Abstract

Ensuring the most effective use of information technology (IT) in higher education requires that instructors understand not only the capabilities of the technologies themselves, but also how their use is perceived by students. This paper reports on the results of a questionnaire administered to 74 students at a small private women’s college in Japan. It seeks to compare Japanese undergraduate students’ perceptions of IT use in their courses with those of their peers in the United States and Canada via selected findings of The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2010. It further seeks to identify the Japanese students’ own self-efficacy for using technology and their opinions on its importance. The findings suggest that the Japanese students surveyed are using a surprisingly wide range of technologies in relation to their coursework and that their experiences, perceptions, and preferences differ somewhat from their North American counterparts.

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