Efficacy and attributional factors affecting college students in a computer literacy class

This study investigated self-efficacy perceptions and the causal attributions that influence students who successfully finish a college level canputer literacy course. The following issues were addressed: how do college level students appraise their computer literacy programming performance outcomes and capabilities and whether these appraisals differ as a function of their achievement level or gender. The additional questions which were examined are: 1) Are there gender differences which reflect any consistent attributional patterns or self-efficacy expectancies. 2) Does either gender group exhibit conmon attributional patterns and self-efficacy expectancies on the following dependent variables: ability, task difficulty, effort, general expectancy, or perceived efficacy. The independent variables for the study was gender. The sample consisted of two groups of randomly selected college students of 134 students per group. One group had already completed a single canputer literacy course, while the second group had just enrolled in their first computer literacy course. The study utilized a quasi-experimental design. [...]