Angela Carbone and Judy Sheard

February 2002

1. Introduction *

2 Data Collection *

3 Results *

4 Computer usage analysis *

5 Pre and Post Summer School Survey Results *

6 Conclusions *

7 Acknowledgements *

8 Appendix 1 *

The fourth Monash IT Summer School was held in January 2002. The Monash IT Summer School is a six day residential camp organised by the Faculty of Information Technology (FIT) for secondary school students about to enter Year 11.

The program is advertised to all Victorian secondary schools. Each school is invited to nominate two of their high achieving students, who may or may not be interested in studying IT at university or pursuing a career in IT. Each year approximately sixty students are selected to participate. The selection aims for an equal mix of gender, government and private school students, and metropolitan and country school students.

The students live in the halls of residence at the Clayton campus of Monash University and partake in a program of activities designed to show them various aspects of IT and the range of IT undergraduate courses available to them in the Faculty of Information Technology courses. The Monash IT Summer School also aims to give them a "taste" of university life.

1. Projects offered in 2002

A major focus of this program is an IT related project that students work on for a total of 20 hours during the week. In 2002, staff from three Schools within FIT designed, developed and presented the following projects:

1. Online Jukebox: Students build an online "Jukebox" using Web database integration and Web authoring tools, and graphics software. (School of Information Management & Systems)
2. Playing the Stock Market: Students learn approaches to analysing and predicting the financial market to aid in management of investments. They use computers to analyse actual financial data and use data mining techniques to look for trends. (School of Business Systems)
3. Beyond the Web: Students set up a Web server to create simple pages for Web browsers and to use programs to create Web pages. Students also write programs to read Web Service pages and learn how to change these pages. (School of Network Computing)

Further details of the 2002 Monash IT Summer School, and the projects offered may be found at: http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/summerschool/2002/index.html

1. Data Collection

This section describes the data collection materials and method, participants, data analysis and reporting techniques for the 2002 Monash IT Summer School.

1. Survey questionnaires

At the start of 2002, students completed a pre Summer School survey that was used to determine students’ interest in IT, intentions of studying IT at school and at tertiary level, and intention of pursuing a career in IT. A post Summer School survey was used to gauge any changes in these measures. All Summer School attendees, a total of 60 students, participated in the study. A report of the results of these surveys can be found at:

http://cerg.csse.monash.edu.au/reports/TechReports.html

These surveys were modified and used again at the fourth Monash IT Summer School in 2002. Copies of the pre and post survey forms are contained in Appendix 1 and can be found at:

http://cerg.csse.monash.edu.au/reports/ITSS_2002_pre_survey.pdf

http://cerg.csse.monash.edu.au/reports/ITSS_2002_post_survey.pdf

2. Data collection method

The survey questionnaires were distributed to the students prior to commencing the Monash IT Summer School and at its conclusion. Prior to the commencement of the program students were asked to complete the questionnaires and hand in their completed questionnaires to a mentor wearing a Monash IT Summer School t-shirt. In return the students received a show bag containing various resources to be used throughout the week. Students completed the post student questionnaire in their project group labs and return them to their project leaders. The overall number of useable student questionnaires was 59 pre Summer School and 55 post Summer School.

2. Results
1. Project Groups

All students who attended the Monash IT Summer School participated in the study (n=60). The students were allocated to the project groups as follows:

Table 1. Number of students in project groups

Project Title	Number of students
Beyond the Web	20
Stockmarket	20
Jukebox	20

Demographic Profile

Table 2

shows the numbers of students in each project group classified according to gender, type of school attended and school location.

Table 2. Project groups by gender, school type and school location

Project	Gender		School type		School location
	Female	Male	Government	Private	Metropolitan	Country
Beyond the Web	10	10	11	9	14	6
Stock market	10	10	10	10	12	8
Online Jukebox	8	12	18	2	8	12
Total	28	32	39	21	34	26

 

3. Computer usage analysis

Only one of the 60 students at the Monash IT Summer School did not have access to a computer at home, and seven of the 60 students did not have internet access from home.

For the following questions students were asked to rate how much they use computers for various activities. NR is used to indicate the number of non responses given to the question.

1. Time spent using computers

The students were asked how much time they spent, on average, using computers each week. Their responses are given in Table 3.

Table 3. Time spent using computers

Question	Mean hours	SD
How many hours per week, on average, do you use a computer for schoolwork? (n=56)	9.4	8.9
How many hours per week, on average, do you use a computer for activities other than schoolwork? (n=57)	12.25	10.5

Independent groups t-tests were used to determine any differences in the means obtained for the time students spent using computers for schoolwork and for other activities for each classification of gender, type of school attended, or location of school. The large standard deviations indicate wide variations in the time students spent using computers, however no significant difference was found between the groups.

