CDTL carried out this survey aimed broadly at identifying the IT-related competencies of academic staff, the attitudes and extent of adoption of IT in teaching practice, and the satisfaction of academic staff with IT-related training available in NUS.

The overall objective of the exercise was to obtain an up-to-date IT skills profile that would provide a reliable basis for determining measures needed to better train and support academic staff in the drive toward more extensive adoption of IT in supporting teaching and learning.

The findings of the survey

The use of email to communicate with students seems adequately entrenched in teaching practice. Some staff members, however, complain of receiving excessive email hits. While most teaching staff approve of the use of email in communicating with students, they are less comfortable and/or enthusiastic about the use of more novel technologies such as discussion forums, online chats, web conferencing, and bulletin boards. There are general reservations over the potential de-personalizing effects of using IT for teaching and learning. Quite apart from the synchronous and asynchronous tools mentioned, there are also serious reservations about the provision of online lecture presentations as a lecture replacement strategy. This reservation dissipates, however, if the online presentations are archival in nature. What appears to be needed in the creation of such content is to go beyond play-only media to the creation of interactive learning media.