Student use of and attitudes about on-campus ALN

In March of 1995, the Sloan Center for Asynchronous Learning Environments (SCALE) was established at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC). SCALE is charged with organizing and directing a three year project to promote the use of asynchronous learning networks (ALN) at UIUC. Faculty involved in the Sloan Center are restructuring their undergraduate courses to incorporate various computer techniques associated with ALN. These ALN techniques include network-based access both to learning materials (e.g., multimedia tutorials, information on the World Wide Web) and to people (via conferencing software such as FirstClass or PacerForum). Computer conferencing was the primary ALN method used by faculty in the first semester. A comprehensive evaluation is being conducted of all SCALE activities. One aspect of the evaluation has been a survey of student use of and attitudes about ALN activities. In Fall 1995 the survey administered in SCALE courses focused on the most often used ALN application at the time-computer conferencing. In subsequent semesters two different surveys were used, one for courses using computer conferencing, and a second survey for courses incorporating Web-based activities. The purpose of this paper is to present results of the student surveys for the first three semesters of project