Survey analysis – Need analysis

The questionnaire was applied to 50 students. The purpose of the questionnaire was
to identify the use that students of Universidad de Boyacá give to different technological
tools and also to the platform offered by the university.
It was also a purpose to identify some of the activities used in this specific Virtual Learning
Environment and the activities that students would like to develop. Some parts of this
questionnaire were adapted from a questionnaire posted on
www.tcet.unt.edu/research/survey/caq522.pdf

Question 1

¿Tienes alguna materia con componente virtual? Si ____ No ____

Subject with virtual

components
Yes No

44%
56%

Question 2

This question was completed by students who answered in a positive way the previous one.

¿Qué tipo de actividades desarrollas con más frecuencia en la plataforma?

 Most frequently used activities in
12
the platform
number of students
10
Descarga de documen-
8 tos y/o presentaciones
6 del profesor
Foros para resolver
4 dudas
2 Actividades interactivas
0 Lecturas y ensayos
Otras

Students who answered the questionnaire are in second and third semester. The use of the
platform is poor and it is interesting to see how the platform is being used by some
professors and students because students are taking at least 8 subjects at the university and
just one, of those subjects, has a virtual component. It does not mean to saturate students
with virtual activities but to take some kind of advantage of the tool which is available in
the university to complement the face to face classes. Those students are mostly using the
platform as a way to download the lectures and materials given by the professors.

Question 3

Enumera de 1 a 5 el tipo de actividades que te gustaría desarrollar con más frecuencia en la

plataforma virtual. Siendo 1 la mas interesante y 5 la menos llamativa para ti.

Students´ interests
16
12
8
Number of students

4
0 1 (More inte-
es es cs gs es
iti r cis o pi d in ag resting)
v t r p
cti xe e co et 2
i ca v ee o f th re tern
on cti io in 3
chr e ra tion aud to
t a 4
Sy
n In an an
d ks
x pl o Lin 5 (less interesting)
e de
and Vi
s
de
Sli Items
The platform is like a house where it is possible to have different kinds of activities to
develop. However, as it was identified in the previous question, the most common activity
is to upload and download files and for this reason, students could find more interesting to
use the platform for this purpose.

Question 4

¿Qué tipo de actividades te gustaría desarrollar en la asignatura Idioma Extranjero I en la

plataforma virtual?

Students are aware of the purpose of learning a language, because languages are for
communicating with others. The common pattern I found was labeled interaction; the
interaction between student – teacher and student- student; most of the students want to use
didactic activities such as games, puzzle and multimedia activities with “flash” in which
they can interact with the classmates and other people from around the world using the
language. They also want to have some activities related to their major. This pattern is
related to oral and listening skills, they are also interested in practicing these skills which
are also for interacting with people.

Question 5 Laptop
¿Tienes computador portátil? No ____ Si _____ Yes No
32%

68%

Question 6 Do you have computer

at home?
¿Tienes computador en casa? Yes No
No ___ Si _____ 22%

78%
Question 7
¿Tienes acceso a Internet? No ____ Sí ____ ¿Dónde? _____________

Internet access
11%

No
89% Yes

Analysis of questions 5 to 7. Technology has changed dramatically in the last century;

some years ago, it was pretty hard and expensive to have a computer at home. Just few
people had access to it. But nowadays, it is common to have this tool and there are even
students, who have both, laptop and computer at home. As technology changes, some of the
students have access everywhere with the mobile Internet; others have Internet access at
home, at friends’ houses and at Internet cafès. The university also has a wireless connection
and students can have access to it with just a password. This means that students have
constant contact with the language and they have the tools to develop different activities in
the platform.

Question 8

¿Por cuántas horas a la semana usas el computador?

How much time do you

spend using the com-
20 puter?
Number of students

15
10
5
0
0 1--4 5--10 11 or more
Hours per week
In this part, there is an interesting aspect to analyze related to students’ attitudes towards
the use of computers. When analyzing the questionnaires, it was possible to identify a
common pattern, students’ ages and the amount of time they spent in front of the screen. (to
see percentage of students’ ages, see the graphic at the end of the analysis); the students
who use most the Internet and computers not only for academic but also for other purposes
are between 16 and 18 years old, they use it for more than 11 hours per week. And, some of
the students who only use the Internet and the computer for less than 5 hours per week are
25 years old or even older. As it is said by Gavin Dudeney (2007), there are different terms
to express the attitudes towards technology and in this case it is possible to identify two of
those terms: digital natives and digital immigrants.

Question 9

¿Qué prefieres hacer en tu tiempo libre? (Encierra una de las opciones).

Free time preferences

19%
40%
leer un libro
13% escribir
ver television
28% Usar computador

As in the previous question, most of the youngest students spend their free time using the
Internet and/ or on-line games; in other words, the computer. There are just few students
who spend their free time in activities different from watching TV or using the computer.