2. Use of computers for schoolwork

The students were asked how much use they made of computers for schoolwork at school and at home. Their responses are shown in Table 4. A 7-point Likert scale was used, where 1 indicates no use and 7 indicates lots of use.

Table 4. Usage of computers for schoolwork

Question	Mean	SD
How much use is made of computers at school for schoolwork? (n=59)	5.2	1.5
How much use is made of computers at home for schoolwork? (n=58)	5.5	1.4

Independent groups t tests were used to determine any differences in the means obtained for the students’ usage of computers when classified according to gender, type of school attended, or location of school. No significant difference was found between the groups.

3. Use of computers for activities other than schoolwork

For the following three questions the students were asked how much use they make of computers for activities other than schoolwork. Their responses are shown in Table 5. A 7-point Likert scale was used, where 1 indicates no use and 7 indicates lots of use.

Table 5. Usage of computers for activities other than schoolwork

Question	Mean	SD
How much do you use computers for communication? (e.g. email, newsgroups, chatting) (n=58)	5.1	1.9
How much do you use computers for games? (n=59)	4.4	2.1
How much do you use computers for general use (e.g. surfing the Internet, hobbies)? (n=59)	5.4	1.6

Independent groups t tests were used to determine any differences in the means obtained for the students’ usage of computers when classified according to gender, type of school attended, or location of school. The only significant differences (p <= 0.01) was found for male students who used computers more for games (M = 5.0, sd = 2.1) than the female students (M = 3.6, sd = 1.9; t(59) = 2.6, p < 0.05). The lowest usage of computers was shown for games and its large standard deviation indicates wide variation in the amount of computer usage for this activity.

4. Prior experience in programming languages

The students were asked what programming languages they had used or studied. Thirty three percent of the students had experience with one programming language and 47% of the students had experience with more than one language. Thirteen percent of the students had experience with more than two languages and these were all male. There were a high number of non responses to this question (20%) and it is not clear if these students had no programming experience, did not understand the question or just did not answer the question.

Independent groups t tests were used to determine any differences in the means obtained for the number of programming languages the students had experience in when classified according to gender. No significant difference was found between the groups.

4. Pre and Post Summer School Survey Results

The pre and post Summer School surveys contained questions to establish students’ interest in aspects of IT, study and career plans. By comparing the results for these surveys, any shifts in interest that occurred during the Monash IT Summer School can be determined.

1. Students’ interest in various aspects of IT

The students were asked in the pre and post Summer School surveys to rate their interest in different aspects of IT. A 7-point Likert scale was used, where 1 indicates low interest and 7 indicates high interest. The results are shown in Table 6. DK is used to indicate the number of students who responded "don’t know what the term means" to the question.

Table 6. Students' interests in aspects of IT (pre and post Summer School)

Aspect of IT	Pre Summer School (n=59)			Post Summer School (n=55)			t
	Mean	SD	DK	Mean	SD	DK
Word processing, spreadsheets etc	3.9	1.4	0	3.6	1.6	0	1.96
Programming	5.0	1.6	0	4.9	1.6	0	0.44
Software development	5.0	1.7	0	4.8	1.4	0	0.61
Computer hardware	4.7	1.8	0	4.5	1.8	0	0.50
Computer networks	4.4	1.7	2	4.5	1.7	1	-0.70
Robotics	4.6	1.8	4	4.4	1.9	4	0.78
The Internet (Web or WWW)	5.7	1.2	0	5.4	1.4	0	1.44
Artificial intelligence	5.0	1.7	5	4.9	1.7	3	0.36
Multimedia (video, sound etc)	5.5	1.5	0	5.5	1.4	0	0.21
Virtual reality	5.3	1.7	4	5.1	1.6	0	0.89
Software engineering	4.7	1.8	5	4.5	1.7	2	0.91
Computer security	4.0	1.9	3	3.7	1.8	1	1.66
eCommerce	3.7	1.7	4	4.0	1.6	3	-1.66
System analysis and design	4.1	1.6	0	4.2	1.7	0	0.44
WAP mobile phones	3.2	1.6	9	3.3	1.7	3	0.00
Data bases	3.7	1.7	2	3.6	1.6	0	0.74
* = p < 0.05, ** = p < 0.01, *** = p < 0.005

1. Pre and post Summer School interest in aspects of IT

Before and after the Monash IT Summer School the students showed most interest in:

