J. EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY SYSTEMS, Vol.

37(1) 83-95, 2008-2009

THE EFFECT OF COMPUTER LITERACY COURSE

ON STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES TOWARD
COMPUTER APPLICATIONS

ZIPPY ERLICH
RIVKA GADOT
DAPHNA SHAHAK
The Open University of Israel

ABSTRACT
Studies indicate that the use of technologies as teaching aids and tools for
self-study is influenced by students’ attitudes toward computers and their
applications. The purpose of this study is to determine whether taking a
Computer Literacy and Applications (CLA) course has an impact on students’
attitudes toward computer applications, across various undergraduate disci-
plines. A Computer Application Attitude (CAA) questionnaire was adminis-
tered at the beginning and at the end of the semester to social science
students enrolled in a CLA course. The study population was divided into two
groups according to the students’ field of study: quantitative-oriented and
qualitative-oriented. A significant difference was found in attitudes before
and after the CLA course only in the quantitative group. Based upon the
results of this study, it is recommended to offer different computer literacy
courses to the different groups to improve students’ attitudes toward the use
of these applications.

1. INTRODUCTION
Computer literacy has been a subject of educational research ever since computers
were introduced as teaching aids and tools for self-study. More and more infor-
mation technology (IT) resources have become available both for support of
campus-based education and for Web-based learning. The importance of students
being able to access technology, to seek and exchange information using databases

83

Ó 2008, Baywood Publishing Co., Inc.

doi: 10.2190/ET.37.1.g
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84 / ERLICH, GADOT AND SHAHAK

and networks and to evaluate it, has been highlighted by many researchers
(e.g., Johnston & Webber, 2003; Virkus, Bockhorst, Gomez-Hernandez, Skov,
& Webber, 2005).
Technology impacts students’ daily lives and certainly plays an important
part in developing students’ positive and negative attitudes toward it (Volk,
Yip, & Lo, 2003). The development of new communication technologies and
their applications has opened a broad spectrum of options to promote learning.
Computer technologies are important tools for learning, communicating, and
retrieving information. Still, many students lack experience in effective
information handling and they use the broad spectrum of technologies only to a
relatively small extent in their learning.
The success of efforts to integrate technology in learning is largely affected
by the attitudes of students toward computers and their use. Many studies have
examined the attitude toward computers on different dimensions, such as level
of computer literacy, computer experience, computer anxiety, technophobia, and
other variables (Abdelhamid, 2002; Anderson & Hornby, 1996; Anthony,
Clarke, & Anderson, 2000; Garland & Noyes, 2004; Hignite & Echternacht,
1992; Igbaria & Chakrabarti, 1990; Kinzie, Delcourt, & Powers, 1994; Lim, 2002;
Milbrath & Kinzie, 2000; Mitra & Steffensmeier, 2000; Parish & Necessary,
1996; Sam, Othman, & Nordin, 2005; Schumacher & Morahan-Martin, 2001;
Seyal, Rahim, & Rahman, 2002; Sigurdson, 1991; Smith, Caputi, & Rawstorne,
2000; Turnipseed & Burns, 1991).
Researchers have conducted numerous investigations on additional aspects
of attitudes toward computers; the influence of attitudes toward computers on
behavior, learning styles, distance education, and e-learning (Ames, 2003;
Armitage & Christian, 2003; Erlich, Erlich-Philip, & Gal-Ezer, 2004; Hong,
Ridzuan, & Kuek, 2003; Keller & Cernerud, 2002; Link & Marz, 2006; Liu,
Macmillan, & Timmons, 1998; Shaw & Marlow, 1999; Tsai & Tsai, 2003); the
change in attitudes toward computers over the years (Clarke & Finnie, 1998;
Smith & Oosthuizen, 2006); the relationship between attitudes toward com-
puters and the desirability of acquiring computing skills (Zhang & Espinoza,
1998); the influence of training and courses to develop computer skills on
students’ attitudes toward computers (Drrup, 2004; Gibson & Silverberg, 2000;
Torkzadeh & Van Dyke, 2002). Nonetheless, little is known about students’
attitudes toward specific computer applications across various undergraduate
disciplines.
The purpose of this study is to compare undergraduate students’ attitudes
toward common computer applications in two social science areas; disciplines
with a quantitative orientation and those with a qualitative orientation, and to
determine whether taking a Computer Literacy and Applications (CLA) course
has an impact on students’ attitudes.
The rest of this article is structured as follows: In Section 2, we provide
an overview of the Computer Literacy and Applications (CLA) course; in
 EFFECT OF COMPUTER LITERACY COURSE / 85

