Results

Methodology
This survey
Limitations/Challenges
See the Survey

Courses & Workshops
Nature of Training
Faculty & Graduate Students
Assessment

Conclusion
Further Study
Appendix A
Works Cited

Faculty vs. Graduate Students

Does the faculty within a program perceive that training to be effective? Is that training perceived to be effective by graduate students?

Not only is the nature of technology training important, but also the effectiveness of such training.  First, I review faculty and graduate students’ responses concerning the participant’s opinions regarding the effectiveness of program technology training, and second, I review faculty and graduate student responses to the program’s processes for formally assessing technology training. Two survey questions address this issue directly.

As Table 3 illustrates, 60 percent of faculty perceived that the effectiveness of technology training for graduate students as somewhat effective. Twenty percent of faculty responded that technology training is not effective, and ten percent claimed that the effectiveness of technology training is very effective, and ten percent marked other. In the opinion of faculty, technology training in their program is somewhat effective.

TABLE 3

Assessment of Effectiveness

(Faculty/Graduate Cross tabulation) What is your assessment of the effectiveness of your program's technology training?

Many responses from the text-boxes illustrate why faculty responded in the manner that they did. For example, here are three responses from text-boxes:

• Teachers have technology help available and use it to various degrees during their work here. For example new teachers may use the lab during their second and third semesters of teaching but not their first semester.
• It works for people who are highly motivated.
• In terms of the department non-existent but that's because many of the tenured faculty are anti-technology. The university on the other hand has done a great job of providing resources to faculty who want to develop IT skills.

The information provided demonstrates that faculty perceives effectiveness of technology training as an outgrowth of user motivation. Some text-box responses echoed the idea that those who wished to know more about technology should take an initiative to learn on their own.

Part of the driving force behind this project is understanding the differences, if any, between faculty perceptions of technology training and those of graduate students entrenched in the programs themselves. How do faculty opinions of the effectiveness of technology training differ from or remain similar to graduate students’ opinions of such training? Table 3 illustrates that 51 percent of graduate students responding had the opinion that their technology training is somewhat effective. Thirty percent claimed that their program’s technology-training for graduate students is not effective. Ten percent marked "other" and nine percent said the training was very effective. Like the faculty, graduate students explained their responses in text-boxes. However, text-box responses uncovered overwhelmingly negative opinions of technology training in their program. For example, here are some responses from the text-boxes:

• Too often in my opinion the graduate student consultants learn on the job and aren't professionally interested in the work.
• It doesn't really include any tech. training hardly. You are just expected to know those things.
• I attended several sessions which were not effective for me

These responses are not idiosyncratic, but rather representative of most responses I received from the text-boxes. Over ten responses in the text-boxes reported that the training was "non-existent." The text-box responses indicated dissatisfaction with technology training. Graduate students explained that workshops are too advanced or not advanced enough. They also said that the workshops are inconveniently located and that the "leader" of the workshop is often underqualified. Most graduate students, however, indicated that training is somewhat effective. While only 20 percent of faculty believe technology training to be "not effective," 30 percent of graduates believe it to be "not effective." Graduate students, the ones who are the audience for TA training, seem to believe, according to the text-boxes, that technology training is not effective despite the majority of graduate students claiming on the survey that it is "somewhat effective."

Assessment>>