• The Internet (Web or WWW) (M_B = 5.7, M_A = 5.4)
• Multimedia (video, sound etc) (M_B = 5.5, M_A = 5.5)
• Virtual reality (M_B = 5.3, M_A = 5.1)

Before the Summer School the students showed least interest in:

• WAP mobile phones, E Commerce, Data bases andWord processing

After the Summer School the students showed least interest in:

• WAP mobile phones, Data bases, Word processing and Computer security

Paired t-tests were used to determine any differences in the means obtained for the interest ratings in the pre and post surveys. There were no significant increases in students’ interest any of the topics listed in Table 6. It is also interesting to note that for the post Summer School survey there were decreases in the number of don’t know responses given for Computer Networks, Artificial intelligence, Virtual reality, Software Engineering, WAP, databases and robotics. This may be because students gathered some knowledge about these aspects of IT during the Summer School.

1. Shifts in interest in IT based on gender, school type and location

Paired t-tests were used to determine any differences in the means obtained for the interest ratings for each aspect of IT in the pre and post surveys when students were classified according to gender, type of school attended, or location of school. The only significant increase in interest (p < 0.05) was for male students that showed an increase in interest in word processing, spreadsheets and virtual reality. The number of "don’t know" and non responses decreased for most questions.

1. Students’ interest in studying IT

The following questions in the pre and post surveys aimed to establish students’ interest in studying IT at school and university.

1. Do you intend to study or have you studied an IT subject for VCE?

In the pre Summer School survey 83.3% of the students (n=59) indicated that they had studied or intended to study an IT subject for VCE. In the post Summer School survey this decreased to 78.3% of the students (n=55). This change was tested using McNemar’s "repeated measures" change test and shown to be nonsignificant.

2. In your list of preferences for a university course where would you rank a computing course? (e.g. 1st, 2nd , 3rd …) or "no rank"

Pre Summer School (n=46)		Post Summer School (n=51)
Mean rank	SD	Mean rank	SD
1.8	1.7	2.0	1.4

At the end of the Summer School students indicated they would give a computing course a lower rank in their university course preferences. This difference was tested using a paired t-test and found to be nonsignificant. However, there were fewer non responses to this question in the post Summer School survey.

3. What percentage of your university course would you like to be computing studies?

Pre Summer School (n=56)		Post Summer School (n=52)
Mean percentage	SD	Mean percentage	SD
59.5	26.8	61.6	25.6

At the end of the Summer School students showed more interest in studying IT in their tertiary course. This difference was tested using a paired t-test and found to be non significant.

4. Do you intend to study at Monash University?

Pre Summer School (n=59)			Post Summer School (n=55)
Yes %	No %	Unsure %	Yes %	No %	Unsure %
20.3	3.3	75.0	31.7	6.7	53.3

At the end of the Summer School more students indicated that they intended to study at Monash and there were fewer undecided and non reponses to this question. The changes for the "Yes" and "Unsure" responses were tested using McNemar’s "repeated measures" change test and both were shown to be significant (p < 0.05).

2. Students’ interest in a career in IT

The following questions in the pre and post surveys aimed to establish students’ interest in IT as a career.

How interested are you in a career in computing?

The students were asked to rate how interested they were in a career in computing. A 7-point Likert scale was used, where 1 indicates no interest and 7 indicates high interest.

Pre Summer School (n=59)		Post Summer School (n=55)
Interest	SD	Interest	SD
5.7	1.4	5.8	1.3

At the end of the Summer School students showed more interest in IT as a career. However, this difference was tested using a paired t-test and found to be non significant .

What percentage of your work in your future career would you like to involve working with computers?

Pre Summer School (n=55)		Post Summer School (n=51)
Mean percentage	SD	Mean percentage	SD
69.1	24.5	66.0	24.9

At the end of the Summer School students indicated they would like a lower percentage of their work in their future careers to involve working with computers. This difference was tested using a paired t-test and found to be non significant.

3. Impact of computer usage on course and career choices

The relationships between computer usage and the students’ desired percentage of computing in course and career, and interest in a career in computing variables were determined using correlations. The following significant results were obtained.

	Usage of computers
	Communication	Games	General activities
Percentage of computing in course	1.00	.182	.286
Interest in a computing job	.185	.205	.286
Percentage of computing in job	.146	.318	.325

 

The relationship of computer usage on the students’ intended course and career choices was investigated using regression. Regression is a technique that estimates the linear relationship between a dependent variable and one or more independent variables. Of the three computer usage variables regressed against the course and course choices variables, none produced a significant impact.