Section 3 we describe the research method; in Section 4, we present the results;

and Section 5 includes the discussion and recommendations.

2. THE COMPUTER LITERACY AND APPLICATIONS

(CLA) COURSE

2.1 Background
To participate in any online course, students need to have basic knowledge
of computer applications, including the Internet. There are still many students
who begin their academic studies with little or no computer literacy and appli-
cation know-how and, therefore, are not sufficiently skilled to take advantage
of the course Website or participate in online activities.
In order to provide the computer literacy necessary for online course activities,
the Open University of Israel (OUI) developed a Computer Literacy and Appli-
cations (CLA) course (Lupo & Erlich, 2001), based on a model of learning
that integrates online technologies and traditional distance education teaching
materials and combines them with Cookson’s (2000) three-layer model. This
model of learning allows undergraduate students with no previous knowledge
to take it as a distance-learning course. Teaching through the new technological
tools themselves, thus providing active training in computer-based technologies,
contributes greatly to the students’ expertise in the use of these technological
tools in their future studies (Erlich, Gal-Ezer, & Lupo, 2002; Hong, Lai, & Holton,
2001; Lupo & Erlich, 2001; Scagnoli, 2001).

2.2 Course Overview

The CLA course is a one-semester course. It begins with a short introduction
to computers and the Windows operating system, followed by study of five
common computer applications: e-mail, Internet, Word Processing (Word),
Electronic spreadsheet (Excel), and Electronic Presentation (PowerPoint).
Because most students are familiar with e-mail, the Internet, and Word, about
50% of the CLA course focuses on Excel, which is more difficult to learn
and requires more explanation and practice. Most students are not familiar
with PowerPoint so the course also provides basic knowledge for creating
presentations.
The CLA course integrates various kinds of teaching materials: a textbook,
courseware, interactive Web-based technologies; and a printed study guide to
help students organize their learning. A different combination of materials is
used in each part of the course.
The course requires that students participate in activities on the course Website,
which accustoms them to the concept of online learning. During the semester,
students are required to submit five assignments. The first is submitted via snail
86 / ERLICH, GADOT AND SHAHAK

mail and the other four are electronic assignments submitted via e-mail or through
an electronic assignment delivery system. At the end of the semester, students
take a written final exam and submit a final project. In the project, they search
the Internet for academic data relating to their field of study, process it using
Excel, and present the results in a Word document, which incorporates an Excel
spreadsheet. The final project is e-mailed to the tutor. E-mail and discussion
groups are the main means of communication in the course, and very few
face-to-face tutorials are held. On the site’s bulletin board, students receive
messages about changes in meeting schedules, clarifications on deadlines for
submitting assignments, etc. The Website’s discussion group is divided into
several forums according to the topics covered in the course.

