Data Summary
The insights provided by SUNY Oswego'sOswego's Student Survey on Attitudes Toward Technology (SSATT) reflect the students' approaches to technologies regarding learning, information gathering, and media consumption using the global COVID-19 pandemic as a backdrop. The data analyzed was collected in 2020 and analyzed in 2021, gathering responses to 39 questions from 236 freshmen and senior students from various majors. Approximately 73% of respondents identified as seniors, while 27% identified as freshmen.
Breakdown of majors recorded.
In terms of students' majors, most respondents were part of the university's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (49%), home to 40 of the university's majors.
The School of Communication, media, and the arts saw 17% representation among the sample.
The schools of business and education registered 15% respectively. The rest of the respondents identified as undeclared or did not respond to the question.
Technology and academic life
On virtual education, 67% of men and women "disagreed" or "strongly disagreed" that virtual and face-to-face courses offer equal educational value. By contrast, data gathered by the 2019 SSATT indicated that only 36% of respondents shared that same sentiment.
Access to the internet as a learning tool was also a priority for respondents. 96% of them noted they would not be able to maintain coursework without the internet.
Survey data suggests students who identify as female and who are in their senior year tend to find their phones distracting the most among responders. The survey also asked participants to agree or disagree with "I find having my phone near me distracting" as a statement.
73% of female participants (50% of the sample) said they either "agree" or "strongly agree" with the statement that suggests they find their phone distracting. In comparison, only 48% of male respondents (13% of survey takers) "agree" or "strongly agree" with that statement.
The same trend can be observed during class time.
Female students disclosed being more susceptible to lose focus in class due to being distracted by their phones regardless of their class standing. 47% of respondents women in their last year of undergraduate education, while 49% of freshmen women agreed with the statement.
Similarly, male students seemed to offer a drastic contrast.
22% percent of senior men noted they could lose focus in class due to being distracted by their phones.
Video conferencing has become the standard in remote learning for the closest experience to in-person classrooms' former status quo. In this sense, the data shows students are willing to adopt this technology to adhere to health and safety precautions.
The survey asked students to record their attitudes toward video chatting in the face of a pandemic.
85% of respondents noted they are using more online video chatting than last year to avoid contracting a contagious disease.
Information gathering and media consumption
On media consumption:
The data found that regardless of freshman/senior identification, approximately 80% of students who think television is a medium of the past also resort to video streaming services to satisfy their media-watching cravings.
In terms of news, the study found that despite the current global health crisis — which has demanded conscientious media consumption and has scrutinized the reliability of news sources — approximately 70% of students'' in 2019 and 2020 noted they often cross-check news stories across different sources.
When it comes to information gathering on social media:
58% of participants noted they rely on social media sites for news updates.
Further analyzing disclosed partisan ideology shows that despite relying on social media for news updates, most students visit other sources to understand social issues better.
The study found that 67% of students who identify as "progressive" say they like to consult more than one news source for their understanding of a particular story.
60% of students who identified as conservative also disclosed consulting more than one news source.
Moreover, the study found that most students who identify as progressives who use social media to learn about the news are also more likely to use these informative updates to build their understanding of a social issue.
67% of students who identify as progressive noted they learn about the news through social media. 85% of those respondents also said they seek other sources of information to expand on what they learned while browsing social media.
On the other hand, survey data suggests 48% of participants who identify as conservative use social media to learn about news.
Privacy
46% of students expressed confidence in their ability to maintain their online privacy. Still, a massive discrepancy exists between opinions on this question from students who identify as conservative and those who identified as progressive.
65% of conservative students expressed confidence in their ability to maintain their online privacy.
In contrast, only 41% of progressive students noted they feel comfortable with their ability to maintain their privacy online.
The students' distrust of the government's procuring of their privacy also extends to a skepticism of the state's ability to regulate the internet.
Only 30% of progressive students declared their support of the government regulating the internet through legislation.
Similarly, only 25% of conservative students supported government regulation of the internet.
Click below to see a more detailed analysis of previous results!
