XVI Workshop Qualitative Research in Psychology La Laguna, 26th‐28th 

February 2015

SKILLS AND LIMITS OF ICT USES IN 

HIGHER EDUCATION STUDENTS

Carmen RicoyUniversidad de VigoTiberio Feliz‐Murias

UNED ‐ Spain

INTRODUCTION

• ICTs• Skills • Uses • Limits • Higher Education • Students

State of the art

• Hepp, Hinostroza, Rehbeine, & Laval (2004)

• Tondeur, Van Braak, & Valcke (2007) 

• Ellis & Goodyear (2010)• Bajt (2011)• Jones (2012)• Tierney (2012)• Yahaya, Yahaya, Ramli, Hashim, & Zakariya(2010)

RESEARCH DESIGN

• Questions• Data collection:

– Written narratives– Interviews– Discussion groups

• Aquad www.aquad.de

Questions

• Which are the competences of university students in ICTs use?

• Which are the benefits and difficulties? 

CONTEXT & SAMPLE

• University of Vigo– DEGREES

• 75 students• Faculties

– Education • (9 M + 38 W)

– Business • (4 M + 16 W)

– Engineering • (6 M + 2 W)

RESULTS

STUDENTS’ COMPETENCES

MEANS

7 61

203

4

2852

3011 5

0

20

40

60Digital camera

Consoles

GPS

Audio

eBook

External memoriesMobiles

Laptop

Smartphone

Tablets

TV

BENEFITS

• Academic tasks• Information search• Information management• Communication• Mobility• Collaborative activities• Engagement• Cheap

DIFFICULTIES

• Rural residents• Connexions• Cost of devices• Specific software

Software difficulties 

0

5

10

15No knowledge

Technicalldifficulties

language

Licences

CONCLUSIONS

• Main competence for employment

• Most of real skills are related to ICTs

• Most used: Laptop• Academic demands determine

• Technical difficulties of devices and software

• Problems: economical and geographical

PROSPECTIVE

• Contingency analysis• Improvements and solutions

• Good practices 

Thank you very much