The purpose of the Technology Needs Assessment survey was to collect data for the Center for Online Learning & Teaching Technology on how faculty use educational technology in their class and what educational technologies they would like to see supported by the Center for Online Learning & Teaching Technology. The report below will have the analysis of the results and interpretation of the results. We will also provide our recommendations to provide to the Center for Online Learning & Teaching Technology.

Of the 32 respondents, 16 indicated they have been utilizing, what they consider, instructional technologies in their classroom for 10+
years. An additional 6 and 4 respondents indicated they have been utilizing instructional technologies for 6-9 and 3-6 years respectively. This results in an 81% rate of instructional technology adoption for more than 3 years of teaching. This indicates that technology utilization by professors at UTRGV is well established.

When asked to rate their level of confidence in using instructional technologies 48% of respondents indicated they were confident enough with technologies to creatively adapt them to new contexts and integrate them into the curriculum. An additional 45% of respondents indicated they were either familiar and confident in using instructional technologies, or confidence and adapting instructional technologies into new contexts. These results corroborate that instructional technologies are well integrated with UTRGV professors, indicate a high utilization of instructional technologies, and reflect a strong level of confidence among professors in using these technologies.

These results indicate a high level of adoption among UTRGV professors of software technologies and a preference for these technologies. Relatively low adoption of hardware technology such as Smart Boards, Document Cameras, and Tablets is also indicated by these results. This could imply that; not enough hardware technologies are available, these hardware technologies are not well understood by professors, or that they do not integrate with professor needs and current software. A follow-up evaluation to analyze lack of hardware utilization by professors may be warranted.

Respondents indicated "Time" as a major barrier to using instructional technology in their courses. This could be an indication of why respondents prefer more collaborative software and add-ons for widely adopted software. “Lack of knowledge" was also indicated highly, while few respondents indicate “lack of equipment” as a barrier or other infrastructure issues such as “maintenance” or “internet” as barriers. This could mean that hardware technologies may be readily available, but that professors may not have the time or knowledge to utilize them. This could cause the low adoption level of differentiated hardware technologies and the desire for additional collaborative tools and software technologies indicated in question 10.

Respondents indicated they would like to see more add-ons for Blackboard, consistent with the findings in this survey question that Blackboard has wide adoption among professors. Collaboration tools also had a high positive response rate. This indicates a strong desire for additional software technologies to be added and supported by COLTT.

3D printers did not have strong support. Mobile technologies, smart devices, and Immersive Technologies all had moderate support. This could indicate that professors are open to adopting some hardware technologies if supported by COLTT. This analysis supports the finding in this survey question that a future follow-up survey regarding specific limitations and knowledge gaps regarding hardware technologies may be warranted.

The data and analysis indicate that UTRGV professors are high adopters of software technologies and are confident in utilizing those technologies. They have a preference for technologies that save time and increase collaboration, that also integrates with or update currently understood and utilized technologies. Overall, a low adoption rate of hardware technologies, lack of knowledge about technologies, and only moderate interest in new hardware technologies are indicated. UTRGV professors are not currently high utilizers of hardware technologies. Further research regarding specific barriers and potential benefits of hardware technologies for UTRGV professors may be warranted before new hardware investments.

In response to the findings of the survey and subsequent analysis of results the following recommendations are made to the Center for Online Teaching Technology.

1. COLTT should make resource investments into features for their Blackboard software that allow for more collaboration. This should include add-ons to Blackboard that allow communication between students, and further training for professors on utilizing those platform features.

2. Time is an important factor in faculty learning new technologies is something COLTT should consider. Our recommendation would be to research and implement technologies that require little training and are more simple to use. This would cut down on the time faculty need to learn new technologies. Also, providing on-demand training on newly adopted technologies rather than synchronous training would allow faculty to learn at their pace.

3. Further training on currently available hardware technologies should be incorporated into COLTT's available resources to increase interest in those technologies.

The Technology Needs Assessment Survey Report provided great insight on what the faculty at the University of Texas - Rio Grande Valley feel about the use of technology in the classroom, as well as their need to have more technologies made available to them. Based on our analysis of the results, we found that faculty overall had plenty of experience using technologies in their courses and had a strong desire to explore new technologies. We saw a strong use of Blackboard, Collaboration Tools and 3rd party content tools being used. The survey results also showed faculty wanting more collaboration tools made available to them as well as more applications integrated with Blackboard. Faculty also expressed a few barriers in using technologies, with the largest barrier being time. Based on the results we recommend the Center for Online Learning & Teaching Technology explore new technologies that offer more collaboration. We also recommended they research more technologies that integration with the Learning Management System (Blackboard). As for time being a barrier, we are recommending the Center for Online Learning & Teaching Technology look into on-demand training videos for technologies, so faculty can learn at their own pace as well as research technologies that have minimal time demands.

Click the links below to view printable version.

Results Report- Printable Version

Raw Data Report- Printable Version