What students use: Results of a survey on media use among engineering students

Nowadays, university students are facing a large number of highly diverse media, including conventional books as well as online-based mobile applications — all used to support learning. Especially the internet with its connected social media services or e-learning possibilities induced significant changes in society and in the landscape of higher education during the last years and still do so. The four universities RWTH Aachen University, Ruhr-University Bochum, TU Dortmund University, and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology conducted an exploratory student survey on media and information use, in order to expand the empirical database on that topic. A special focus was laid on mobile learning. In this context the survey asked for hardware and software the students are using and for those situations where they already got in contact with any kind of mobile learning — e.g. by using special apps for learning or because they were asked by their teachers to use a mobile device. The results of the survey elucidate that the use of online media and especially social media as well as mobile devices in higher education are in need to be promoted in future. Furthermore, it reveals demands for action in the field of media competency concerning students as well as teachers.