Student Perceptions of Faculty Integration of Technology in On-ground Courses at a Large, Urban HBCU in the Southeastern Region of the United States

This quantitative study used survey data to examine instructor use of technology in on-ground courses at a Historically Black College or University (HBCU) based on student experiences (N= 9,027) during Fall Semester 2014. The study sampled undergraduate students in the College of Liberal Arts ( n = 5,542) of one HBCU. Increasing numbers of students bring electronic or digital devices to the higher education campus with an expectation that they will use technology to support learning. To meet students' needs, higher education institutions increasingly are investing in technology for instructional use. Despite the presence of technology on college and university campuses, students report that computer-supported instruction is limited, boring, and disappointing. Studies of students' perceptions of faculty use of technology in higher education have increased, yet few target the beliefs and attitudes of students at an HBCU. This study examined HBCU students' perceptions of instructors based on the use or non-use of technology for instruction. The study identified student preferences for technology based on tools used by their instructors. The results of Mann-Whitney U-tests showed that students at the University preferred to be taught by faculty who used technology. All the null hypotheses were rejected. The null hypotheses for the two research questions and a series of 20 survey questions (p = .001) showed significant differences at p ≤ 0.05 between the ratings students gave faculty who used technology and faculty who did not use technology. This study adds to the body of literature concerning students' assessments of how instructors use technology at the university level and particularly at an HBCU. The results were not generalizable beyond the University.