2005-2006 Undergraduate Computing Survey: The Millennials Are in Residence
by Rich Holeton
In case there was any doubt, the 2005-2006 computing survey conducted by Residential Computing confirms that the so-called Net Generation is firmly established at Stanford. Reseachers claim that NetGen students, also known as Millennials (those born between 1982 and 2000), are immersed in technology, very social, prone to collaboration, skilled multitaskers, and heavy multimedia content creators and consumers. See also Stanford on iTunes Expands in Content and Features in this issue.
As part of the annual Residence Evaluation conducted by Residential Education, Residential Computing asks undergraduates who live on campus about their personal computing, technology use, and use of computer clusters and other learning spaces. Residential Computing conducts a similar, separate survey of on-campus graduate students in late Spring Quarter. Both Residential Computing and Academic Computing use the survey results to help make strategic planning decisions about services and facilities.
This year, nearly 3100 students, about 46% of all undergrads, responded to the survey. Highlights include:
- 99% have their own computer
- 90% have laptops
- 65% bring laptops to class and to libraries
- 69% use their computers 4 hours per day or more
- 88% rank Academics first or second among five categories of computer activities; 55% rank Social Interaction first or second
- 54% share pictures online, 26% publish blogs, and 20% play networked games
- 41% use wireless "mainly" or "exclusively"
- 79% have a cell phone;
- 61% have a digital camera
- 69% have a portable music device (58% have an iPod specifically)
Students revealed a wide familiarity with copyright and filesharing issues, and most claim to employ good security practices such as keeping their operating system patches up to date and using anti-spyware applications (or, as many commented, by having a Mac!). Resident Computer Consultants (RCCs), highly rated by residents for their support services, can take some of the credit for educating students in both of these areas.
Learning Spaces
Nearly 70% of undergrads have used their residence computer cluster this year, primarily for printing, study space away from their room, convenient availability of computers, and availability of course-specific software such as Mathematica and SPSS. Their major requests for enhancement of these spaces include: more support for laptops (such as shared displays and collaboration software), color printing (currently available in selected locations only), more multimedia production equipment, and better defined spaces for partner or group work.
About 44% of students have used the central public clusters and study spaces in Meyer Library and the Tresidder Student Union, usually because of the availability of course software, multimedia, printing, and consulting help. Like users of the residence clusters, Meyer patrons requested more group study spaces, reconfigurable furniture, and laptop support. The most requested service enhancements were in the areas of equipment checkout (such as DV cameras), general computing help, multimedia workshops and consulting, and digitizing services. Happily, Academic Computing's new Consulting and Multimedia Services (CAMS) group is working to enhance those very services (See also Multimedia Services in Meyer Library in this issue.)
Music Services
The Yahoo! Music Unlimited pilot program, offering free music for Windows users this year, received mixed reviews from students. About 15% said they used the service extensively and 13% used it a little; 57% said they'd heard of the program but had not used it. Among students who said they had purchased music online, 87% said they'd used the Apple iTune Music Store and 20% had used Yahoo! Music Unlimited.
For More Information
A comprehensive summary and complete results from the 2005-06 undergraduate computing survey are available at:
http://rescomp.stanford.edu/info/survey/2005-2006/undergraduate.html
To compare previous years' results, and to see the results of the graduate computing survey when those become available, see the Survey Results Index page at:
http://rescomp.stanford.edu/info/survey/
If you'd like to request detailed reports filtered by demographic or other variables of use to your department or program, please write to Rich Holeton.
