Students pleased with UW-Madison computing

A UW–Madison survey finds 87 percent of students are satisfied or very satisfied with the computing resources the university provides, a figure that has remained steady for three years.

Between March and May 2001, UW–Madison’s Division of Information Technology (DoIT) conducted its ninth annual student survey in an ongoing effort to determine student awareness and use of UW computing services, and to gauge demand for new and existing services.

The survey also found a substantial increase in the amount of time students spend connected to the Internet. The past two years found average weekly Internet connection time at 14 hours. This year’s survey found students online for an average of 22 hours per week. Some of this increase may stem from the fact that many more students are using cable modems and DSL for Internet access.

Overall student computer ownership now stands at 88 percent. Incoming freshmen now enter college more wired than their predecessors and are more likely to own a computer than many upperclassmen. Among other information technology products, the survey found that 31 percent of students own a cellular or other mobile phone, up from 22 percent last year. The percentage of personal digital assistant owners also increased, from 4 percent to 12 percent.

This is the third year DoIT has used a mixed methodology to conduct the student survey. In a continuing effort to compare mail-based surveys with Web-based surveys, two separate samples of 1,000 students were sent a traditional mail questionnaire or an e-mail message referring them to a Web-page questionnaire.

Of the 2,000 students who received the questionnaire, 800 completed and returned them. An approximation of the survey’s margin of error is +/- 3.5 percent.