Academic Experience
Question 1.10 Details

Does the campus offer general or profession–specific training programs that will ensure you are fluent in current information technologies when you graduate?

Different colleges and universities promote the use of information technology in the curriculum in different ways. What is important is how committed the campus is to ensuring its graduates are ready to become citizens of the Information Age.

Some institutions build a student body in part on conclusions they draw regarding applicants' basic computer skills. Such institutions may require no specific study in computer and technology literacy, but rather embed specific skill requirements within the broader requirements of the academic curriculum. For example, they may integrate information technology into the institution's basic education courses, such as writing, mathematics, and foreign languages. Such integration ensures that all students develop computer literacy early in their academic careers.

Other institutions may have very significant and formal requirements and expectations for equipping students with the computer skills that they will need to succeed within the institution and in the work force.

Computer and information technology skills fall into a large number of areas. You should ask how the campus promotes the following:

• the ability to engage in electronic collaboration;
• the ability to use and create structured electronic documents;
• the ability to do technology–enhanced presentations;
• the ability to use appropriate electronic tools for research and evaluation;
• the ability to create and maintain an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio)
• the ability to use spreadsheets and databases;
• the ability to use electronic tools for analyzing quantitative and qualitative data;
• familiarity with major ethical, legal, and security issues in information technology; and
• working knowledge of the dominant hardware, software, Web browsers, networks, file storage, and directory structures.

Computer Competency Requirement

The chart below shows what percentage of schools have a computer competency requirement for all undergraduates.

SOURCE:The Campus Computing Project, 2004