Survey of Computing Experience

Each year, first-year medical and dental students are asked to fill out a questionnaire about their computing experience, and about the computer hardware and software to which they may have access where they are living during the academic term.

As a very brief summary of the results of the survey administered in 1998 August: of the respondents,

• 99% already had some experience with word processing, and 91% said they used it regularly
• 98% already had some experience with e-mail, and 81% said they used it regularly
• 95% of the respondents already had some experience with the WWW, and 75% said they used it regularly
• 84% had access to a computer at home, 73% had printers, and 60% had an Internet Service Provider
• 39% had some programming experience (down from about 70% six years earlier), and 6% used a programming language 'regularly'.