Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Introduction
The fifth component of the OSA contains the questions for the Technology and Applied
Science core. The first questions ask the participants about how they fulfilled their
Technology and Applied Science core requirement.
The following table shows the number and percentage of participants who selected
each response to the first question regarding where students took their core curriculum
course. The number of participants selecting each response adds up to more than the
755 total participants because those who did not select “I took my core curriculum class
in technology and applied science at Tech” could select more than one of the other
responses.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 1 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
How did you complete your core curriculum requirement in Technology and Applied
Science?
% of all
% of all
Response
N
Responses Participants
I took a technology and applied science core
25
3.3%
3.3%
curriculum class through dual credit in high school.
I took an advanced placement technology and
11
1.4%
1.5%
applied science core curriculum class in high school.
I took a CLEP exam for technology and applied
1
0.1%
0.1%
science core curriculum credit.
I received transfer core curriculum technology and
applied science credit for a class that I took at
123
16.1%
16.3%
another institution.
I took my core curriculum class in technology and
603
79.0%
79.9%
applied science at Tech.
Total Responses
763
100.0%
For the analysis in this report the 755 participants are divided into the “TTU” group and
the “ELSE” group. The TTU group represents the 603 participants (i.e., 79.9%) who
selected “I took my core curriculum class in technology and applied science at Tech”
and the ELSE group represents the 152 participants (i.e., 20.1%) who selected one or
more of the other responses indicating that they took their core curriculum class in
Technology and Applied Science elsewhere. The following pie chart shows this division
of the sample.
Technology
152 (20.1%)
TTU
ELSE
603 (79.9%)
The 152 participants in the ELSE group were also asked if the class they took outside of
Tech counted for their core curriculum credit. Of the 152 participants who reported
taking a Technology and Applied Science course elsewhere, 27 (i.e., 17.8%) reported
that they did not know if the course counted for their Technology and Applied Science
core curriculum credit and 125 (i.e., 82.2%) reported that the course did count for their
Technology and Applied Science core curriculum credit. The 125 participants who
reported that the course taken outside of Tech did count for their Technology and
Applied Science core curriculum credit were also asked which one counted. The
following table shows the number and percentage of the 125 participants who selected
each response.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 2 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Which one?
Response
A dual credit class.
An advanced placement class.
A CLEP exam.
A class I took at another institution.
I don't know.
Total
N
%
18
14.4%
3
2.4%
0
0.0%
97
77.6%
7
5.6%
125 100.0%
Results
The student learning outcomes for the Technology and Applied Science core are:
Demonstrate understanding of how the rapid pace of change in technology and
applied science may have good and bad outcomes.
Describe examples of ethical implications associated with use of technology and
applied science.
List and evaluate reasons why human-designed systems, products, and
environments need to be monitored, maintained, and improved to ensure safety,
quality, cost efficiency, and sustainability.
The Technology and Applied Science portion of the assessment contains four
agreement questions. These are shown below as a screenshot from the actual
instrument. For analysis purposes, the answers were coded from 1 (“Strongly
Disagree”) to 5 (“Strongly Agree”). Attachment B shows how many times each answer
choice was selected by the different participants for all of the Technology and Applied
Science questions.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 3 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Technology and Applied Science 1:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the first question for participants
who took their class for the Technology and Applied Science core requirement at TTU
(blue) and participants who took their class for the Technology and Applied Science
core requirement elsewhere (red). Both groups seem to mostly “Agree” or “Strongly
Agree” with the first question. The TTU group has a higher average level of agreement
than the ELSE group (3.84 vs. 3.63). This difference is statistically significant at the
0.05 level (see attachment A for details). This suggests that on average the students
who take their Technology and Applied Science course at TTU are more likely than
students who take their Technology and Applied Science degree elsewhere to agree
that “the development of technology raises ethical issues related to the impacts of that
technology.”
Technology and Applied Science 1
60.0%
48.6%
46.7%
50.0%
40.0%
30.0%
23.9%
19.7%
18.1%17.8%
20.0%
7.2%
10.0%
3.2%
6.3%
TTU
ELSE
8.6%
0.0%
1
2
3
4
5
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 4 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Technology and Applied Science 2:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the second question for
participants who took their class for the Technology and Applied Science core
requirement at TTU (blue) and participants who took their class for the Technology and
Applied Science core requirement elsewhere (red). Both groups seem to mostly “Agree”
or “Strongly Agree” with the second question. The TTU group has a higher average
level of agreement than the ELSE group (3.71 vs. 3.62). This difference is not
statistically significant at the 0.05 level (see attachment A for details). This suggests
that on average students who take their Technology and Applied Science course at TTU
are not more likely than students who take their Technology and Applied Science
course elsewhere to agree that “biomedical ethics principles should pertain to a wide
range of developments in applied science.”
