The purpose of this study was to determine how networking technology was being utilized for education and research at Lehigh University as well as to determine user attitudes toward this technology. A total of 44 hypotheses were tested within this study. As shown in Table 47, 21 of these hypotheses were accepted while 23 were rejected.
Hypotheses Tested in this Study
____________________________________________________________
Subhypotheses are indented. Each hypothesis was of the form:
There was no significant relationship between user classification and ...
Hypothesis: Accept? Perceived users of networking technology Reject Frequency of utilization of campus net. tech. using the Network Server Accept using a compute server Reject remotely using an AFS workstation Accept directly using an AFS workstation Reject Frequency of utilization of electronic mail to communicate with on-campus individuals Accept to communicate with off-campus individuals Accept Frequency of utilization of electronic mail for student to faculty communications Reject for faculty to undergraduate student comm. Accept for faculty to graduate student comm. Reject Frequency of utilization of electronic mail for faculty to faculty communications Accept for faculty to off-campus colleague comm. Accept Frequency of utilization of electronic mail for student to undergraduate student comm. Reject for student to graduate student comm. Reject for student to off-campus colleague comm. Reject Frequency of sharing files electronically via uploading or downloading Reject via a local area network Accept
____________________________________________________________
(continued)
Table 47 (continued)
____________________________________________________________
Subhypotheses are indented. Each hypothesis was of the form:
There was no significant relationship between user classification and ...
Hypothesis: Accept? Frequency of use of off-campus computing using archive servers Accept using anonymous ftp Reject using Gopher and Mosaic Reject using off-campus computing (not lib. or db) Accept Frequency of using Usenet News or a LISTSERV reading a group Reject posting to a group Accept Frequency of use of local library resources using ASA (on-line catalog) remotely Reject using the CD-ROM local area network Reject using on-line forms Reject using on-line reference aids Reject using on-line electronic texts Reject Frequency of use of locally mounted databases using ERIC Reject using Engineering Index Accept Frequency of use of off-campus libraries and db's using CARL/Uncover Reject using WorldCat Reject using Dow Jones News Retrieval Accept using Lexis/Nexis Accept using off-campus libraries Accept using off-campus databases Accept Enhancement of intellectual skills constantly finding new information Accept increased ability to distinguish value of info Accept using search techniques increased scope of info Accept information assembling skills increased Accept positive impact on work Reject
There were no significant differences among user classification groups regarding ...
Degree of enjoyment in using net. technology Reject Degree of anxiety in using net. technology Accept Degree of confidence in abilities to use n. t. Reject
____________________________________________________________
The research question "What is the relationship between user classification and level of utilization of networking technology for educational and research purposes at Lehigh University?" was answered through the testing of a number of hypotheses.
The hypothesis of no significant differences among user classification groups regarding the perceived users of networking technology was not accepted. The perception of who is utilizing networking technology could have an impact on how networking technology is utilized. While the majority of undergraduate and graduate respondents felt that the majority of their fellow students utilized networked services, lesser majorities of these respondents felt that the majority of faculty members utilized networked services. On the other hand, faculty respondents felt that other faculty members and graduate students utilized networked services to a greater degree than did undergraduate students. Due to this difference in perception, it is likely that networking technology is underutilized for student to faculty communications.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency with which members of the groups utilize campus networking technology was accepted for utilization of the Network Server and remote utilization of AFS workstations, but not accepted for utilization of the compute servers and direct utilization of AFS workstations. The vast majority of respondents used the Network Server (i.e., Lehigh's campus-wide information system) on either a daily or weekly basis, regardless of campus status. This was as expected in that the Network Server is designed for use by everyone. Regarding the frequency with which individuals utilized a compute server, less than forty percent of undergraduate students at the freshman and sophomore levels utilized compute servers on a daily or weekly basis. This percentage rose at the junior level and rose even higher at the senior level. This was expected as the computing power offered by the compute servers is typically only needed within higher-level courses within engineering and the sciences. Approximately a third of all respondents utilized AFS workstations on a remote basis either daily or weekly. The AFS workstations would also be used primarily within engineering and the sciences, however, the use of these workstations is incorporated into those curriculums starting at the freshman level. Regarding the frequency with which individuals utilized an AFS workstation directly from its console, just under half of respondents at the sophomore, senior, and graduate levels utilized AFS workstations directly on a daily or weekly basis. This percentage dropped to about a third at the junior and freshman levels, but dropped even further to less than a quarter for faculty members. Almost two-thirds of faculty respondents rarely or never utilized AFS workstations directly. This is most likely due to the fact that while all faculty members have microcomputers in their offices, few of them have workstations.