February 20, 2004
Following is a summary of the results from the Web-based, anonymous Technology Use Survey conducted during the fall 2003. The survey objectives were to discover how district employees use technology, how ETS can better meet their needs, and to gather feedback from users about ETS service and support. We aimed to determine employees' attitudes regarding technology, satisfaction with ETS services, future technology needs, training preferences and current technology uses, with an emphasis on how faculty use technology for instruction.
In this summary, you will find results in the following categories: Demographics of Respondents, ETS Service Levels and User Satisfaction and How District Employees are Using Technology . You can find more results posted on the ETS Web site, including the complete list of respondents' written comments. There is also a link to last year's survey so you can compare the two year's results.
The following two tables provide demographic data about the respondents. The response rate increased slightly in total number from 326 to 349. The response rate by location and role remained about the same as in previous years.
Interestingly, as indicated in Table 3 below, the trend of respondents having slightly more negative attitudes toward computers continued this year compared to previous years. It is becoming more apparent that the excitement about using computers to improve one's work has deteriorated and more are recognizing that using computers equates to doing work, rather than it being a unique, new and exciting experience that can make work more interesting or easier to accomplish.
The 2003 survey results show that the trend of users perceiving improvement in the service levels acknowledged in last year's survey continued during 2003. Users continued to find improvements in areas related to service and support. This continued improvement in perceived service occurred in spite of significant cuts to ETS staffing and budget levels. However, in anticipation of those cuts ETS committed itself at the beginning of 2003 to improving its internal processes for responding to user work requests. Most of this effort was in the area of creating and defining specific work flow processes for work requests as well as an effort by the Call Center to follow up on completed calls to ensure that the user's request was satisfactorily completed.
Indicative of the improvement in communication to users was the response to the item, "The college/district keeps me informed of technical changes or problems with my computers." (See Table 4 below.) The 2003 survey results indicated continued positive trend with fully 68% of respondents agreeing or strongly agreeing to the statement. In contrast, 60% agreed or strongly agreed in 2002 and only 42% agreed or strongly agreed in 2001. This result is matched by a strong movement away from disagreement with the statement, from 44% disagreeing or strongly disagreeing in 2001 to 25% in 2003. It appears that the strategies ETS has employed to let users know about changes and problems with technology has had a positive impact on user knowledge and understanding. Among those strategies were the following: generation of automatic email message confirming job ticket recorded by the Call Center; continued publication of News Bytes; encouraging technicians to take the time to explain to users what was done when completing work.
The pie charts below for 2001, 2002, and 2003 provide a graphic representation of the improvement on this item.
"The College/District keeps me informed of technical changes or problems with my computer" for 2001 and 2002 and 2003 (above) indicating a strong positive movement.
Upon deeper inspection the improvement seems even more significant in that the greatest increase occurred in the percentage of individuals who strongly agreed with the statement. And, as indicated in Table 5 on the next page, this increase occurred across all locations and roles, with the exception of Foothill and Central Services managers. Even then the change between 2002 and 2003 among these groups was the degree of how strongly they agreed with the statement since 100% of both groups either agreed or strongly agreed. The decline in the percentage that strongly agreed with the statement, therefore, is not an issue of major concern, especially given the low response rate from Foothill administrators.
It appears that, in response to the item stating "The college/district provides software that meets my needs," little significant change has occurred in attitudes about the software supplied by the district from 2001 to 2003, although what change has occurred is slightly positive. (See Table 6 below.) Roughly 80% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement in 2001 and 2002, while 82% agreed in 2003, with approximately 15% to 17% disagreeing each year. This lack of change is not surprising since there has been no significant change in the strategy for supplying software.
A strong positive movement in how respondents viewed their computer repair service continued in 2003. In 2001 61% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "Computers are maintained and repaired on a timely basis." However, by the 2003 survey, this number increased dramatically to 83% who agreed or strongly agreed. A significant reason for this increase probably lies in the improved internal processes instituted throughout 2003 by ETS.
"Computers are maintained and repaired on a timely basis" for 2001 through 2003 indicated a significant positive movement toward higher user satisfaction.