3. METHOD
3.1 Participants
The sample of the study consisted of 336 undergraduate Social Sciences
students enrolled in the CLA course. To assess students’ attitudes toward the
computer applications included in the CLA course, an attitude questionnaire
was administered twice, at the beginning and at the end of the course. The sample
was divided into two groups according to the students’ field of study: disciplines
with a quantitative orientation and those with a qualitative orientation. The former
consisted of 181 (53.9%) students majoring in Management, Economics, and
Accounting. The latter consisted of 155 (46.1%) students studying Psychology,
Sociology, Education, and Political Science.
The sample included 32.4% males and 67.6% females; 9.8% were less than
21 years old; 65.8%, between 22 and 27; 17.6% , between 28 and 35; and 6.8%,
above 35. Table 1 presents the distribution of the study sample.
No significant difference was found in the distribution of age groups among
the male and female students in the quantitative-oriented group (c2 = 6.631,
df = 3, n.s) or the qualitative-oriented group (c2 = 5.649, df = 3, n.s).
Almost a third (25.9%) of the students were in their first year of studies; the
rest were students in their second year and above. Most of the students had
previous Internet and Word experience: 60.7% reported that they used the Internet
several times a day and 24.7%, several times a week; 44.9% reported using
Word several times a week and more. Most of the students in the sample had
very little or no previous experience with Excel or PowerPoint; only 11.6%
reported using PowerPoint several times a week and more, and only 21.7%
reported using Excel several times a week and more.

3.2 Measures
To evaluate the influence of the CLA course on students’ attitudes toward the
five applications (e-mail, Internet, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel), we constructed
 EFFECT OF COMPUTER LITERACY COURSE / 87

Table 1. Distribution of Age, by Group and Gender (in percentages)

Age

Group Gender < 21 22-27 28-35 > = 36

Quantitative-oriented Male 6.0 78.6 13.1 2.4

Female 13.4 61.9 18.6 6.2
Total 9.9 69.6 16.0 4.4

Qualitative-oriented Male 0.0 56.0 32.0 12.0

Female 11.5 62.3 16.9 9.2
Total 9.7 61.3 19.4 9.7

a Computer Applications Attitude (CAA) questionnaire. The questionnaire is

based on items drawn from the TAC and TAT questionnaires (Christensen &
Knezek, 2001) and from the TACT questionnaire (Erlich-Philip, 2003).

The Computer Applications Attitude (CAA) Questionnaire

The CAA questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part includes back-
ground questions as well as questions about the frequency of use of the five
computer applications. The second part of the CAA questionnaire includes five
sections that measure attitudes toward the applications. This part includes 25
items on a 7-point bi-polar semantic differential scale. Examples of the contrast-
ing bi-polar adjectives: Not interesting–Interesting; Not valuable–Valuable;
Not exciting–Exciting; Unnecessary–Necessary. For each student, an average
score was calculated for each of the five sections.

Reliability of the CAA Questionnaire

Reliability analysis was performed on each of the five sections of the second
part of the questionnaire for the data gathered at the beginning of the CLA course.
The analysis included the item-total correlations and the Cronbach a.
The item-total correlations for all five sections ranged from 0.55 to 0.88, thus
all the items qualified to be included in the questionnaire. The Cronbach alpha (a)
for all sections was high, ranging from 0.80 to 0.94. Table 2 presents the reliability
of the five sections.

3.3 Procedure
The CAA questionnaire was administered twice to all students enrolled in the
CLA course, during the first and last lessons. Prior to filling out the questionnaire,
88 / ERLICH, GADOT AND SHAHAK

Table 2. Reliability of the Five Sections

of the Questionnaire

N = 336

Number
Attitude toward of items a

e-mail 5 0.87
Word 3 0.92
Internet 7 0.88
PowerPoint 5 0.94
Excel 5 0.91

the students were given an explanation about the study and its purpose. They
were also told that the questionnaire was anonymous and would serve only
research needs.
Data analyses were carried out using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social
Sciences) to determine frequencies, percentages, cross-tabulations, Chi-square
tests, t-tests, and repeated measure ANOVAs.

4. RESULTS
The findings regarding students’ attitudes before and after the CLA course are
presented for each of the five computer applications.
4.1 Attitudes Before the CLA Course
Table 3 presents the means and standard deviations of students’ attitudes toward
the five computer applications before taking the CLA course for each group, and
the t-tests for the difference between groups.
Overall, the attitudes toward all the five common computer applications in the
two groups are positive. However, the mean attitudes toward the PowerPoint
(4.82, 5.02) and Excel (5.09, 4.89) are lower than the mean attitudes toward
e-mail (5.97, 6.11), the Internet (6.06, 6.13), and Word (6.26, 6.26). No signifi-
cant difference was found between the groups in their attitudes toward each of
the applications.
4.2 Attitudes After the CLA Course
Table 4 presents the means and standard deviations of students’ attitudes toward
the five applications after taking the CLA course for each group, and the t-tests
for the difference between groups.
 EFFECT OF COMPUTER LITERACY COURSE / 89

