A Computer Literacy Course may Initially be Detrimental to Students’ Attitudes towards Computers ANDRIES BURGER AND PIETER BLIGNAUT University of the Free State ________________________________________________________________________________________________ Computer attitude affects a user’s choice and/or behaviour towards working with a computer. Computer attitude consists of computer anxiety, computer liking and computer confidence. Literature indicates that computer experience has either a positive effect on computer attitude or no effect. In this study a negative relationship was found amongst first year students enrolled for an introductory computer literacy course. It is suggested that another measure of computer attitude, after more experience and knowledge is gained, could prove that students’ decline in attitude is only initial. Categories and Subject Descriptors: H1.2 [Models and Principles]: User/Machine Systems – Human factors; Human Information processing; Software psychology General Terms: Human Factors, Measurement, Reliability Additional Key Words and Phrases: Computer Attitude, Computer Anxiety, Computer Experience
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INTRODUCTION
South Africa, like most countries, is experiencing rapid changes in technology use in all the different sectors of our society, for instance industry, education, commerce and social structures [Clarke, 2000; Chivhanga, 2000; Dickinson, 1999]. Because of the proliferation of computers throughout the business world, more and more demands are placed on workers to develop sufficient computer skills. There are various types of training in which workers can obtain these much needed computer skills. First year B.Sc. and B.Com. students at the University of the Free State are expected to either deliver proof of previous successful computer literacy training or enrol for a one-semester course in computer literacy. Despite the growth in computer use in so many aspects of our daily lives, research shows that there is still resistance to and anxiety about computers. Ostrowski, Gardner and Motawi [1986] found that more than 50% of their subjects had computer attitude problems, with anxiety occurring most often. Orr, Allen and Poindexter [2001] suggest that the profile of students dropping out of computer courses due to high levels of anxiety should be investigated. 2.
COMPUTER ATTITUDE AND ITS COMPONENTS
Gordon Allport defined the concept of attitude in general as follows: "An attitude is a mental and neural state of readiness, organized through experience, exerting a directive or dynamic influence upon the individual's response to all objects and situations with which it is related" [Allport, 1935]. In other words, attitude is determined by experience and impacts upon the individual’s behaviour. Another, more recent, definition for attitudes is the following: "Attitudes are complex internal states of human beings that affect their choice of action or behaviour toward people, objects and events" [Scarpa, Smeltzer & Jasion, 1992]. These two definitions suggest that attitude is a mental state of mind which influences the way a person will react towards other people, objects and events. Loyd and Gressard [1984a] identify the components of computer attitude to be computer anxiety, computer liking and computer confidence. Computer anxiety involves an array of emotional reactions, including fear, apprehension, uneasiness and distrust of computer technology in general [Negron, 1995; Rohner and Simonson, 1981]. According to Henderson et al [1995] anxiety is viewed as “a drive that motivates the organism to avoid the stimulus for anxiety”. Applied to computers, this implies that an individual will avoid the use of a computer if possible. Computer liking/disliking refers to a measurement of a user’s enjoyment of working with computers and can be expressed in statements such as “I would like working with computers”, “Once I start to work with the computer, I would find it hard to stop” and “I don’t understand how some people can spend so much time working with computers and seem to enjoy it”. An expression of computer confidence (or lack thereof) may include statements like “I am sure I
________________________________________________________________________________________________ Author Addresses: AJ Burger, Department of Computer Science and Informatics, University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300;
[email protected] PJ Blignaut, Department of Computer Science and Informatics, University of the Free State, PO Box 339, Bloemfontein 9300;
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A Computer Literacy Course may Initially be Detrimental to Students’ Attitudes towards Computers
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could do work with computers”, “I’m not the type to do well with computers”, and “I could get good grades in computer courses”. It is important, however, to point out that there is no uniformity regarding the definition of computer attitude and its components. Some researchers view computer attitude as being made up of certain components while others use different components. For example, the Computer Attitude Scale (CAS) of Loyd and Gressard [1984a] are based on three sub-scales, namely computer liking, computer confidence and computer anxiety. Bandalos and Benson [1990], on the other hand, revised the CAS and proposed that the three sub-scales of computer attitude should be computer liking, computer confidence and computer achievement. In the research of Orr et al. (2001), the concepts of computer anxiety and negative attitudes are used interchangeably. Jawahar and Elango [2001], however, argue that these concepts are not interchangeable – an argument that is in line with factor analytic investigations conducted by Kernan and Howard [1990]. 3.
