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Preliminary Version (Preprint) of:
Nagler, W., Mair, B., Ebner, M., Edelsbrunner, S. & Schön, S. (in Print, 2021). Change of IT equipment and
communication applications used by first-semester students from 2011 to 2020 and possible effects of the COVID-
19 pandemic: Analysis of a long-term survey. In: EdMedia 2021 proceedings.
Change of IT equipment and communication applications used by first-semester
students from 2011 to 2020 and possible effects of the COVID-19 pandemic:
Analysis of a long-term survey
Walther Nagler
Educational Technology, Graz University of Technology
Austria
walther.nagler@tugraz.at
Bettina Mair
Educational Technology, Graz University of Technology
Austria
office@bettina-mair.at
Martin Ebner
Educational Technology, Graz University of Technology
Austria
martin.ebner@tugraz.at
Sarah Edelsbrunner
Educational Technology, Graz University of Technology
Austria
sarah.edelsbrunner@tugraz.at
Sandra Schön
Educational Technology, Graz University of Technology
Austria
sandra.schoen@tugraz.at
Abstract: The technical equipment of first-year students and their preferred communication
applications are changing. This paper presents the two latest, unpublished surveys of first-year
students at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) from 2019 (N=824) and 2020 (N=955) and
compares the results concerning devices and applications with the results of the surveys conducted
since 2011. The analysis shows that laptops, desktop computers and smartphones are among the
most important and widespread multifunctional devices, while the MP3 player in particular or the
social media application Facebook have lost most of their former importance. The increasing
importance of photo-based social media applications, first and foremost Instagram, is striking. If
comparing the data from 2019 to those from 2020, the first academic year start that took place
within the COVID-19 pandemic, the same applies to the use of Facebook and Facebook Messenger,
which now only have the same minor significance as Telegram, Signal, Skype, or others. Concerning
effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the equipment and communication tools used, the authors see
a major impact on the prevalence of portable powerpacks.
Introduction
What equipment and communication behaviour do students bring along when they start their studies in 2020? From
the perspective of “Educational Technology”, the e-learning support service unit of Graz University of Technology (TU
Graz), this is an important question, as it also influences the services and possibilities of teaching practice. To a
particular extent, this question also seemed important in 2020: After the closure of schools as well as universities in
March 2020 as an effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, teaching in Austria was carried out exclusively by means of
distance learning for weeks. Particularly in the case of secondary schools and higher education institutions, this
teaching took place largely with the help of the internet. Thus, recordings were provided, teaching was done with the
help of video conferencing systems, etc. In a survey of Austrian teachers across all school types and school levels by
Tengler, Schrammel & Brandhofer (2020), about two thirds stated that they had used learning management systems
during this period (p. 18). Among the first-year students who took their final secondary school exams in 2020, it was
possibly an even higher percentage. Additionally, for many if not all of the first-year students in autumn 2020, the
year 2020 has been very different from the years before; the restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic were
eased significantly in the summer, but it was already becoming apparent at the beginning of the 2020 studies that
many of the major lectures and courses can only be offered in the form of distance learning. Has this experience and
development changed the equipment of students starting their studies at TU Graz in autumn 2020? This article shows
whether these effects are already visible and how the equipment and communication behaviour of students starting
their studies at TU Graz have changed in the years from 2011 to 2020.
Research questions, method and procedure
With the help of data we gained at our annual survey amongst first-year students,the following research
questions will be answered.
• How is the digital equipment of first-year students at TU Graz changing throughout the years?
• How is the use of digital communication and social media applications changing among first-year students at
TU Graz?
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and related school closures, has there been a significant change in
equipment and communication applications among first-year students at TU Graz?
For 14 years, i.e. for the first time in 2007, surveys have been conducted annually among TU Graz first-year
students. The team of Educational Technology at TU Graz has been reporting on the findings regularly since 2009
and have investigated questions that are important and interesting for the university itself as well as the worldwide
edTech-community (Nagler & Ebner, 2009; Ebner & Nagler, 2010; Ebner et al., 2011; Ebner et al., 2012; Ebner et
al., 2013; Ebner et al., 2014; Nagler et al., 2015; Nagler et al., 2016; Nagler et al., 2017; Nagler et al., 2018;
Nagler et al., 2019). Due to the fact that the 2019 survey results have not yet been published, this report focuses on
both the data from 2020 and 2019.
