The use of educational technology at tertiary level

Abstract

This study examined the use of educational technology at tertiary level at one of the newly established (i.e. 2007) universities in the eastern part of Turkey in the spring of 2012. The study examined the tertiary teaching staffs‟ (a) personal and computer related characteristics, (b) their computer self-efficacy perceptions, (c) their computer-using level in certain software, (d) their frequency of computer use for teaching, administrative and communication objectives, and (e) their use of educational technology preferences for preparation and teaching purposes. In this study, all teaching staffs were given the questionnaires to complete. 194 participants (n= 194) completed and returned them. The study was mostly quantitative and partly qualitative. The quantitative results were analysed with SPSS (i.e. mean, Std. Deviation, frequency, percentage, ANOVA). The qualitative data was analysed with examining the participants‟ responses gathered from the open-ended questions and focussing on the shared themes among the responses. The results reveal that the participants have high computer self-efficacy perceptions, their level in certain programs is good, and they often use computers for a wide range of purposes. There are also statistical differences between (a) their computer self-efficacy perceptions, (b) frequency of computer use for certain purposes, and (c) computer level in certain programs in terms of different independent variables.