The change in perceptions about computer repair time are significant in that 83% of all users agreed or strongly agreed that "Computers are maintained and repaired on a timely basis." Further, the improvement was positive across all locations and job roles, with the exception of Foothill faculty and De Anza administrators. In the case of Foothill faculty the survey took place shortly after there were a series of unfortunate network problems at that college which significantly impacted faculty attempts to communicate with their classes. Although not directly related to computer repair respondents may have felt that responding negatively to this item was an indication of their dissatisfaction. The change with De Anza administrators may not be significant since it represents the difference in opinion by only one individual. Significantly, however, administrators at Foothill and Central Services were in 100% agreement about the timeliness of computer repairs. See Table 8 below for details.
Table 9 below also indicated another significant positive gain in the perception of the service levels provided by ETS in 2003. The percentage of respondents who agreed or strongly agreed with the statement, "The college/district provides me with adequate technical support" has increased by17 points in the two years from 2001 to 2003 from 66% to 83%. Significantly, the number who strongly agreed dramatically increased, from 16% to 29%, indicating that the level of excellence has increased. And, as in other questions, negative responses decreased markedly, from 29% in 2001 to 12% in 2003. Again the changes in internal processes within ETS are likely to be a significant reason for these improvements.
The charts below provide graphic representations of the improved perception about technical support.
It also appears that ETS efforts to keep the FHDA community more informed about how to use technology in new ways has produced positive results, although there was a slight decline in 2003, as indicated by Table 10. In 2001 only 42% agreed or strongly agreed with the statement "The college/district keeps me informed of news ways to use technology." By the 2003 survey the number agreeing or strongly agreeing with this statement had increased to 52%, although the 2003 results indicate an overall decrease since 2002. This decrease could be the result of the cuts ETS absorbed in July 2003. Among the significant changes for keeping users informed was the discontinuance of a biweekly publication of News Bytes. Only one issue of News Bytes was published during the Fall Quarter, 2003, and it occurred concurrent in time with the survey, so respondents may have been particularly aware at that time that they hadn't heard much technology news. See Table 10 on below for summary results to this item. Charts showing graphic representations of the changes to this item are located below Table 10.
Finally, Table 11 provides detail by site and job role. It's interesting to note that certain groups and locations show changes significantly different than other groups and locations.
Users were also asked if News Bytes was an effective method to stay informed, just one of the communication methods employed by ETS to keep users knowledgeable about technology. When asked to state their preference on the statement "I have found that reading News Bytes is an effective way to keep me informed about technology" 72% of the respondents agreed or strongly agreed, while only 13% disagreed or strongly disagreed. These results indicate an improvement since 2002, when the results were 64% and 14%. See Table 12 below.
Several new questions related to customer service were included in the 2003 survey for the first time. Most new questions related to specific services or service areas within ETS, although one asked about general perceptions in the change of service. For example survey respondents were asked if they had seen an improvement or a decline in the level of service from the previous year. While 30% of respondents indicated that the quality of service had stayed the same, 34% indicated that the quality of the service had shown some or strong improvement and only 18% felt that it had declined. See Table 13 below.
Survey respondents were also asked about their perception of network reliability based on how often they thought they were unable to access the network during the last academic year. Although this is not an accurate representation of actual network availability it reflects some of the perceptions that respondents have about the network. (Users frequently report that "the network is down" when in fact there could be any number of reasons for their inability to access resources on the network.) The data from the 2003 survey on this question is primarily being gathered to set a baseline so that when the question is asked in future years we'll be able to determine if the perception of network availability has improved or declined.
Similarly respondents were asked to provide their satisfaction with network performance. This is a different measure than the previous question in that it assumes that users have some opinion about its performance and speed once accessed. Like the previous question, this item is intended to provide baseline data against which future surveys can be compared. However, it is significant to note that 75% of the respondents were either satisfied or very satisfied with network performance.
