Computer self-efficacy in global contexts: appraising Chinese and Indian non-specialists' attitudes to common and advanced computer tasks

Abstract

Most studies of computing self-efficacy among non-specialists have used Westerners as participants, and identify affect as an important element of self-efficacy. Chinese and Indian non-specialists comprise an increasing proportion of western and global tertiary students. They have different attitudes towards learning computing than westerners, due to their different backgrounds. This study compares the attitudes of Chinese and Indian tertiary non-specialists to learning ordinary and advanced computing tasks, while learning animation and business English. Quantitative data was obtained from a survey. Qualitative data was obtained from student blogs. Appraisal analysis was used to determine areas of positive and negative attitude. Results show that Indians reported higher gains than Chinese participants; both groups focus more on cognitive mastery than personal emotions in assessing the value of the learning experience; increased exposure to computing may decrease their interest in learning computing tasks; but relatively lower previous exposure does not disadvantage non-specialists.