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of electronic mail for communications by members of the groups was accepted. The vast majority of respondents utilized both on-campus and off-campus electronic mail for educational or research purposes on either a daily or weekly basis.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of electronic mail for student-faculty communications was accepted for faculty to undergraduate communications but not accepted for student to faculty communications and faculty to graduate student communications. While fewer than a quarter of sophomore and junior respondents sent electronic mail to faculty members on a daily or weekly basis, almost half of freshman and senior respondents did so as did over a third of graduate student respondents. This could be that freshmen are still getting used to the institution while seniors and graduate students are working more closely with faculty members regarding projects; sophomores and juniors are comfortable with the institution and don't yet have senior projects with which to contend. Approximately half of faculty member respondents, regardless of campus affiliation, sent electronic mail to undergraduate students on either a daily or weekly basis while less than a third of faculty member respondents sent electronic mail to graduate students that frequently. A disproportionate number of humanities and social science faculty members rarely or never sent electronic mail to graduate students which could mean that these particular individuals seldom teach graduate courses. On the other hand, the majority of faculty members in the sciences and in engineering sent electronic mail to graduate students on at least a monthly basis.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of electronic mail by faculty members for non-student-faculty communication was accepted. Approximately two-thirds of faculty respondents, regardless of campus affiliation, utilized electronic mail for communications with other faculty members and off-campus colleagues on either a daily or weekly basis. Another quarter utilized electronic mail on a monthly basis for this purpose.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of electronic mail by students for non-student-faculty communications was not accepted. While the vast majority of undergraduate student respondents sent electronic mail to other undergraduates on a daily or weekly basis and the majority of graduate student respondents sent electronic mail to other graduate students on a daily or weekly basis, only about a quarter of graduate student respondents sent electronic mail to undergraduates that frequently and well under a quarter of undergraduate student respondents sent electronic mail to graduate students that frequently. Over half of graduate student respondents rarely or never sent electronic mail to undergraduates while almost three-quarters of undergraduate student respondents rarely or never sent electronic mail to graduate students. While approximately half of graduate student and senior respondents sent electronic mail to off-campus individuals for educational or research purposes on a daily or weekly basis, significantly fewer do so at the freshman, sophomore, and junior levels. At those levels, well over half of respondents rarely or never sent electronic mail off-campus for educational or research purposes.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of sharing files electronically was not accepted for sharing files via uploading or downloading to or from another computer and accepted for sharing files via local area networks. Well over half of freshman respondents rarely or never uploaded or downloaded files as a means of exchanging information with other individuals while well over half of sophomore, junior, and senior respondents shared files in this manner on at least a monthly basis as did about half of graduate student and faculty member respondents. This was most likely due to freshmen not yet being involved in group projects. Almost two-thirds of respondents, regardless of campus status, rarely or never utilized local area networks to exchange files with other individuals.