EDUCAUSE Research in the Academic
Communities
Student Technology Study 2016
2016 Research Prospectus
I. Project Overview
Technology is a critical part of the teaching and learning mission, as well as the research mission of
higher education. Since 2004, the EDUCAUSE Center for Analysis and Research (ECAR) has been
researching undergraduate student technology experiences and expectations. The scope of the
EDUCAUSE Technology Research in the Academic Community (ETRAC) work includes surveying
undergraduate students annually and occasionally surveying other members of the academic
community (e.g., college aspirants, graduate students, faculty, alumni, staff, leaders, etc.). The base
student survey combined with parallel information from other populations of the academic community
allows ECAR to tell a broader story about the status and efficacy of technology in higher education.
This research is survey based, with ECAR developing the survey instruments and the research
methodology before partnering with individual institutions to invite members of their respective
academic communities to participate in the surveys. Our surveys ask respondents to share their current
technology experiences, needs, and expectations about technology and IT issues at their campus.
Depending on the year, respondents could be undergraduate students, faculty, graduate students,
and/or other members of the academic community. The results of these studies can be combined to
provide multidimensional perspectives of these stakeholders’ technology experiences.
In 2016, only the undergraduate student survey will be part of the ECAR research portfolio.
The undergraduate student study explores technology ownership, use patterns, and
expectations as they relate to the undergraduate student experience.
Research Objectives
The purpose of ETRAC is to understand the technology, experiences, needs, and expectations of
academic community members and stakeholders for the purpose of helping higher education IT
professionals and decision makers use IT to advance the institution. This project looks at perceptions of
IT from the outside to help IT leaders and IT services professionals:
1. Improve IT services
2. Increase technology-enabled productivity
3. Prioritize strategic contributions of information technology to higher education
4. Plan for technology shifts among the various constituencies of the academic community
5. Become more technologically competitive among peer institutions or ideal benchmarks
6. Catalyze new business models around technology use and adoption to transform higher
education in innovative ways
II. Research Methodology
These studies consist of web-based quantitative surveys of members of the academic community (e.g.,
undergraduates students, faculty, and/or graduate students) from different types of higher education
institutions. EDUCAUSE develops the survey instruments for selected population(s) in the academic
community (the survey questions align with the project’s research objectives), and locally assigned
survey administrators at our partner institutions administer the survey(s) to their community. The data
are centrally collected in a secure, cloud-based repository that is only available to authorized EDUCAUSE
researchers and affiliates.
General Timeline
● Prior to the EDUCAUSE Annual Conference: Resource materials and the “intent to participate”
form made available
● EDUCAUSE Annual Conference through January: Survey invitation window open for
participation in the next round of studies (formal invitations sent to all EDUCAUSE primary reps
plus past survey administrators)
● Mid-August through mid-January 2016: Survey development and programming
III. Form Factors/Deliverables in 2016
Publicly Available
● Research hub: All current information
● Report: Student study only
● Survey instruments: Student study only
● Slide deck: Student study only
● Infographics: Student study only
ECAR Subscribers Only
All other academic community research, including but not limited to derivative publications or
transmedia pieces created using student study data, may be subject to the standard ECAR embargo.
Participating Institutions Only
Specific institution-based results and comparative (anonymous) peer benchmarks will be shared with
participating institutions. For each study an institution participates in, they will receive the following
package:
● Raw data files of de-identified (anonymous) survey responses
● Aggregated summative data and comparative benchmarking data from (anonymized) peer
institutions to each participating institution
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IV. Partners/Collaborators
Principal Investigator/Project Lead
● Eden Dahlstrom, Director of Research, EDUCAUSE, edahlstrom@educause.edu
ETRAC Research Team
● D. Christopher Brooks, Senior Researcher, EDUCAUSE, cbrooks@educause.edu (student lead)
● TBD, Senior Researcher, EDUCAUSE
● Jamie Reeves, Research Assistant, EDUCAUSE, jreeves@educause.edu
Subject-Matter Experts
● TBD
V. Dissemination/Marketing Plan
The audience for this work is broad and includes people both inside and outside higher education
information technology. Below is a partial list of potential audiences:
1. IT leaders
2. T&L leaders
3. IR professionals
4. Higher education press
5. Technology researchers
6. Vendors of technology products
7. Librarians
8. Faculty professional development providers
Dissemination plans beyond the traditional EDUCAUSE systems are TBD but will include:
1. Sharing preliminary results with ECAR premium subscribers
2. Posting a research hub on the EDUCAUSE website and announcing the publication of the 2016
studies
3. Hosting an E-Live! webinar to share final results
4. Presenting the results at the 2016 EDUCAUSE Annual Conference and at least one national nonEDUCAUSE conference, such as the AIR Forum
VI. Risks/Contingency Plan
There are minimal risks associated with these studies. Participation is voluntary.
VII. Subject Consent
By responding to the survey, respondents will be giving their consent to participate (see project website
for full details about informed consent: http://www.educause.edu/ecar/about-ecar/technologyresearch-academic-community). Individuals under the age of consent will not be invited to participate.
Data are collected only via the survey. Responses to the survey questions will be maintained in an
anonymous research data set. Participating institutions will receive their participants’ anonymous
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responses.
Risks for the implementation of these studies are nominal since this is an annual iteration of an
established study (student study) and a spin-off of an existing study (other academic community
research). Providing adequate time for institutions to secure IRB approval is essential, and delay on our
part to provide the necessary resource materials about the studies to institutions could delay the datacollection period. If data collection from individual institutions is not possible, ECAR can collect data
from a national consumer panel.
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