Technology and Applied Science 2
60.0%
49.1%
50.0%
41.4%
40.0%
29.2%28.3%
30.0%
TTU
18.4%
15.4%
20.0%
10.0%
2.2%
4.6%
4.1%
ELSE
7.2%
0.0%
1
2
3
4
5
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 5 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Technology and Applied Science 3:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the third question for participants
who took their class for the Technology and Applied Science core requirement at TTU
(blue) and participants who took their class for the Technology and Applied Science
core requirement elsewhere (red). Both groups seem to mostly “Agree” or “Strongly
Agree” with the third question. The TTU group has a higher average level of agreement
than the ELSE group (3.97 vs. 3.84). This difference is not statistically significant at the
0.05 level (see attachment A for details). This suggests that on average students who
take their Technology and Applied Science course at TTU are not more likely than
students who take their Technology and Applied Science course elsewhere to agree
that “new developments in technology and applied science should be subject to
evaluation for their ethical implications before they are marketed or distributed to the
public.”
Technology and Applied Science 3
50.0%
44.9%
42.1%
45.0%
40.0%
35.0%
31.3%
28.9%
30.0%
25.0%
TTU
19.1%
16.3%
20.0%
ELSE
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
5.9%
2.8%
4.6% 3.9%
0.0%
1
2
3
4
5
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 6 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Technology and Applied Science 4:
The chart below shows the distributions of answers for the fourth question for
participants who took their class for the Technology and Applied Science core
requirement at TTU (blue) and participants who took their class for the Technology and
Applied Science core requirement elsewhere (red). Both groups seem to mostly “Agree”
or “Strongly Agree” with the fourth question. The TTU group has a higher average level
of agreement than the ELSE group (4.07 vs. 3.93). This difference is not statistically
significant at the 0.05 level (see attachment A for details). This suggests that on
average students who take their Technology and Applied Science course at TTU are
not more likely than students who take their Technology and Applied Science course
elsewhere to agree that “ethical principles should apply to use of electronic information.”
Technology and Applied Science 4
45.0%
40.1% 39.6%
38.0%
40.0%
32.9%
35.0%
30.0%
25.0%
15.0%
10.0%
5.0%
TTU
17.8%
14.6%
20.0%
2.7%
3.9%
ELSE
5.1% 5.3%
0.0%
1
2
3
4
5
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 7 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Technology and Applied Science Overview:
Overall, it appears that students who take their Technology and Applied Science course
at TTU are more likely than students who take their Technology and Applied Science
course elsewhere to agree that there are ethical principles and concerns with the
development and use of technology. This could imply that on average students who
take their Technology and Applied Science Course at TTU are more likely to agree that
technology has an impact on society and the environment.
Limitations
It is difficult to come to definite conclusions with questions measuring agreement. It
could be that “Agree” for one person means the same thing as “Strongly Agree” for
another. With a large enough sample, though, these small differences should be
controlled for by the number of subjects. Any differences between the results from the
TTU group and the ELSE group could be differences in emphasis of curriculum. It could
be that the extra agreement from the TTU group might only be the result of a different
focus and not a matter of the way things were taught.
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 8 of 9
Online Senior Assessment 2010: Technology and Applied Science
Attachments
Attachment A: 2-Sample T-Tests for Agreement Questions
Technology 1
Technology 2
Technology 3
Technology 4
N
603
603
603
603
Core at TTU
Mean
SD
3.84
0.965
3.71
0.852
3.97
0.957
4.07
0.992
N
152
152
152
152
Core Elsewhere
Mean
SD
3.63
1.114
3.62
1.016
3.84
1.074
3.93
1.036
T-stat
2.277
1.196
1.474
1.545
P-value
0.023
0.232
0.141
0.123
Attachment B: Number of Participants Selecting Each Answer for Each Question
Technology 1
Answer
TTU
1
19
2
38
3
109
4
293
5
144
Technology 4
Answer
TTU
1
16
2
31
3
88
4
229
5
239
ELSE
11
13
27
71
30
Technology 2
Answer
TTU
1
13
2
25
3
176
4
296
5
93
ELSE
7
11
43
63
28
Technology 3
Answer
TTU
1
17
2
28
3
98
4
271
5
189
ELSE
9
6
29
64
44
ELSE
6
8
27
61
50
Office of Planning and Assessment, Devin DuPree and Sabrina Sattler, July 2010
Page 9 of 9