METHODS

A computer background and attitudes questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire contained three sections.

Section One: This section focused on students' computer backgrounds. The issues such as:

• Computer ownership

  (Options: yes or no)

• Location of computer use

  (Options: at home, college computer lab computer Learning Center, or at another location).

• Types of computers used, and
• Frequency of computer use within the past one month

  (Options: never, less than once a month, about once a month, about once each week, or at    least four times each week).

Section Two: This section assessed students' level of expertise with software applications such as word processing, excel sheet; DOS, languages, hardware & operating systems. For each application, students specified:

(i)                 If they could use it

(ii)               The specific name brand program that they used most often

(iii)             Their level of expertise (options: novice, intermediate, or expert)

Section Three: This section dealt with student's attitudes about computers and their willingness to acquire computer skills. Students responded to items such as using a five-point scale which ranged from

(i)                 strongly agree

(ii)               agree

(iii)             undecided / can`t say

(iv)              disagree

(v)                strongly disagree

The entire first-year pharmacy students (N-221) completed the survey during the class period of the session 2007-08 pharmacy practice course.

RESULTS

Computer Backgrounds

Responses to Section One items indicated that most students had some computer experience. Of the 221 students, 69 percent said that they had used computer at least once a week. Over 24 percent said they had a computer at home. Of those with home computers 90 percent owned DOS-based machines and 88 percent had possessed a computer for at least one year. Students' home computers were equipped with features such as a hard disk, CD writer and a modem.

Students were almost equally divided when asked where they would use a computer while in pharmacy: 24 percent said they would use a computer at home and 60 percent would use a computer in the college computer lab while rest 16 percent said they would use computer on cyber cafe. Most (82 percent) reported that they could operate a computer well enough to use a commercially-produced computer program.

Software Experience

Table III. Software type reported by students

Two aspects of student software experience-range of use and level of reported expertise-merit attention (see Table II). First, while 79 percent students stated that they could use a word processing program, only 4 percent of reported users said that they could use the program at an "expert" level and most 44 percent rated themselves as intermediate-level users.

Second, of the 184 students who said they could use Dos, 29 percent classified themselves as novices and 18 percent said that they were experts. Thirteen (56 percent) of the students said they could use a Languages program. Hardware experience was much lower, with 21 percent of students reporting they had any experience. Consistently, students reported a novice level of expertise in the Operating systems they used (14 novices of 20 users), Dos (53 novices of 183 users), Languages (78 novices of 124 users). Students reported using a variety of name-brand software packages among the types of software applications (see Table III).

Attitudes about Computers

Students, in general, reported favorable attitudes about computers (see Table IV). Almost 70 percent agreed or strongly agreed that they were interested in learning computers. However, some students expressed reservations about using computers. When asked if they enjoyed using computers, 167 (75 percent) agreed or strongly agreed, 40 (18 percent) indicated they were undecided, and 13 (6 percent) disagreed. That diversity is also reflected in student apprehension about learning to use computers. While students appeared to view computers as an important part of their professional education, they voiced reservations about totally replacing faculty with computerized instruction. Most students (84 percent) reported that they enjoyed new and innovative learning techniques. Only 17 (8 percent) students said they would rather use computer-delivered instruction than other instructional modes. Thirteen (six percent) said they preferred computers to lectures and 89 (40 percent) students said they preferred to read texts rather than attending lectures. Students voiced a desire for computer training 96 percent agreed that they were interested in learning to use a microcomputer.

Table IV. Student responses to computer attitudes

SA*=Strongly Agree; A=Agree; U=Undecided; D=Disagree; SD=Strongly Disagree.