Three questions were asked about satisfaction with specific groups within ETS. These groups do not have much public awareness because they primarily work behind the scenes on infrastructure-related technologies such as the telephone system, the data center, and systems programming. However, it was hoped that those who knew they had received service from these groups would respond. And, as expected, sizable percentages of respondents indicated that they had never used the services of these groups or weren't sure if they had. Once again, these data were collected to serve as baselines for future years. See tables 16, 17, and 18 below.
Although last year's survey results indicated a slight trend in preferences by respondents toward Windows and away from Macintosh the 2003 results indicate that this movement has slowed considerably or may be coming to a stop (see table 19 below). A variety of factors may account for this change, including the prevalence of viruses on Windows computers compared to virtually none on the Macintosh and the recent implementation of OS X on many district Macintosh computers. As long as the district can provide the appropriate applications for each platform it appears that the strategy of supporting both operating systems continues to make sense.
Given the already high levels of respondents who use a computer at home it's not surprising that there has been very little change the numbers since 20001. (See Table 20.)
Despite no change in respondents preferences for Windows or Macintosh at work, there does seem to be a trend toward more Windows computers than Macintosh being used at home. Reflecting the general belief that Macintosh users are very loyal, the percentage of district employees who use Macintosh at home did not change significantly although the percent of Windows users did increase each year since 2001 and it looks like that increase came from non-respondents. See Table 21 on the next page.
The number of employees who use their home computer to connect to the web continues to increase slightly, so that almost all (92%) now use it for this purpose.
Table 23 shows a significant increase in the number of respondents who have high-speed access in their homes from 2001 to 2003, jumping from 32% to 56%. This undoubtedly reflects the increased availability and affordability of high-speed access in our communities. It is significant to note that, if the trend continues, by next year the ratio of dial-up modem users to high-speed connections will have completely flipped in just three years from 2:1 to 1:2.
The number of respondents who indicate that they use their home computer for work-related activities has not shown a significant change over the years of the survey. The number seems to be hovering around the 80% level who use their home computer for work-related purposes. See Table 24 below
However, faculty respondents at both campuses indicated extremely high levels of using their computers at home to do work ‚ out of 174 faculty throughout the district who responded to this question only 3 indicated they did not do work-related activities on their home computers. In other words, almost 98% of faculty use their computers at home for work-related activities (100% of the 80 Foothill faculty who responded indicated they worked at home). This is highly significant and has implications for campus life and face-to-face academic interactions. See Table 25 below for details.
It is interesting to note that as more faculty are using their computers at home for work purposes, there also seems to be a corresponding jump in the amount of time they use technology for certain instructional activities, specifically for distance learning (see Table 26 below). First, only a small set of faculty respondents (9%) indicated they didn't spend any time on using technology for classroom-based instruction. Of those who spend time on this activity 25% indicated they spent 10-20 hours a week for this purpose. Taken together these two items indicate a high level of commitment to using technology at home for instructional-related activities. Also, as indicated in the highlighted cells, there are a lower percentage of faculty who indicated they don't spend any hours on distance learning and an increased percentage of faculty who are spending more time on distance learning (although the percentage spending more than 20 hours per week on this activity dropped).
All respondents were asked to indicate how many hours per week they spent engaged in a variety of non-instructional activities (word processing, email, spreadsheets, web-related work, etc.). As indicated in the following tables (27 & 28) there seems to be little significant difference in work patterns for the three years of the survey. Every respondent indicated that they spent time doing email and virtually all indicated they did word processing.
ETS has historically followed a deliberate strategy of encouraging users to get information on their own by providing extensive web resources, training that emphasized finding their own solutions, having the Call Center walk callers through the ETS web site so they can find their own solutions, and sending out info via News Bytes to the entire FHDA community. Although last year's survey response indicated a higher degree of reliance on oneself the 2003 survey indicated a slight move back toward relying on a district wide expert (such as an ETS staff person), more reliance on on-line resources, and interestingly, more reliance on a non-tech support colleague, with less reliance on oneself. See the following table for details.
As technology becomes increasingly integral to the District's operation, these survey results are critical. ETS will use them to determine next steps in the areas of technical services, support, training and resources. Thank you very much to those who took the time to respond. Please stay tuned for more information as ETS continues to put your feedback into action.
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