Table 3. Means, SDs, and t-Tests on Students’ Attitudes toward

Computer Applications Before the CLA Course

Quantitative- Qualitative-
oriented oriented
N = 181 N = 155 t
(df = 334)
Application Mean SD Mean SD p

e-mail 5.97 1.04 6.11 0.96 1.34 n.s.

Internet 6.06 1.02 6.13 0.93 0.67 n.s.
Word 6.26 1.02 6.26 1.14 0.01 n.s.
PowerPoint 4.82 1.53 5.02 1.60 1.18 n.s.
Excel 5.09 1.33 4.89 1.56 1.28 n.s.

Table 4. Means, SDs, and t-Tests on Students’ Attitudes toward

Computer Applications After the CLA Course

Quantitative- Qualitative-
oriented oriented
N = 181 N = 155 t
(df = 334)
Application Mean SD Mean SD p

e-mail 6.01 1.00 6.09 1.01 0.66 n.s.

Internet 6.20 0.82 6.09 0.95 1.15 n.s.
Word 6.04 1.26 6.23 1.13 1.43 n.s.
PowerPoint 4.87 1.46 5.03 1.39 1.02 n.s.
Excel 5.39 1.31 4.94 1.42 3.04 < 0.01

Like the attitudes before the CLA course, the attitudes toward all five appli-
cations in both groups are positive. Here again, the mean attitudes toward the
PowerPoint (4.87, 5.03) and Excel (5.39, 4.94) are lower than the mean attitudes
toward e-mail (6.01, 6.09), the Internet (6.20, 6.09), and Word (6.04, 6.23).
In addition, like before the CLA course, no significant difference was found
between groups in their attitudes toward e-mail, Internet, Word, and PowerPoint.
However, a significant difference (p < 0.01) was found in favor of the quan-
titative-oriented group in their attitude toward Excel.
90 / ERLICH, GADOT AND SHAHAK

4.3 Change in Attitudes Following the CLA Course

To determine whether following the CLA course there was a significant change
in the students’ attitudes in the two groups, a repeated measures ANOVA was
performed for each of the five applications. The results of these analyses are
presented in Table 5.
The results of the repeated measures ANOVA for each of the five applications
show that no significant interaction was found between Time (before and after
CLA course) and Group, indicating that there was no significant difference in
the change of attitude before and after the CLA course between the groups.
For the entire sample, no significant difference was found between before
and after the CLA course for three applications: e-mail, Internet, and PowerPoint.
However, the results showed a trend of improvement in the mean attitude from
before to after the CLA course for all three: e-mail (6.03 to 6.05), Internet (6.09
to 6.15), and PowerPoint (4.91 to 4.95). A significant difference was found for
the other two applications—Word and Excel. The mean attitude toward Word
decreased from 6.26 (before CLA) to 6.13 (after CLA), while the mean attitude
toward Excel increased from 4.99 (before CLA) to 5.18 (after CLA). Examining
the means before and after the CLA course separately for each group, for these
two applications (Tables 3 and 4), reveals some differences between groups.
The paired t-tests showed that the decrease in the mean attitude toward Word in
the quantitative group from before (6.26) to after (6.04) was significant (t = 2.38,

Table 5. Means, SDs, and Repeated Measures ANOVA for Time

(Before and After CLA Course) and Group

Before After
F
Application Mean SD Mean SD Source (1, 334) p

e-mail 6.03 1.00 6.05 1.00 Time 0.03 n.s.

Time × Group 0.40 n.s.

Word 6.26 1.07 6.13 1.20 Time 4.04 < 0.05

Time × Group 2.49 n.s.

Internet 6.09 0.98 6.15 0.89 Time 0.98 n.s.

