From e-mailing their professors for clarification on assignments, to reducing the need for research forays to the library, to setting up virtual study groups or just to keep in touch with their friends, college students have become savvy users of the Internet.

The Pew Internet and American Life Survey shows the degree to which the Internet has saturated the lives of today's students. One-fifth of them began using computers between the ages of 5 and 8. By the time they were 16 to 18, today's college students all were using computers at home or at school.

Seventy-two percent of college students check their e-mail at least once a day. And it's a good thing: Eighty-seven percent of students have received e-mail messages from their professors. More than half of students say they can communicate their ideas more freely to their professors via the Internet.

Despite their high comfort level with the Internet, students and professors say they still prefer face-to-face communication. What's more, don't go looking for traditional students to seek out online alternatives to the classroom. The survey found that only 6 percent of traditional college students (ages 18 to 22) took online courses for college credit. Of those, only half (52 percent) found the courses worthwhile. The rest felt they had not learned as much as in a traditional class. [Barbara McKenna / AFT On Campus]

[November 22, 2002]