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ERIC Number: EJ1147622
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017-Aug
Pages: 23
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1042-1726
EISSN: N/A
The Influence of Academic Discipline, Race, and Gender on Web-Use Skills among Graduate-Level Students
Owens, Jennifer; Lilly, Flavius
Journal of Computing in Higher Education, v29 n2 p286-308 Aug 2017
There is a paucity of research on the digital literacy of graduate-level students. The study examined whether academic discipline, age, gender, race, parental education, international status, GPA, and self-perceived skills is associated with web-use skills among this population. Hargittai and Hsieh's 27-item Web-use Skills Index was used to measure web-use skills. The Kruskal-Wallis H test with post hoc Fisher's least significant difference test was used to determine statistical differences between groups of independent variables. Academic discipline, race/ethnicity, and gender had a greater number of statistically significant differences (p < 0.05) with 12, 15, and 20 variables respectively. Few web-skill variables were significantly different by age, GPA, international status, and parental education with 4, 3, 2, and 3 variables respectively. Gender plays a large role in the digital literacy of graduate and professional students compared to other demographic factors. This may be due to factors influenced by gender including family life, self-efficacy, and access to technology. The high web proficiency of Asian/Pacific Islander students is consistent with past research. However, African American students were more web-proficient than Caucasian students, which is inconsistent with previous research. Academic discipline may be independently associated with varying levels of web-use scores.
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A