The question on equipment and applications used has been asked in a comparable form since 2011,
although there have always been little changes in the naming of individual tools. We therefore used and combined
the data of all surveys beginning with data from 2011, resulting in a total of 8486 records.
Results of the survey amongst first-year students at TU Graz of 2019, 2020 and within the 7
years before
Participants of the 2019 and 2020 survey
As the results of the 2019 and 2020 student surveys have not yet been published - not least due to the
consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic since March 2020 (see Ebner et al., 2020), we would first like to briefly
describe the studies (see Table 1). In both cases, the surveys took place during the "Welcome Days", the introductory
event lasting two days for all BA first-year students at the end of September. During these days, the new students are
welcomed and offered numerous introductions. Since the beginning, the survey itself has been conducted as a pen-
and-paper survey as part of the event, which in our view is a guarantee for a high response rate and low proportion
of missing data. In 2020, the Welcome Days took place under special hygiene rules, but could be held - distributed
over many large lecture halls - partly in presence and partly online. While 824 students participated in the survey in
2019, 955 out of 1,000 distributed questionnaires were completed in 2020.
Table 1: Overview of the unpublished surveys of first-year students at TU Graz in 2019 and 2020
Key characteristics of the study beginners
2019
2020
Number of evaluable questionnaires (N)
824
955
Sex (in percent)
female
28%
32%
male
70%
68%
other
<1%
<1%
Age
mean
19.94
20.12
median
19.5
20
standard derivation
2.116
2.477
Professional activity (in percent)
yes
25%
25%
no
69%
63%
(not answered)
5%
11%
These key indicators as presented in Table 1 concerning students’ sex and age are all within the normal
range of variation and a slight but steady increase in the proportion of women can be seen in the surveys of recent
years. The professional activity was not queried before 2018 and also appears unremarkable.
Equipment: Less gadgets, multifunctional computers and smartphones are common, comeback of classic mobile?
In the last nine years, there have been significant changes in the equipment of first-year students at TU Graz
(see Fig. 1). Since 2011, the majority of all first-year students have had at least one "multifunctional device", i.e.
desktop computer, laptop and smartphone. It is noticeable that after 2018, when nearly all students had a
smartphone (99.9%), the new figures show a decline (2020: 94.2%). The situation is similar for desktop computers,
which had the highest value in 2013 (94.6%) and are at 77.6% percent in 2020. For laptops, there was a peak
value in 2016 (88.9%), in 2020 fewer, namely only 80.9%, report such ownership. Detailed analysis of the
operating system/provider used (see Fig. 1 right-hand side) shows that, apart from a significant low of MS Windows
in the desktop computer rate in 2016, the values do not change significantly. In the case of smartphones, on the other
hand, there is a clear increase in the number of iPhones between 2011 and 2020, and the decline in smartphone
ownership has no effect either; the share is growing steadily (Fig. 1 left-hand side): In 2011, 14.4% of first-year
students reported owning an iPhone; in 2020, the figure is 37.7%.
It is also clear in 2020 that two of the famous gadgets of the early 2000s, namely the MP3 player and the
classic mobile phone, are of little importance. While 33.9% owned a classic mobile phone in 2011, only 4.6% of
first-year students do so in 2020. However, this development is a real surprise, after hardly anyone (1.2%) reported
owning such a mobile phone in 2018. Ownership of MP3 players, where the highest rate of 72.1% was seen in our
first survey in 2007, is steadily decreasing (2011: 51.4%, 2020: 5.1%, see Fig. 1 left-hand side). In fact, MP3
players and classic mobile phones no longer play a role in equipping first-year students. For tablets, which has
constantly been winning shares amongst the first-year students starting at 3.3% in 2011 and 31.2% in 2019, a small
decrease became apparent in 2020 (24.6%).
Figure 1: Equipment for first-year students at TU Graz over time from 2011 to 2020. Source: Annual survey
amongst Study Beginners at TU Graz (n2011=632, n2012=715, n2013=789, n2014=968, n2015=889,
n2016=944, n2017=872, and n2018=898, n2019=824, n2020=955).
