Today’s world revolves around technology. Network and Technology Services (NATS) is making sure the technological world at WSC revolves smoothly.
Every year, NATS runs a survey hosted by Educause, which is an international information technology organization, to gather data about WSC students’ technology habits and behaviors.
“That survey helps us get a better handle on the kinds of technology students own, the way they use those technologies and the way they would like to see us working with them to use those technologies,” Chief Information Officer John Dunning said.
The survey includes a wide array of questions that are developed by data experts from Educause regarding various technological issues on campus. These range from how students use their smartphones for academic purposes to whether or not WSC should interact with students on social media, and what kinds of technology students own to how many hours each student spends online.
“All of these questions are really important for us as a campus, as we look at how we want to deploy technology solutions to campus,” Dunning said. “If we deploy a solution that works in an environment where students don’t have devices, then that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.”
NATS then takes the gathered data and uses it to figure out what technology solutions will best fit the current student body.
“The survey really helps us understand what devices students have available, how they want to use technology in their career here at WSC and what they like or don’t like about the technology we have,” Dunning said.
Many of the changes to technology at WSC that students have been experiencing are a result of past Educause surveys.
“A lot of initiatives that we’ve had are a result, or partially a result, of the survey,” Dunning said.
The transition to Outlook Mail, the Papercut printing program and the new WSC website that launched last summer were all initiated by the survey.
Filr, an upcoming Sakai upgrade this summer, and mobile-friendly changes to Wildcats Online are due to survey results as well.
Although many of the new technology changes are from survey outcomes, NATS uses the survey to validate responses from interaction with individual students as well.
“So the survey either validates responses we’ve heard from individual students, or it really shows us overall which direction the student body wants to go,” Dunning said.
Once Dunning and NATS compile the survey data and examine the results, they can compare the data to other institutions that use the Educause survey program.
“We can compare our data here at Wayne State against all the other institutions that take the survey,” Dunning said. “Then we get a sense of where our students are relative to everyone else.”
In addition to comparing data, NATS also uses it to customize technological advances and changes to the students who are currently partaking in technology at WSC.
“For example, 96 percent of our students own a smartphone. So then the question is: how do you use that smart phone? Do you use it to sign up for classes, do you use it for your classes, do you wish you could use it for your classes?” Dunning said.
“So if only 50 percent of students had a smartphone and used it to do their academic work, that would cause a different result than if 96 percent of the students had a smartphone.”
Of the respondents, 99 percent revealed they owned laptops. NATS will use this information to determine what investments should be made regarding computer and wireless use, Dunning said.
This year’s survey covers many facets of technology, but it also is focused on mobile friendliness.
“This survey will measure the need for more mobile-friendly programs and whether or not our recent accomplishments to make things friendlier have been successful,” Dunning said. “We use this data to see if we have gone far enough and if we need to go further.”
The survey will also measure student satisfaction of other technology on campus, such as wi-fi accessibility and user friendliness of technology in residence halls, the library and other campus buildings.
To access the survey, students can log in to ecampus and follow the pop-up link there. The survey began last week and has already received 77 responses. Respondents will also be entered to win an Amazon gift card.
“I really want to encourage people to take the survey,” Dunning said. “This gives us the information that we really need to make good decisions. We use this to validate interactions we’ve had and understand the scope of our student body. This really colors and shapes what we hear from students.”