As part of an ongoing effort to understand and meet the needs of our clients, Computer Lab Management conducted a student survey on April 6, 2002. The survey was sent to 1000 students who used the computer classrooms during the Winter 2002 quarter. There were 215 respondents. There were several items that were revealed in this survey. These include the following:

• Sophomores, juniors, and seniors are the primary users of our computer rooms 
• Over 55% of the respondents have used the MU Station
• Students who know and have access to departmental computer rooms use those rooms more often
• Students who prefer core central campus access also prefer availability and printing access more than any other attribute of computer rooms 
• Three primary types of preferences exists among student respondents: basic service seekers, safety and security conscious, and power users.

The details from the survey are listed below.

Computer Lab Management is constantly trying to refine and improve the
campus computer rooms.  We would like your input to determine what changes
you feel would improve our services.

  Your name was selected by a random sample of all computer room users
from last quarter.  As a result, your responses to this survey represent
many users.  Please reply to this survey so that your views will be
properly represented.

  The survey contains eight questions which are listed below.  To answer
the survey, reply to this message and mark your answers to the questions
below by putting an "x" or text, as appropriate, between the square
brackets provided (eg. [x]). Since a program will automatically tally your
responses for later analysis, please keep your responses between the
square brackets provided. 

Thank you for your time and input.

                        Tim Leamy
                        Computer Lab Management
                        Classroom Technology Services                   
                        tcleamy@ucdavis.edu

*****  Computer Room Survey *****

1. Class Standing: [] Freshman   [] Sophomore   [] Junior    [] Senior
                   [] Masters candidate         [] PhD candidate
                   [] Professional School                       

2. Which computer room did you use the most this past quarter?
(Select only one)
  Computer classrooms               Open Access Labs
   [] 1/21 Olson (Mac computers)     [] TB114
   [] 27 Olson (PC computers)        [] MU Station
   [] 163 Shields                    [] 301B/307 Surge IV
   [] 241/247 Olson
   [] 1131 Meyer
[] 1102 Hart

  Multimedia Labs
   [] 1101 Hart
   [] 1154 Meyer

3.  Which computer rooms have you used this past quarter? 
(Select all that apply)
  Computer classrooms               Open Access Labs
   [] 1/21 Olson (Mac computers)     [] TB114
   [] 27 Olson (PC computers)        [] MU Station
   [] 163 Shields                    [] 301B/307 Surge IV
   [] 241/247 Olson
   [] 1131 Meyer
   [] 1102 Hart

  Multimedia Labs
   [] 1101 Hart
   [] 1154 Meyer

4.  How often do you use the campus computer rooms?
 [] More than once a day
 [] Daily
 [] A few times a week
 [] Weekly
 [] Monthly

5.  Does the department of your major (or field of study) have computer
labs available for your use?
 [] Yes
 [] No      (If NO please skip to question #7.)
 [] Don't know  (If Don't know please skip to question #7.)
 [] Not Applicable (I've yet to declare a major. - skip to question #7.)

6.  Which do you use more?
  [] Department computer labs
  [] Campus computer rooms
  Why? [   ] 

7.  What would be the most appropriate/useful location for a new
open-access (no classes) computer room?  Please rank the THREE best
options from 3 to 1, with 3 for the most important and 1 the least 
important.
  [] Core campus (ie. Olson, Shields Library, Wellman, MU)
  [] West campus (ie. Hutchison, Briggs)
  [] Southwest campus (ie. Silo)
  [] Far Southwest campus (ie. Meyer, Academic Surge)
  [] Off-campus (ie. downtown) 

8. What are the most important attributes of a computer room?
(Rate each from 9 to 1, with 9 being most important and 1 being the
least important)
  [] Location (centrally located)
  [] Speed/power of computers 
  [] Speed of network 
  [] Media software available    
  [] Scientific/Statistical software available
  [] Availability (low or no wait lines)   
  [] Security of data (personal files/password secured)  
  [] Security (personal)  
  [] Ability to print

Thank you for your time and input.

1. Class Standing

2. Which computer room did you use the most?

3. Which computer rooms did you use?

4. How often do you use the campus computer rooms?

5. Does your department have a computer lab?

	Number	Percentage
Yes	76	35.3%
No	55	25.6%
Don't Know	74	34.4%
Not applicable	5	2/3%

6. If yes, which do you use more?

	Number	Percentage (of 76)
Departmental	46	60.5%
Campus computer rooms	27	35.5%

7.  Best locations for open access computer rooms?

Location	Number of 1s	Number of 2s	Number of 3s	Total*
Core Campus	37	31	75	324
West Campus	47	40	39	244
Southwest Campus	36	68	31	265
Far Southwest Campus	22	8	7	59
Off-campus	21	19	8	83

(* Total is  #1s + #2s x 2 + #3s x 3)

9.  What are the most important attributes of a computer room?

	Number of 1s	Number of 2s	Number of 3s	Number of 4s	Number of 5s	Number of 6s	Number of 7s	Number of 8s	Number of 9s
Location	15	10	11	11	20	18	40	45	31
Speed of computer	6	12	20	27	33	39	27	22	14
Speed of network	6	9	17	29	41	40	29	17	12
Media software	25	48	22	27	19	20	15	10	9
Scientific/Statistical software	63	29	22	18	15	7	15	11	14
Availability	16	9	7	5	8	10	17	38	94
Security of data	10	28	34	32	24	19	18	22	8
Personal security	32	24	35	28	19	19	7	9	22
Printing	15	13	16	8	22	20	40	41	27

 

As expected the open access rooms (MU, TB114, and 301B/307 SurgeIV) were the most heavily used.  Most students use the computer rooms fairly often (78.6% use them daily - weekly).  Around 35% of students have access to a departmental computer room.  Of those with access to a departmental lab, 60% used it primarily.