Newer Wearables and IPTV buckling: the end of a trend?
In recent years, the survey has also increasingly included the question of wearables and other digital
developments such as IPTV (Internet-based televisions) or the use of portable power packs (PPP). The results of these
newer gadgets and digital trends are shown in Fig. 2. Developments here also reflect changes not only in availability
but also in student needs. In fact, for all gadgets and technologies included, there were equal or increasing numbers
of ownership and use among students, except for 2020: in the 2020 survey, first-year students were significantly less
likely than the year before to report owning PPPs (62.4% in 2018, 38.0% in 2020), e-readers (19.8% in 2019;
11.3% in 2020) and usage of IPTV (41.3% in 2019; 38.3% in 2020). Additionally, smart speakers and VR glasses
lost some percentage points from 2019 to 2020.
Figure 2: Wearables and digital equipment of first-year students at TU Graz over time from 2011 to 2020.
Source: Annual survey amongst first-year students at TU Graz (n2011=632, n2012=715, n2013=789,
n2014=968, n2015=889, n2016=944, n2017=872, and n2018=898, n2019=824, n2020=955).
Communication applications: WhatsApp unbeaten, e-mails still at a high level
There have been major changes in communication applications and survey questions over the last nine years,
as Fig. 3 shows. While the increasing loss of email as a means of communication and the loss of first place to
WhatsApp in 2015 led us to title the data analysis at that time “R.I.P. Email” (Nagler, Ebner, Schön, 2016), e-mail
now appears five years later as a still consistently commonly used means of communication in second place and at
around 80%. The fact that Whatsapp, i.e. a provider-bound communication application is far more widespread
(2020 about 11.1 percentage points difference) is still an important insight into how difficult it is to reach and
communicate with students reliably. The dramatic drop in scores for "Other Instant Messaging" from nearly 50% in
2016 to 5% in 2017 is discussed in our 2017 publication (Nagler, Ebner, Schön, 2017) and is due to an adjustment
to the questionnaire in this category.
Note that the values given in Fig. 3 and Fig. 4 refer to frequent and daily use. Data referring to infrequent
use was not added, as it would distort the significance of the usage. In the survey, we also always distinguish between
private use and use for learning purposes. The data presented here reflects private use. The analysis of the results of
use for learning purposes is not the subject of this publication. Nevertheless, it can be briefly noted that while there
are no significant changes regarding the use of learning management systems or digital teaching materials at
compulsory schools in 2019 and 2020, the importance of IT skills for studying is estimated to be slightly higher than in
previous years.
Figure 3: Communication tools of first-year students at TU Graz over time from 2011 to 2020. Values refer to
frequent and daily use. Source: Annual survey amongst Study Beginners at TU Graz (n2011=632, n2012=715,
n2013=789, n2014=968, n2015=889, n2016=944, n2017=872, and n2018=898, n2019=824, n2020=955).
Social Media tools: Photo-based communication records gains, Facebook continues to lose
The coming and going of applications is also clearly evident in the social media applications used by first-
year students (see Fig. 4): The already discontinued application “Google+” only appeared for a few years,
Facebook has definitely passed its peak in the age group of first-year students; it is used by 21.4% in 2020 - the
highest rate was 80.1% in 2011. A closer look is also worthwhile here: It shows that blogs/forums/newsgroups have
also been used less in the last two years and thus the trend of decreasing importance continues. What is striking,
however, is that the three newer apps that focus on sharing photos - not so clearly for Snapchat, but clearly for
Instagram and Pinterest - have been gaining in importance in the latest surveys: Instagram is now the most frequently
used social media application among first-year students at TU Graz at 64.45%. Pinterest shows significant growth
from 2017 (1.4%) to 2020 (13.6%).
Figure 4: Social Media tools used by first-year students at TU Graz over time from 2011 to 2020. Values refer to
frequent and daily use. Source: Annual survey amongst Study Beginners at TU Graz (n2011=632, n2012=715,
n2013=789, n2014=968, n2015=889, n2016=944, n2017=872, and n2018=898, n2019=824, n2020=955).