THE CONTRIBUTION OF COMPUTER EXPERIENCE TO COMPUTER ATTITUDE
Allport’s definition [Allport, 1935] states that a person's attitude is influenced by experience. If a person has a positive or negative experience with an object, it will influence the manner in which they will react and behave towards that object in the future. Therefore, a person's previous experience with a computer will influence his/her attitude towards computers or similar technology in the future. Several studies have been undertaken to explore potential factors associated with a positive attitude toward computers [Brodt & Stronge, 1986; Scarpa et al, 1992; Sultana, 1990; Schwirian et al, 1989; Bongartz, 1988; Burkes, 1991]. Some of the factors that were considered were level of education, years of exp erience in the work environment, computer experience, age, gender, and job title. The only factor that was repeatedly, although not consistently, found to have a positive effect on computer attitude, was computer experience. Loyd and Gressard [1984b] administered a computer attitude scale to high school and college students. They found that computer experience was significantly related to computer liking and computer confidence. In another study with teachers attending a staff development programme designed to provide hands-on experience with computers, Gressard and Loyd [1985] found that the programme enhanced computer liking and confidence. These results were duplicated for computer confidence in a study conducted by Gressard and Loyd [1986] on teachers participating in a staff development programme. However, the influence of the programme on their scores was not statistically significant on the computer liking sub-scale. The fact that the teachers were already quite positive at the beginning of the program was presented as a possible reason for this result. From the above-mentioned literature, it seems, therefore, as though computer experience has a positive effect on computer liking and confidence. In other words, the more computer experience people acquire, the higher their computer liking and confidence will be and the less computer anxiety they will experience. Although Allport’s definition of attitude [Allport, 1935] is useful, Taylor et al. [2000] caution that it is not accurate because it builds on the assumption that attitudes are enduring. People can, however, often come up with a new attitude on the spur of the moment toward people or objects that they never encountered before. With relation to computers, this means that although a person has never had any encounter with a computer or related technology before, he/she might have a positive or negative attitude towards computers. Also, the fact that a person might have a positive or negative attitude towards a computer does not necessarily predict how they will behave and perform when working with a computer. 4.
FOCUS OF THIS STUDY
The primary focus of this paper is an attempt to provide more evidence for either of the two viewpoints mentioned above. The research question is, therefore, to determine whether users’ computer attitude, which is seen to consist of computer anxiety, computer liking and computer confidence, changes as more computer experience is gained. Students enrolled for a first year computer-literacy course at the University of the Free State were asked to complete a survey form at the start of the first practical session and again at the end of the last practical session of the course some five months later. It was argued that if students’ computer attitudes improve as they gain more experience, instructors can spend less time on motivation talks because computer experience will automatically rectify the problem. If, however, these attitudes worsen or stay consistent over time, irrespective of experience, instructors might have to use appropriate techniques to alleviate this problem. It is important to point out that this study was done for a particular course at a particular university with a particular student profile. In other words, the lecturer, classroom conditions, course composition, assessment methods, etc. could have influenced the results. Previous computer experience, be it games or Internet, could also have had an influence on the results. According to Francis, Katz and Jones [2000], the Computer Attitude Scale (CAS) of Gressard & Loyd [1986] is steadily emerging as the most popular choice among researchers for measuring computer attitude. The CAS is a Likerttype instrument consisting of 30 items which present positively and negatively worded statements of attitudes toward Proceedings of SAICSIT 2004
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Table 1. Results of the t-test for the white and black students to determine whether there are changes in computer attitude, computer anxiety, computer liking and computer confidence as students gain experience on computers
Test
Group
N
Pre -score
Post-score
SD
t
p
SD
Computer Attitude
White
155
86.21
14.67
82.77
16.17
4.086
0.0001**
Black
151
94.07
12.79
89.87
14.31
4.549
0.0001**
Computer Anxiety
White
155
31.32
5.76
29.99
6.19
3.265
0.0014**
Black
151
31.70
5.47
30.66
5.14
2.375
0.0188*
Computer Liking
White
155
26.06
5.39
24.99
5.72
2.944
0.0037**
Black
151
30.68
4.68
29.36
5.63
3.389
0.0009**
Computer Confidence
White
155
28.85
5.61
27.80
6.25
3.249
0.0014**
Black
151
31.69
4.92
29.69
5.22
5.249
0.0001** ** p