Extended Analysis using correlations

Users who used a certain lab also tended to use the labs right next to it; for example, users of 1102 Hart also used 1101 Hart with frequency, and those who used a lab in Olson tended to use another as well. Users of each existing lab tend to want more computer labs in that particular section of campus, showing that they tend to use the computer labs nearest their classes and areas they otherwise frequent.

The core of campus seems to be associated with availability and printing needs, indicating that our labs in that area, TB114 and the MU Station, are aptly placed. Unfortunately TB 114 will be moved at the end of the summer, which will put excess strain on the Hart printing stations. Use of the Meyer labs is associated with users who value media and scientific software; not surprisingly, the labs offer these specialized software packages, indicating that these users know where to find the programs they require.

Valuations of media and science-related software are negatively correlated to the availability attribute (-0.508 and -0.611, respectively) and also to the printing attribute (-0.325 and -0.454, respectively). This can be interpreted in varying ways; one, that those users who already use the software are not currently experiencing a problem with printing and/or availability; and two, that these users are willing to wait for the software if it is available in a lab that generally has higher usage and longer print queues. Many may not need to print at all, since many media and science programs can be submitted in electronic form.

The correlation between users whose departments have computer labs and also value media software is negative (-0.162), suggesting that those users whose departments offer a computer lab for their use do not seem to value media software in the campus computer labs very much, probably because any software required for projects and homework is already provided for them in the department labs. To further support this interpretation, users who use the campus computer labs more than their department computer labs value media software (correlation: 0.153)

Users who value availability as an important attribute of a computer room do not value personal security as much (-0.464), probably due to the fact that computer rooms that are most available to them (MU Station, Surge IV, TB 114) are in the core of campus, where the utilization is higher. This may create a feeling of personal security among users.

Interestingly, users who have been using the TB114 lab more than any other computer room value speed and power of the lab computers (0.198). As the computers in that lab are four years old and thus the slowest and least powerful of all those on campus, these users probably value these attributes because their needs and/or wants are not being met.  Alternatively these users are comparing the speed of the computers to their home computers - which may be even older than 4 years.  A third alternative interpretation is that survey respondents have slower network connections at home and interpret the faster web access in TB114 as a result of a faster computer and faster networking.

As similarly stated above Another strong correlation is that users whose major department has a computer lab for their use also tend to use those department labs more often than the campus computer labs (-0.772). This can be attributed to several possibilities: the department computers are better overall and thus preferred, the campus computer labs do not offer specialized enough software and hardware, and/or the department computer labs are much closer to the students' classes and therefore more convenient.

Student Client Types

CLM asked all students on this survey about their preferences in the computer lab and determined three primary types of student clients: basic service oriented, security oriented, and computer/networking power oriented.

The survey asked to rate their preferences in a computer room where they rated from one to nine the importance of a computer room's location, computer speed and power, networking speed, media software availability, scientific software availability, availability of computers (open seats), data security, personal safety, and printing availability. We conducted a factor analysis that yielded three components (groupings of each of the preferences) that explained how the students answered. The results are:

Component 1: Survey respondents in this group believed that a computer room's location, media and scientific software availability, availability of open computers, and printing access are all significantly more important than the other preferences.

Component 2: Survey respondents in this group believed that data security and personal safety is more important than the other preferences.

Component 3: Survey respondents in this group believed that computer speed and power and networking speed is more important than the other preferences.

We defined each component where component 1 reflects basic service users, component 2 reflects security and safety conscious, and component 3 reflects power users.

We used factor analysis to reduce the responses to the original nine preferences into the three components. The data is tabulated below.

Total Variance Explained

Rotated Component Matrix (using components with Eigen Values greater than 1)

Component groupings are identified by highlighting the highest absolute value for each preference listed above. Hence, component 1 is composed of location, media and scientific software, availability of open computers and printing.

There was an error in the original survey:  Surge IV 301A was omitted from the Computer Classroom list in Question 2.

• Student Survey #2 (Winter 2002)
• Student Survey #3 (Winter 2002)
• Faculty Survey (Fall 2001)
• Faculty Survey (Spring 2001)
• Student Survey (Winter 2001)
• Faculty Survey (Fall 2000)
• Duplex Printing Survey (Summer 2000)
• Student Survey (Spring 2000)
• Student Survey (Winter 2000)
• Faculty Survey (Fall 1999)
• Faculty Survey (Spring 1999)
• Student Survey (Spring 1999)
• Student Survey (Fall 1998)
• Faculty Survey (Winter 1998)
• Student Survey (Winter 1998)
• Student Survey (Winter 1997)
• ASUCD Student Computer Survey (Winter 1997)

Comments: tcleamy@ucdavis.edu URL: http://lm.ucdavis.edu/pubs/survey/student_w02-1.html Last reviewed: Thu, 18-Jul-2002 Last updated: July 15, 2002