4. Impact of IT interest on course and career choices

The relationships between the pre Summer School interests in aspects of IT and the students’ desired percentage of computing in course and career, and interest in a career in computing variables were determined using correlations. The following significant results were obtained.

The impact of interest in aspects of IT on the students’ intended course and career choices was investigated using regression. Five of the six interest variables that produced significant correlations with the course and career choices were chosen. One variable, software development, was not used because it was very highly correlated with programming (r = .686). None of the aspects of IT (programming, hardware, networks, etc.) produced a significant impact on the students’ desired percentage of computing in course and career, and interest in a career in computing.

1. Conclusions

1. There was a fairly even balance between female and male participants, government and private schools, and country and metropolitan school districts.
2. Most participants have computers at home with internet access.
3. Students on average spend 1.5 hours per night using a computer for activities other than school work.
4. The male students used computers more frequently than females for games.
5. Whilst a high proportion of students enter the Monash IT Summer School without any programming experience (20%), there is 47% of students that enter the programme with experience in more than two programming languages.
6. Students (pre and post) of the Monash IT Summer School, show most interest in the Internet, Multimedia and Virtual Reality. Students (pre and post) show least interest WAP mobile phones, eCommerce, Word processing, Databases and Computer Security.
7. Participation in the Monash IT Summer School does cause a shift in some students’ interest in aspects of IT.
8. The majority of students that participated in the Monash IT Summer School indicated they intended to study IT at VCE level (80%)
9. The mean rank of a computing course for the participants was second preference.
10. Students indicated that they would like 60% of their course and 70% of their career devoted to computing.
11. Prior to commencing the Monash IT Summer School program 20% of students indicated they had intended to study IT at Monash, this increased to 32% by the end of the program.
12. This year there was no significant impact of computer usage, or interest in IT on the percentage of computing in their course or interest in a career in computing.

1. Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge Andrew Babarczy the Administrative Director of the 2002 Monash IT Summer School for issuing and collecting the surveys. Angela Carbone would also like to acknowledge Ms Judy Sheard, from the School of Computer Science and Software Engineering for the providing the IT Summer School student questionnaires and analysis templates in which this report was devised.

3. Appendix 1
1. Pre Project Survey

1. Name: ________________________________
2. Project title: ___________________________________
3. What sort of things do you hope to learn in this project?

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Do you have access to a computer at home? 1. Yes 2. No

Do you have access to the Internet at home? 1. Yes 2. No

For the following questions circle the number which best applies to you. Use the N/A (Not Applicable) when the question is not applicable.

Never Lots

How much do you use computers at school for your schoolwork?	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 N/A
How much do you use computers at home for your schoolwork?	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 N/A

4. How many hours per week, on average, do you use a computer for school work? ____hrs

Never Lots

How much do you use computers for communication? (e.g. email, chatting)	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 N/A
How much do you use computers for games?	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 N/A
How much do you use computers for general use? (e.g. surfing the Internet)	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 N/A

5. How many hours per week, on average, do you use a computer for activities other than school work? ____hrs
6. What programming languages have you used or studied?

1. Pascal
2. Basic
3. C or C++
4. Java
5. HTML or XML or CSS
6. Visual Basic
7. Other (please specify) _____________________

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

2. Post Project Survey

1. Name: ________________________________
2. Project title: ________________________________
3. How much have your original expectations of what you would learn in this project been met?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

For the following questions use the D/K (Don’t Know) if you do not know what the word means.

No High

interest interest

How much do the following aspects of information technology interest you?
Word processing, spreadsheets etc.	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Programming	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Software development (e.g. writing computer games, business applications)	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Computer hardware (building or designing)	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Computer networks	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Robotics	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
The Internet (Web or WWW)	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Artificial intelligence	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Multimedia (video, sound etc)	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Virtual reality	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Software engineering	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Computer Security	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
e Commerce	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
System analysis and design	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
WAP mobile phones	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K
Databases	1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K

4. Do you intend to study or, have you studied, an Information Technology subject for VCE? 1. Yes 2. No 3. Undecided
   
5. In your list of preferences for a university course where would you rank a computing course? (e.g. 1^st, 4^th, 8^th or no rank etc) ______
6. What percentage of your university course would you like to include some type of computing studies? _____%
7. What things will influence your choice of university course?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

8. Do you intend to study at Monash University? 1. Yes 2. No 3. Undecided
   
9. What things will influence your choice of university?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

10. Do you have any concerns about studying at university? (please specify)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Not Very

interested interested

How interested are you in a career in computing?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 D/K

 

11. What percentage of your work in your future career would you like to involve working with computers? _____%
12. What things will influence your choice of future career?

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

13. Do you have any other comments to make?