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of off-campus computing (excluding library and database systems which are analyzed elsewhere) was accepted for use of archive servers and off-campus computers, but not accepted for use of anonymous ftp and use of Gopher or Mosaic. Over half of respondents, regardless of campus affiliation, rarely or never utilized archive servers (i.e., Archie) while over two-thirds of faculty respondents and almost half of undergraduate and graduate respondents rarely or never accessed and retrieved publicly available files and software (via anonymous ftp). Approximately a third of undergraduate and graduate respondents accessed files in this manner on a daily or weekly basis. Students could be accessing files in this manner to aid in course work. As for the utilization of Gopher and Mosaic, almost two-thirds of freshman respondents utilized these systems on either a daily or weekly basis as did approximately half of sophomore, junior, and senior respondents, a third of graduate student respondents, and about a quarter of faculty respondents. Well over half of faculty respondents rarely or never utilized Mosaic and Gopher. Due to the fact that both Mosaic and Gopher have just been developed within the last few years, it is possible that faculty members were unfamiliar with these systems. Over half of respondents, regardless of campus status, rarely or never utilized off-campus computers through the Internet for purposes other than library or database usage; about a quarter of respondents did so on either a daily or weekly basis.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of Usenet News and BITNET LISTSERVs was not accepted for frequency of reading these groups, but was accepted for frequency of posting to these groups. Well over half of sophomore, junior, senior, and graduate student respondents read these groups on either a daily or weekly basis. On the other hand, almost half of freshman and faculty respondents rarely or never read these groups. This is most likely due to freshmen and, to a lesser extent, faculty members not being familiar with what information is available through Usenet and LISTSERVs. Also, since much of the information available through these groups is of questionable value, faculty members possibly avoided them. Regarding the frequency of posting to a Usenet news group or a BITNET LISTSERV, almost two-thirds of respondents, regardless of campus status, rarely or never posted messages; about a quarter of respondents posted on either a daily or weekly basis.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of local library resources was not accepted. Slightly less than half of graduate student and faculty respondents utilized the ASA library system remotely (i.e., without being in the library), on either a daily or weekly basis. On the other hand, about half of sophomore, junior, and senior respondents and about a third of freshman respondents rarely or never utilized ASA. This was as expected with graduate students and faculty members doing more research than is typically done at the undergraduate level. The majority of respondents rarely or never utilized the library's CD-ROM local area network. The primary exceptions to this were about a third of senior and graduate student respondents who utilized the CD-ROM LAN on at least a monthly basis. This was somewhat expected in that the CD-ROM databases on the LAN would be of more use for upper-level undergraduate and graduate student research. What wasn't expected was the low level of faculty member respondent utilization. Most faculty members would need to physically go to the library to access the CD-ROM LAN so they possibly sent graduate students to do the work. As for the utilization of on-line forms for library requests, the majority of respondents rarely or never utilized on-line forms. About a third of graduate student and faculty member respondents utilized on-line forms on at least a monthly basis. This was expected in that graduate students and faculty members are the groups most likely to be utilizing library-based research methods. The majority of respondents also rarely or never utilized on-line reference aids from the library. About a quarter of graduate student respondents utilized on-line reference aids on at least a monthly basis. This was expected in that graduate students are the group most likely to be utilizing on-line reference aids for help in writing research papers. The vast majority of respondents rarely or never utilized on-line electronic texts from the library. The primary exceptions to this were a number of freshman and graduate student respondents. This was expected in that freshmen and graduate students are the groups most likely to be utilizing on-line electronic texts for help in understanding covered topics such as networking technology with which they were not yet familiar.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of locally mounted databases was not accepted regarding the ERIC database but was accepted regarding the Engineering Index database. The majority of respondents rarely or never utilized the ERIC database with the primary exceptions to this being about a quarter of graduate student and faculty member respondents. This was as expected with graduate students and faculty members doing more research pertinent to the ERIC database than is typically done at the undergraduate level. As for the Engineering Index database, the majority of respondents, regardless of campus status, rarely or never utilized the Engineering Index database.