Information processing instruction in Virginia Community Colleges

This was a study of the information processing instruction in Virginia Community Colleges. The purposes of the study were (a) to obtain baseline information about the information processing instruction programs, and (b) to evaluate the information processing programs using the information processing"content" portion of the Standards for Excellence in Business Education. The respondents in the study were secretarial science program directors in the Virginia community colleges. Responses to the survey instrument were received from 22 of the 32 mailed (69%).

For the responding institutions, 2314 students were enrolled in courses that involve word processing. Sixty-six percent of the students were younger than 25. There were 57 instructors of information processing in the community colleges; two male and 55 female. Fifteen were full time, 42 part-time. Six of the faculty had doctor's degrees, 42 had master's degrees, six had bachelor's degrees. Of the 419 computers used for word processing, over one-half were IBM compatible. In addition, 106 dedicated word processors were in use. WordStar computer software was used by one-half of the community colleges. Other software most used included WordPerfect and Display Write. Word processing was the most-offered secretarial science course.

The secretarial science program directors rated their information processing instruction programs to"meet" or"exceed the standard" in 112 of the 113 items in the"content" portion of the Standards published by the U. S. Department of Education. The one item that was rated"below standard" was an item dealing with data communications instruction.

The Standards items were divided into 12 subtopics. The subtopic to receive the highest rating was"Employability Traits and Attitudes." The subtopic to receive the lowest rating was"Computer Programming."