Potential effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on equipment and communication behaviour of first year students
As stated in the introduction, we have been curious to see if there are any effects of the developments on
COVID-19 pandemic that are evident in the equipment and usage patterns of first-year students. We have therefore
focused on developments where the proportion of students has changed significantly between 2019 and 2020.
In fact, Figures 1-4 show only one example where there is a significant change - even against the trend:
Portable powerpacks (power banks) declined dramatically between 2019 and 2020, although they had previously
increased year on year. There could be two reasons for this: (a) PPPs are no longer as important due to new technical
developments (e. g. long-lasting batteries of laptops and smartphones) (b) First-year students need PPPs less often.
Both causes may also have been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic: For the phase of distance learning at school,
for social distancing and curfew, for working from home, many have renewed their technical devices. At the same
time, PPPs are needed mainly for activities that are beyond the reach of other power sources; at home, this should
hardly matter. Students at the “Welcome Days” at TU Graz in 2020 could already assume that a large part of their
courses would be held as distance learning. So, in our view, the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects should therefore
play a significant role in this aspect and be clearly responsible for the development of PPP and for the sharp drop in
usage amongst TU Graz freshmen.
Discussion
In terms of the quality of the data collected, the setting of the survey - the Welcome Days - has now served
for years to ensure a satisfactory response rate and data quality. For example, the response rate of completed
questionnaires for 2020 is 95%. Due to the fact that participation in the Welcome Days is not obligatory, it was thus
possible to record 56% of all first-year students in 2020. This value is the highest in the survey period from 2009 to
2020. On average, we reach 45% of all first-year students with this survey setting. As mentioned at the beginning,
due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Welcome Days 2020 were not entirely conducted on site, but partly online.
However, this circumstance (especially the online part) led to a significantly higher participation in this event than in
previous years.
Since 2019, the questionnaires have been scanned and automatically evaluated, although a great deal of
manual work is still necessary. As can also be seen in the evaluations, changes to the questionnaire are made
cautiously, but are always necessary, for example when new tools or applications are involved. The exact wording of
the question can play a major role here, e. g. whether examples of an application are given or not (such an effect of
changing the wording of the question can be seen, for example, in Fig. 3 for "other instant messaging services").
Adjustments are also always necessary, which brings the challenge of data consistency for comparability over the
years. Overall, the data quality ought to be high and the evaluations ought to be valid. We assume that trends
similar to those we present here are also emerging at other European and international universities, always bearing
in mind that TU Graz of course has a technical orientation.
In terms of content, our surveys also reflect global trends in the use of digital technologies and applications.
In relation to our own previous work, this also reveals interesting insights in terms of content: The takeover of
Whatsapp by Facebook (Ebner, Nagler & Schön, 2011) is just as effective as the later takeover of Instagram by the
Facebook group: the declining user numbers at Facebook are effectively compensated or surpassed here. If we titled
the evaluation of the 2015 survey of first-year students "R.I.P. E-Mail" (Nagler, Ebner & Schön, 2016), because
Whatsapp was used more than emails for the first time, we have to revise this from today's perspective: Although still
behind WhatsApp, email appears to be a medium that continues to be used by the majority; in other words, it
appears to be rather immortal.
Outlook
With the 2020 first-year students not yet having experienced the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic at
school - most having more or less taken the exams after school closures, but hardly having effectively experienced
distance learning using digital technologies - we expect the 2021 freshmen to have significantly different conditions
once again. We expect to see significant shifts in the equipment and tools used by the 2021 first-year students, which
is more likely to be characterised as a change in their everyday life and experiences. Since the survey also includes
items on IT skills and experiences of learning with online courses we did not present in this paper, we are particularly
interested in these variables and their changes. First of all, however, we hope that the Welcome Days 2021 can take
place on the premises of TU Graz as in the previous year - as a good start to the studies and, from the perspective
of the scientists, as a good opportunity to receive high quality questionnaires and data.
In practical terms, it also needs to be stated taking into account the evaluations of the last two years that it is
still a challenge to reach our (new) students well in terms of communication: According to the survey, email is not part
of everyday life for a small proportion, and the communication channels typically used by public relations have little
overlap with the media used by first-year students - if they are not already using Instagram, for example. The
evaluation here shows in particular how challenging it will be to reach future students.
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