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the frequency of use of off-campus libraries and databases was not accepted regarding the utilization of CARL/Uncover and WorldCat, but was accepted regarding the utilization of Dow Jones News Retrieval, Lexis/Nexis, off-campus libraries, and off-campus databases. The majority of respondents rarely or never utilized CARL/Uncover from the Network Server. The primary exception to this were about a third of faculty member respondents. This may have been done for the sake of convenience; all faculty members can access CARL/Uncover from their offices while other library resources such as the CD-ROM LAN may require a trip to the library. Regarding the frequency with which individuals utilized WorldCat from the Network Server, the majority of respondents rarely or never utilized WorldCat. The primary exceptions to this were about a third of graduate student and faculty member respondents. This was as expected with graduate students and faculty members doing more research pertinent to information found within WorldCat than is typically done at the undergraduate level. As for the frequency with which individuals accessed Dow Jones News Retrieval from the Network Server, the majority of respondents, regardless of campus status, rarely or never utilized this service while about a tenth of respondents utilized it on a daily or weekly basis. Similar results were obtained regarding the frequency with which individuals accessed LEXIS/NEXIS from a local area network. The vast majority of respondents rarely or never utilized this service while well under a tenth of respondents utilized it on a daily or weekly basis. Regarding the frequency with which individuals access other off-campus library systems through the Internet, the majority of respondents, regardless of campus status, rarely or never utilized this service while about a tenth of respondents utilized it on a daily or weekly basis. The same can be said regarding the frequency with which individuals accessed other off-campus database systems through the Internet. The majority of respondents rarely or never utilized this service while about a tenth of respondents utilized it on a daily or weekly basis.
The hypothesis that there was no significant relationship between user classification and the enhancement of intellectual skills through the utilization of networking technology was accepted in all cases with the exception of networking technology having a positive impact on getting work done for all groups. Over three-quarters of respondents, regardless of campus status, either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "I constantly find new information available to me through the use of network services." This implies that the utilization of networking technology could enhance the knowledge acquisition intellectual skill in that specific knowledge is obtained with specific methods being followed to obtain that information. Over half of respondents, regardless of campus status, either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "By accessing information through the Network Server and the Internet, my abilities to distinguish the value of information I encounter has greatly increased." This implies that the utilization of networking technology could enhance the comprehension intellectual skill in that the information is interpreted to determine if it is of any value. It also could enhance the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation intellectual skills in that individuals must determine which relationships exist within the information; take the information which has been obtained and synthesize it into new information; and, evaluate whether this new information agrees with already existing pertinent information. The majority of respondents, regardless of campus status, either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "Utilizing different search techniques to find information through the Network Server and the Internet has increased the scope of information available to me." This implies that the utilization of networking technology could enhance the application intellectual skill in that information is obtained through the application of multiple techniques of retrieval. Over half of respondents, regardless of campus status, either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "My skills in assembling information into a more usable form have increased due to the use of networking technology." This implies that the utilization of networking technology could enhance the analysis, synthesis, and evaluation intellectual skills. Over two-thirds of respondents either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement: "Using networking technology has had a significant positive impact on my ability to get my work done." This implies that the utilization of networking technology could enhance all of the intellectual skills found within the cognitive domain of learning.
The second research question "What are the attitudes of users toward the utilization of networking technology for education and research at Lehigh University?" was answered through the testing of a number of hypotheses.
The hypothesis that there were no significant differences among user classification groups regarding the degree to which members of the groups enjoy the utilization of networking technology for retrieving information was not accepted. Differences were found with regard to campus status. Senior respondents showed a greater level of enjoyment in utilizing networking technology than did any other group; faculty member respondents showed the lowest level of enjoyment in utilizing networking technology. As networking technology has been an integral part of Lehigh for a number of years now, it was expected that senior respondents would show the highest level of enjoyment in utilizing this technology; they had been using it for four years and were comfortable with its use. Other undergraduates, and most graduate students, were newer to the University so may have been less comfortable with the technology at the University. Faculty members may simply not have had the time to keep up with the rapid changes in networking technology to have a particularly high level of enjoyment in its use.