Time × Group 3.56 n.s.

PowerPoint 4.91 1.56 4.95 1.43 Time 1.17 n.s.

Time × Group 0.06 n.s.

Excel 4.99 1.43 5.18 1.38 Time 5.57 < 0.01

Time × Group 2.87 n.s.
 EFFECT OF COMPUTER LITERACY COURSE / 91

df = 180, p < 0.05) and stronger than the decrease from before (6.26) to after (6.24)
in the qualitative group, which was not significant. The increase in the mean
attitude toward Excel in the quantitative group from before (5.09) to after (5.39)
was significant (t = 3.25, df = 180, p < 0.01) and stronger than the increase from
before (4.89) to after (4.94) in the qualitative group, which was not significant.

5. DISCUSSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The results of the study show that, in both groups, the students’ attitudes toward
the five applications were high both before and after the CLA course. However,
attitudes toward Excel and PowerPoint were relatively lower than attitudes toward
e-mail, the Internet, and Word. A possible explanation for these results is that the
students are familiar with and use e-mail, the Internet, and Word more than they
use Excel and PowerPoint. Before the CLA course, no significant difference
between groups was found in students’ attitudes toward all five applications. After
the CLA course, a significant difference between groups was found only in the
students’ attitudes toward Excel. The attitudes of the students in the quantitative
group were significantly more positive than those in the qualitative group. This
indicates that the high level of study of Excel in the CLA course contributed more
to the students in the quantitative group because of its direct relation to their
future studies and practice at work, while the students in the qualitative group had
difficulty coping with the high level of study and possibly felt that they only
needed basic knowledge of Excel.
The comparison of the change of attitudes before and after the CLA course
revealed no significant interactions between repeated measures (before and after)
and groups. For the repeated measures effect, no significant difference was
found for e-mail, Internet, and PowerPoint; however, there was a slight increase
in students’ attitudes from before to after the CLA course in these three applica-
tions. This slight increase can be attributed to the study of these applications in
the CLA course. With regard to Word and Excel, a significant difference was
found in their repeated measures. The students’ attitude toward Word before the
course was higher than after it. This can be explained, on one hand, by students’
highly positive attitude toward Word before the CLA course (regression effect)
and, on the other hand, by the CLA course itself, which did not add significantly
to their Word knowledge, as only a small portion of the CLA course was devoted
to it. In the Excel application, the students’ attitudes after the CLA course were
more positive than before it. This result is a consequence of fact that the CLA
course focused mainly on the study of the Excel and increased their awareness
of the power and the wide range of its uses.
These changes in attitude toward Word and Excel were found for both groups;
however, a significant difference was found only in the quantitative group for
both applications. The significant decrease in attitude toward Word in the quanti-
tative group can be attributed to the expectations of the students in this group to
92 / ERLICH, GADOT AND SHAHAK

gain more knowledge of Word from the CLA course. The significant increase in
attitude toward Excel results from the fact that the students in this group use Excel
much more in their studies and are more aware of its importance in the future.
Thus, intensive study of Excel is much more valuable to them and a deeper
acquaintance with Excel contributes to their ability to use it.
Based upon the results of this study, it is recommended to develop and teach
a different CLA course to students with different orientations. The syllabus for
each orientation should focus on those computer applications that are more
relevant and suitable to their field of study. The syllabus for the qualitative
orientations should focus mainly on Word, Internet, and PowerPoint, and less
on Excel. The syllabus for the quantitative orientations should focus mainly on
Excel and less on the other applications. In addition, study of Excel should be
extended beyond topics covered in the current CLA course and include topics
related to management, economics, and accounting.
This separation will help to improve the level of knowledge and skills
relevant to each group, increase students’ satisfaction with the course, and
improve their attitudes toward the use of these applications. The OUI has begun
to develop a proposed syllabus for two separate CLA courses in keeping with
this recommendation.

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Zippy Erlich
The Open University of Israel
108 Ravutski St.
43107 Raanana, Israel
e-mail: zippy@openu.ac.il