| The purpose of this study was to identify and describe computer technology competencies students in the baccalaureate programs have mastered upon graduating from colleges or universities in Texas. The main and the interaction effects of such independent variables as gender, marital status, age, ethnicity, educational level, educational major, and employment status on the dependent variable, the perceptions of computer technology competencies, were also investigated.;A survey instrument was developed, pilot tested, and validated for content validity and reliability. It was administered to two hundred fifty-five students in baccalaureate programs in Business, English, and Mathematics at randomly selected higher education institutions in the Southern region of Texas. The descriptive research design was employed to respond to the research questions. Further, testing of the hypotheses and the analyses of data were conducted utilizing the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) procedures of the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) at .05 level of significance, and with a confidence level of 95%.;The seventeen hypotheses tested yielded statistically non-significant difference results, except for Hypothesis Six. The LSD Pair-wise multiple comparison tests conducted in conjunction with the Scheffe test, revealed that statistically significant differences existed among the six ethnic groups that participated in the study. Too, the results of the percentage analyses clearly indicated that students in baccalaureate programs often failed to maintain an acceptable mastery level on the identified computer technology competencies.;Recommendations offered relative to this study included suggestions that (1) students in baccalaureate programs should be required to own a laptop computer; and (2) all colleges and universities should develop and maintain departmental-based, computer-aligned core courses that target workforce computer technology competencies.;Finally, this present study adds to the corpus of literature in education by specifying or identifying areas which students in baccalaureate programs generally are very proficient as well as those areas in which they lack real proficiency. This information should prove valuable to educators and curriculum developers as it may guide them on how well to re-align programs and course curricula to ensure mastery and maintenance of computer technology competencies by students in baccalaureate programs in Texas. |
