Faculty Input for Future Allocation of Scarce Educational Technology Resources

Abstract

Faculty are major stakeholders in the California community college (CCC) system’s ability to meet three primary mission objectives: increase student access, prepare students for transfer, and remain competitive. Educational technology (ET) can play a vital role in keeping the CCCs competitive, and modern learner-centric models rely heavily on faculty using ET, but ET is expensive. With 113 CCCs operating in an era of constrained budgets, the efficient allocation of scarce ET resources remains a challenge for the CCC system. Faculty input regarding their use of educational technology (ET) is invaluable, but no published empirical research explores the present and future use of ET by the CCC faculty. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to survey CCC faculty to determine their present ET hardware and software use, and their anticipated ET use five years in the future. Survey data from 655 active CCC faculty were analyzed using t-tests at the p < .05 threshold for statistical significance. Cohen’s D was used to describe the magnitude of anticipated change from current to future ET use. Results demonstrate that CCC faculty anticipate significant increases in their use of ET hardware and software over the next five years. Results also show that 42% of faculty had never been asked about their use of ET by an influencer, indicating that faculty are underutilized stakeholders in ET planning. Combined, these findings can be utilized by CCC administrative decision makers towards meeting their mission objectives by the efficient allocation of scarce ET resources.