My UW-Madison, including easier sign-on, easier way to get to the calendar, and more use by campus colleagues.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
Provided an easier way to get to the calendar	13.6%	22.0%
Included feature(s) I need (Specified in Appendix)	1.8%	1.8%
Worked with my browser	4.3%	6.2%
Provided faster service	4.8%	11.8%
Was used by my colleagues on campus	23.7%	18.0%
Had better integration with My UW-Madison, including easier sign-on	11.5%	23.3%
Provided a better web interface	8.0%	12.4%
Other (Specified in appendix)	26.7%	18.0%

26. What ONE computing service offered by the University could use the most improvement?

Common responses included improving the calendaring system, DoIT Help Desk and Store, email spam blocking , free computing training, Learn@UW, more computer labs, the wireless network. WiscCal, WiscMail, and WISDM.

Verbatim responses for this question are located in the Appendix.

27. What ONE job or school function would you like to see streamlined?

Common responses included financial/administrative forms and applications, CBS reports, easier class enrollment process, getting rid of spam in email, grade accessibility, ISIS, easier library search tools, and Learn@UW improvements.

Verbatim responses for this question are located in the Appendix.

28. What campus-area media do you read? [Check all that apply]

Faculty and staff are more likely than students to read Computing @ UW-Madison, Wisconsin Week, and Isthmus. Conversely, students are more likely to read the student dailies and The Onion.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
The Daily Cardinal	20.5%	55.3%
The Badger Herald	22.4%	62.4%
Computing @ UW-Madison	18.4%	7.5%
Wisconsin Week	62.4%	5.3%
The Onion	34.9%	51.6%
Isthmus	51.7%	31.4%
La Comunidad	1.6%	.9%
Core Weekly	2.7%	7.1%

29. Which days do you read The Daily Cardinal? [Check all that apply]

Faculty and staff are slightly more likely to read The Daily Cardinal on Mondays and Fridays, but not by a large margin. Students peak midweek in their reported reading of The Daily Cardinal.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they read The Daily Cardinal in Q.28 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=77)	Students (n=178)
Monday	59.7%	66.9%
Tuesday	54.5%	68.0%
Wednesday	57.1%	73.0%
Thursday	51.9%	67.4%
Friday	62.3%	57.3%

30. Which days do you read The Badger Herald? [Check all that apply]

Readership of The Badger Herald mirrors the Cardinal. Faculty and staff are slightly more likely to read it on Monday and Fridays, and student readership peaks midweek.

Note: Only those respondents who indicated they read The Badger Herald in Q.29 were asked this question.

	Faculty/Staff (n=84)	Students (n=201)
Monday	60.7%	64.7%
Tuesday	54.8%	66.7%
Wednesday	56.0%	70.1%
Thursday	52.4%	66.2%
Friday	59.5%	56.2%

31. If you had to choose, through which of the following would you prefer to receive news about UW computing issues? [Check all that apply]

Faculty/staff and students both prefer electronic means for receiving UW computing news with a higher preference for email versus web site.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
Email	66.4%	55.0%
Web site	31.2%	42.2%
Printed newsletter	15.7%	8.7%
Text-based news feed (RSS)	3.5%	3.1%

32. How often do you want to receive news about UW-Madison computing issues?

Many respondents would prefer to receive computing news monthly. Students are more likely than faculty and staff to indicate that they will seek out computing information when they need it.

	Faculty/Staff (n=375)	Students (n=322)
As often as it occurs	16.0%	11.8%
Weekly	13.9%	11.8%
Every other week	12.5%