Computer anxiety among university and college students majoring in Physical and Health Education

Abstract

This study examined computer anxiety among university and college of education Physical and Health Education (PHE) majors. The influence of personal characteristics of gender, age and experience of PHE majors on computer anxiety level were analysed. The Computer Anxiety Scale (CAS) developed by Marcoulides (1989) was used to measure computer anxiety levels of 352 participants from four universities (N = 254) and two colleges of education (N = 98). Descriptive survey research design was adopted to carry out the study while purposive sampling was used to select  participants. Results indicated that the majority of participants (61%) had a slightly low computer anxiety. This was surprising considering the low level usage of computer in instruction delivery in the higher education institutions. There was a significant difference in computer anxiety between university and college PHE majors [t (350) = 2.63; p<0.05]. Gender [t (350) = 0.42; p>0.05] and age [F (3,348) = .95; p>0.05] were found to have no significant influence on computer anxiety while experience [F (3,348) = 3.64; p<0.05] significantly influences computer anxiety. It is recommended that pleasant experiences should be provided for students to build confidence in them and reduce anxiety. All possible threats and hindrances to achieving maximum adaptation of computer programmes to learning settings should be examined and possibly eliminated.

Keywords: Computer usage, computer anxiety, higher education institutions, physical and health education.