Mariana Regalado

I Am More Productive in the Library Because It's Quiet: Commuter Students in the College Library.

This article discusses commuter students’ experiences with the academic library, drawn from a qualitative study at the City University of New York. Undergraduates at six community and baccalaureate colleges were interviewed to explore how they fit schoolwork into their days, and the challenges and opportunities they encountered. Students identified physical and environmental features that informed their ability to successfully engage in academic work in the library. They valued the library as a distraction-free place for academic work, in contrast to the constraints they experienced in other places—including in their homes and on the commute.

Recommendations for Technology in Higher Education

When thinking about the ideal digital technology landscape for higher education, it is critically important to consider commuter and nontraditional undergraduates, who may have less access to the internet or other digital technology and more pressure on the time available for their academic work. Students work hard to get the resources they need for their coursework, and digital technology has in many ways made this work more complicated and time-consuming. Students need reliable wifi on campus, continued access to computer labs, increased access to charging and printing, robust training, timely support, and mobile-friendly academic software. Concerns about technology access and digital literacy are imperative, a question of social justice in US higher education and beyond to best support students’ academic success.

College Students and Mobile Technology

Mobile digital technology has the potential to enable students to create space and time for their academic work. Most undergraduates have a smartphone; some also use tablet computers and ereaders for their coursework. While students appreciate laptop computers, older and heavier models are often used more like desktop computers, and not all students can afford the additional expense of a laptop. Mobile technology offers many affordances for students, especially in light of fixed barriers, and can facilitate students’ academic work in varied locations. However, this more recently developed technological model also introduces barriers that are distinctly location-based. Mobile technology requires internet access to be most useful for coursework, and access to solid, reliable wifi is not guaranteed for students, either on campus or off.

College Students, Technology, and Time

Time management is important for all undergraduates, and especially nontraditional and commuter students who have considerable responsibilities outside of school and must make time for travel to and from campus. Students use technology to create or extend time, using mobile devices to fit their academic work into times and locations that are most available to them. Urban commuter students can take advantage of time spent on public transportation, though internet access is not always guaranteed. However, digital technology can also constrain time and make it difficult for students to accomplish their schoolwork. The requirement for many students to plan their schedules around the availability of fixed technology in a shared space can waste students’ time, making it more challenging for them to complete their coursework.

College Students and Fixed Technology

The immobile nature of fixed digital technology—including personal computers, printers, photocopiers, and scanners—defines opportunities for students to use it for their coursework, especially commuter and nontraditional undergraduates. Students need and appreciate full-featured computing and printing, though not all students have access to this technology in their homes or other off-campus locations, or the broadband internet access required for its optimal use. While campus computer labs require institutional investment, these labs facilitate students’ academic work, and students use them heavily. However, most commuter and nontraditional students must use fixed technology in shared spaces for their academic work. The distractions and lack of privacy that using fixed technology in computer labs entails is a challenge for students.

Situating College Students and Technology

All US college students use digital technologies in their academic work, so understanding their experience using both their personal and campus technology is vital to supporting student success. Despite a widely held view of college students as “digital natives” proficient in the use of digital technology, undergraduates do not all share the same technology background or own and use technology to the same extent. Further, the mainstream media focuses on the experiences of residential students at research-intensive or private colleges and universities, though commuter and nontraditional students make up the majority of US undergraduates. Using qualitative methods and insights from the social sciences, this study at the City University of New York explores how commuter and nontraditional students are actually using technology for their coursework.