The Millennial Rumor: Understanding Millennial College Students' Characteristics, Digital Media Technology Usage, and Assumptions at the University of Denver

Abstract

This quantitative study investigated student and faculty attitudes toward use of Digital Media Technology (DMT) at the University of Denver. The purpose was to understand how and why students and faculty used DMT on campus. Uses and gratifications theory (Katz, Blumler, & Gurevitch, 1974) was used as the theoretical model to interpret and understand Millennial college students' DMT use, Langer and Knefelcamp's (2008) College student technology arc was used as a conceptual model. Two survey instruments were designed: one for faculty and one for students to collect data on DMT use and attitudes toward use, satisfaction, skill, and learning at DU. The survey reached 10,404 students, and 1,218 responded to the survey, Completed surveys totaled 1,033, which resulted in a response rate of 10%. The faculty survey reached 294 full, associate, and assistant professors on campus, and resulted in 20% response rate (n=59). Data were analyzed using exploratory factor analysis, correlations, ANOVA, t-tests, and chi square. Nine factors emerged as relevant aspects of DMT use on campus (1) General use, (2) Use for learning, (3) BlackBoard skills, (4) Satisfaction with resources, (5) Social networking, (6) WebCentral skills, (7) Attitudes toward use, (8) DMT efficiency, and (9) Satisfaction with library resources. DMT was used constantly for personal use (64.6%), rather than educational (44.3%). The Attitudes Toward Use factor was highly correlated with Use for Learning (.642) and DMT efficiency (.584) factors. Both the Student (66.2%) and Faculty (66.7%) populations indicated they were mostly self-taught users of DMT. Chi square test examined individual use of faculty and student ownership/use of DMT and found that faculty owned more PC, Tablets, and e-Book Readers compared to students. However, Faculty had a lower mean (2.89) for Use for Learning compared to Students (3.16). The General Use factor was statistically significant indicating a slight difference between student generational cohorts, however, the lower mean (3.35) for Non-Millennials, versus the 1986-1989 (3.52) cohort difference was only .17, and was not considered meaningful. Overall, results demonstrated that the Millennial generation did not report any meaningful differences in their use of technology compared to other student generational cohorts at DU.

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