Doctoral Dissertations

Date of Award

5-1995

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education

Major

Curriculum and Instruction

Major Professor

John Ray

Committee Members

Ralph Brockett, Russell French, Al Grant

Abstract

This study examined effects of awareness of timing in a computer- administered survey medium. One-hundred and six students enrolled in four classes in the College of Education at The University of Tennessee completed a computer-administered version of the Computer Attitude Scale (CAS). The survey was administered by a HyperCard stack programmed by the author. Survey respondents were randomly assigned to either an experimental or control group by the survey program. The experimental group was alerted that their response to survey statements would be timed; the control group was not alerted to timing routines. Variables examined were grouping condition, traditional and non-traditional age students, and computing experience.

Awareness of timing did not significantly affect CAS Scores, and survey respondents who were aware of being timed were significantly faster at completing surveys. A significant difference was found in the overall CAS completion times, as the Experimental group, who were aware of being timed, completed the CAS survey significantly faster than the Control group who were not aware of being timed. A significant difference in the Main Effect of Experience Level on CAS Scores was found. Novice users were shown to have a significantly higher scores (which indicate higher anxiety levels) on the CAS than both intermediate and experienced users. Intermediate users were found not to have significantly higher CAS scores than experienced users. No significant difference was found in response latency in the Experience variable.There was no significant difference in the two age groups (<24 and >=25) on CAS Scores. No significant difference was found between the two age groups (<=24 and >=25) in the amount of time taken to complete the CAS. No interaction was found in the Group Condition Experience variable comparison, the Condition Age comparison, or the Experience "Age interaction on CAS scores. There was an interaction in the Experience Age variables in CAS times. The Novice/Older group exhibited significantly longer completion times in the CAS Time post hoc test. Novice/Older users were shown to take significantly longer to respond to survey statements than Novice/Younger, Intermediate/Older, Experienced/Younger and Novice/Experienced groups.

Results of the study indicate that awareness of timing in computer administered surveys does not appear to affect student attitudes toward computers, as evidenced by a comparison of CAS scores. Survey respondents who were aware of being timed in the computer administered survey did not exhibit substantially different anxiety levels toward computers than subjects who were not aware of being timed

The introduction of interface elements which alert subjects of timing in computer administered surveys appears to reduce the time taken to complete surveys with no apparent accompanying increase of anxiety or attitudinal effect associated with the awareness of timing. The results show that subjects who were aware of being timed completed the survey instrument significantly faster.than those subjects who were not aware of being timed, yet there was no significant difference in attitude toward computers between the two groups. The Significant difference found in the Experience Value variable in the CASANOVA and the interaction between the Experience Value and Age variables in the CAS Time ANOVA suggest that awareness of timing in computer-administered surveys should be used with caution where widely varying groups of subjects are involved, particularly older/inexperienced computer users.

Download
Files over 3MB may be slow to open. For best results, right-click and select "save as..."

Share

COinS