Faculty integration of computer technology into instruction and students' perceptions of computer use to improve their learning

The purpose of the study was to determine the nature of the relationship between faculty integration of computer technology into instruction and students' perceptions of computer technology use to improve their learning. Three major questions were investigated in this study: (1) What is the frequency of faculty integration of computer technology into classroom instruction? (2) To what extent does the frequency of faculty integration of computer technology, students' computer proficiency levels for personal activities, and students' computer proficiency levels for instructional activities predict the students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology use to improve their learning? (3) Do differences exist across gender and course levels in the students' perceptions of the effect of computer use to improve their learning?;The study population involved undergraduate students attending a medium-sized public university in Indiana (N = 837). A survey instrument was designed to the measure the variables that were investigated in the study such as faculty integration of computer technology into classroom instruction, students' computer proficiency skills for personal as well as instructional activities, and students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology use to improve their learning.;Four hypotheses were tested in this study. A simultaneous regression analysis with all three predictor variables was conducted to test the first hypothesis. This analysis produced a significant model with the value of R 2 = 0.039; a statistically significant relationship was found between the predictor variables and the criterion---students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology use to improve their learning.;A Two-Way ANOVA analysis was used to test the remaining three hypotheses; non-significant results were obtained for the comparison in the students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology use to improve their learning between males and females, and across the four course levels.;Evidence from the study suggests that students need to have direct instruction to effectively and efficiently use computer technology applications such as authoring and sophisticated hypermedia. These programs provide computer skills in advanced computer technology applications that will enable faculty to expect more discipline-specific computer-based projects such as developing a webquest in a web editor.