The Evolving Digital Divide Within Higher Education Institutions: a Quantitative Study

Technology has become an integral and important aspect of our world. As such, the author of this study aims to research how technology is used by college students, the people who hope to be tomorrows leaders and innovators. Ideally, all college students will complete their degrees with a comprehensive and well-versed understanding in the most basic and widespread technologies. However, strong technology literacy can be hampered by a students background. This notion is often referred to as the digital divide and can cause some people to have a weak technological background. This study will investigate the digital divide at different types of institutions and see what, if any, impact it has on present-day students.The primary research question asked in this dissertation is what influence does the digital divide have on the technology proficiency of college students. An instrument to analyze college students perceived technology proficiency was developed from the Computer Attitude Scale and Computer Self-Efficacy instruments. The survey was distributed to students at 7 institutions four 4-year public, two 4-year private, and one community college and had 4,860 responses. Data from the responding college students indicated that the digital divide is having an impact upon college students perceived technology proficiency. The data suggests that students that are attending community colleges will have a moderate correlation between their GPA and their perceived technology proficiency. This correlation does not exist at four year institutions. There are various technology constructs that have a statistically significantly difference between college students depending on the age, gender, and the institution type of the student. While caution is given to the results due to violation of assumptions within certain statistical methods used, the multiple findings of significance and magnitude on the variables suggests the need for additional research