Determining Computer Lab Usage for Academic, Social, and Personal Purposes

by Howell, T. Matthew

Computers have become an integral part of the lives of university students. Although originally envisioned simply as a tool to enhance the educational experience, computers now are used in all facets of students’ lives. Campus computer labs share a similar history. Their original goal was to give students access to computers for academic reasons. Now labs are used for a variety of other purposes. The goal of this project was to discover how much usage of computer labs at UNC-Chapel Hill was related to academic, social, and personal purposes. The results show that while students frequently use personal computers for non-academic use, computer lab tasks are predominantly academic in nature. This finding held true across all groups despite some differences in lab activities based upon class year and gender.