The hypothesis that there were no significant differences among user classification groups regarding the degree to which members of the groups had a high anxiety level toward the utilization of networking technology was accepted. No group of individuals showed any real level of anxiety in using this technology. This was as expected since individuals with a high level of anxiety toward this technology would not have been likely to take the survey.
The hypothesis that there were no significant differences among user classification groups regarding the degree to which members of the groups were confident in their abilities to utilize networking technology was not accepted. Differences were found with regard to campus status. Junior and senior respondents showed a greater level of confidence in utilizing networking technology than did any other groups; faculty member respondents showed the lowest level of confidence in utilizing networking technology. This was somewhat expected in that junior and senior respondents had been utilizing this technology for a number of years and were confident in their abilities to use it. Other undergraduates, and most graduate students, were newer to the University so may have been less confident in their abilities to utilize a technology that was still relatively new to them. Faculty members may simply not have had the time to utilize networking technology sufficiently to be particularly confident in their abilities to utilize this technology.
Since networking technology is constantly changing, and not everything available through the technology is specifically educational or job related, the last item of the questionnaire was included to get a feel for how the technology is utilized. While approximately half of all undergraduate respondents utilized networking technology for educational or research purposes less than half of the time, almost half of graduate student respondents and almost two-thirds of faculty member respondents utilized networking technology for educational or research purposes at least seventy percent of the time. This could be part of the reason that undergraduates on a whole seem to have been more comfortable with utilizing networking technology than are faculty members and graduate students. As undergraduates utilized networking technology more for non-educational purposes than they utilized it for strictly educational purposes, it is only natural that undergraduates would have been very comfortable with the technology when they were utilizing it for education.
Houweling (1983) described Carnegie-Mellon University's goals in creating a distributed computing environment as "... the basic mission of the university - the creation and dissemination of knowledge" (p.97). Through the implementation and utilization of networking technology, this goal is becoming a reality in both the education and research realms at Lehigh University.
Networking technology was extensively utilized for education and research at Lehigh University. The vast majority of respondents utilized Lehigh's campus-wide information system and electronic mail, both on-campus and off-campus, on a daily basis. Differences found in how electronic mail was utilized included freshmen, seniors, and graduate students conversing with faculty members at a higher level than did sophomores and juniors, and faculty members within engineering and the sciences conversing with graduate students at a higher level than did faculty members in the humanities and the social sciences. While students utilized Gopher and World-Wide Web information systems, and Usenet News and LISTSERVs, at a much greater level than did faculty members, faculty members and graduate students utilized the library's on-line catalog, on-line forms, and external database and library systems such as ERIC, CARL/Uncover, and WorldCat at a higher level than did undergraduate students.
Through utilizing networking technology, the majority of respondents felt that they could constantly find new information and, by utilizing different search techniques, had much more information available to them. Over half of respondents felt that through utilizing networking technology their abilities to distinguish the value of information and their skills in assembling information had increased.
As to how user attitudes affected their utilization of networking technology, most respondents enjoy utilizing networking technology, have little anxiety toward utilizing networking technology, and are confident in their abilities to utilize networking technology. Faculty members had the lowest level of enjoyment and the lowest level of confidence in their abilities to utilize networking technology, but they also had the lowest level of utilization of this technology with most rarely using the technology for anything but work-related purposes.
1. If this study were replicated, separate questionnaires should be utilized for students, faculty, and staff in order to allow an analysis of educational implications separately from research implications.
2. If this study were replicated, it is recommended that it be done outside of the realm of a dissertation study. For this study to have the most value, the survey should be completed by all users of the technology and not simply by those who choose to do so. While it was a known shortcoming of the methodology utilized in this study that non-users of the technology would not be included, voluntary participation in this study resulted in only those most comfortable with the technology participating. In this regard, valuable insight into the rest of the user community is not obtained which lessens the impact of obtained results. Since there is nothing within this study which in any way can be construed as counter to the well-being of human subjects participating in this study, it is recommended that replication of this study be done on a mandatory participation basis.