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Sat, Nov 8, 9:00 - 9:25, Pueblo C     Paper (refereed)
Recommended Citation: Hulick, F W and D Valentine.  Computer Competency of Incoming College Students: Yet More Bad News.  In The Proceedings of the Information Systems Education Conference 2008, v 25 (Phoenix): §3134. ISSN: 1542-7382.
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Computer Competency of Incoming College Students: Yet More Bad News

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Refereed7 pages
Frank W. Hulick    [a1] [a2]
Computer Science Department
Slippery Rock University    [u1] [u2]
Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, USA    [c1] [c2]

David Valentine    [a1] [a2]
Computer Science Department
Slippery Rock University    [u1] [u2]
Slippery Rock, Pennsylvania, USA    [c1] [c2]

We describe the results of an effort to assess the computer competency level of the entire incoming freshman class at Slippery Rock University. A competency test was developed and administered to more than 1500 students during the spring and summer of 2008. We found that 58% of the students failed to meet the normally passing grade of 60% on the test. These results conform to results found by every other study we could find in the literature. Any formal testing of current college students, no matter who the authors, subjects or content areas were, has returned the same bad news: well over half of students do not have the necessary computer skills to function in an information-based society.

Keywords: Computer Competency, IS Education, Proficiency Testing

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