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Laptop / pc use habits in academia:A detailed survey on AIUB students

A report submitted to the Department of English, AIUB, in part-fulfillment of the requirements of the final examination in Business Communication, spring semester 2016

Prepared & Submitted by

Kaniteen Arefin

Student id: 15-30004-2

Business Communication (FSIT), Section: G.

Submitted to

Mehedi Kayser Pabitra

Lecturer

Department of English

Faculty of Arts and Social Science

Date of Submission8th April, 2016

American International University Bangladesh. (AIUB)

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April 8, 2016

Mehedi Kayser Pabitra

Course instructor, Business Communication

Dept. of English, Faculty of Arts and Social Science, AIUB

Subject: Submission of Report

Sir,

It is my pleasant opportunity to submit this report entitled by “Laptop/ pc use habits in academia: detailed survey on AIUB students” based on the requirement of the final term examination of business communication, an exclusive and important course under you.

Computer has captured the whole scope of a student’s life very significantly. It is used widely both for academic and supportive academic purpose. Fresher graduates from any respective departments are highly recommended and most often it becomes major focused requirement to be habituated with computer technology. Computer technology is such a buzzword that any topic linked to the necessity and impact of computer, becomes lighter enough due to the shadow of the computer technology ocean. Perhaps it is the most important tool in today’s world in every sector. Laptop is a very famous type of computer because it is easy to carry, lighter, small in size, portable to anywhere, runs on battery for a long time and so on. It has gained its availability among students. From the very first day of student’s life till the end of professional life one must feel the necessity of a laptop pc. This report highlights the result of a study on laptop habits and runs through all the direction of the study flows.

Finally I am really grateful to you for giving me the opportunity to work on the report. Your entire instruction, tips and tricks, report writing format lesson, and lastly my little effort leads me to the successful completion of the report. You had a wonderful effort to teach how to write report properly. Despite this, mistakes might arise as I am beginner or such report writing, I sincerely admit this.

Best regards

_______________

Kaniteen Arefin.

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PrefaceFor the first time I tried to work on report writing with the help of special guidelines by Mehedi Kayser

Pabitra Sir, my honorable course instructor on business communication. I considered myself very

fortunate because I got him as instructor. Topic selection was the proof of intelligence by Pabitra Sir. I

had to run through almost all the direction to learn report writing properly. I believe this content will help

the other beginners like me.

I came with the topic “laptop use habits of students”. For the completion of the report I had

to make a survey on unknown peoples. While asking various questions to other unknown students, firstly

I felt shy but very soon this task turned into my strength from weakness. They helped me a lot. It was

really very nice experience for me. This practice results in good communicative skills with unknown

people and confidence of ability in me. I found everyone very sincere and most important thing is that I

came to learn some new way of using laptop which I haven’t implemented previously but going to be

habituated from next. I realized sharing experience increases boundary of learning, enhance possibilities

to growing up. Readers of this article can be benefited in three ways. They can have idea about report

format, they might came to know how other people are using the ever wondering discover of science

“laptop” in their academic life and finally the necessity of laptop in academic life, ways of usage,

advantage, drawback, some new wide practice in laptop habits.

Later of the content covers the area of laptop evolution, brief background of AIUB and its student’s

community, most common features of laptop, present statistics on some of specific fact related to laptop

habit on AIUB students.

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Acknowledgement

Inside of my mind at first I would like to admit the kindness of almighty Allah. He has given me the mental and physical ability. Then I would like to thanks Mehedi Kayser Pabitra Sir for giving me the pleasant opportunity to work with the report. But before giving this opportunity his contribution to prepare me cannot be described in word. It would not been possible without the guidelines of him. So thanks to him again.

Then special thanks my elder Kawsanur Arefin (MBA at AIUB) sister for her consistent help and advice. She is the source of my motivation. She helped me a lot to complete the task.

Now it is turn for those people who helped me in context of completing survey. Thanks to them for their efficient reply to my questionnaires and sincerity.

And finally I will not forget to say thanks to all my friends and classmates. They helped to make my concept clear on report writing in class room. Moreover I have discussed my problems whenever I faced regarding this task and they gave me a nice solution and inspirations.

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Table of Contents

Title Page 1

Forwarding Letter 2Preface 3Acknowledgment 4 Table of Contents 5

List of Illustrations 6

Abstract 7

1.0 Introduction _______________________________________________________ 8-91.1 Evolution of laptop history in Bangladesh__________________________ 9-101.2 A brief background of AIUB students_______________________ 11-12

1.3 Common features/function of laptop_____________________________ 131.4 Check before buying__________________________________________ 13-141.5 Common academic use of laptop/pc_____________________________ 15-16

2.0 Research and methodology____________________________________________ 172.1 purpose of the study___________________________________________ 172.2 procedure of the study_________________________________________ 172.3 questionnaire_________________________________________________ 18-19

3.0 Graph on data analysis________________________________________________ 20-264.0 Conclusion_________________________________________________________ 27-285.0 Recommandation____________________________________________________ 29

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List of illustration

Table 1: Common function in laptop

Table 2: Check while buying

Table 3: Common academic use of laptop by AIUB students

Graph1: Department wise laptop/pc using rate.

Pie chart 1: Purpose of using laptop/pc by students.

Pie chart 2: Preferable device for academic purpose.

Pie chart 3: Most frequent academic task.

Pie chart 4: Overall laptop/pc using rate on various purpose.

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AbstractIn the current world, it’s almost impossible to imagine that someone can live without computers. Computers have become an electronic device of almost every day use for individuals of every age. They are essential in almost all the business dealings that are made nowadays. The most that any industry has gained from the discovery of the computers is the business industry because of its nature. Computers have gained significance as they have improved the efficiency and productivity of work done. Large amounts of information in industrial and business sectors as well as in the personal lives are stored on computers.

Computers can help businesses by making their staff efficient and productive and also save their valuable time in any business or office. Computers in schools will help the learners to comprehend the basic concepts better with the help of video or audio examples. Computers in higher learning institutions will help the professors and researchers to do their work very fast and in an efficient and better way and also help them to share the same knowledge with their other members of staff. Computers become a vital gadget in several sectors; railways, banking, electricity, telephone departments, shopping carts etc are just but a few of them. Computers are also used in the medical industry to help doctors in diagnosing the diseases quickly and efficiently. All the administrative systems, whether private or public are now using computers and this practice can be evident in every part of the world.

Computers have also helped the media and the entertainment industries. Be it a multi-million dollars movie or a two minutes commercial, computers have changed the usual concept of providing entertainment to the public. With the computer business growing so fast, the computer industry has also brought about an invention. Tablets, palmtops, and laptops have replaced the desktops. With the decrease in size, it has become very easy to carry the computer and use them anywhere you are to the fullest.

The importance of computers in our daily lives can be judged by the number of people using them each single day. Computer is not only used by professionals, but also by the little children and grownups at our homes.

University students nowadays have a trend of using laptop/pc just because of its cool advantage. It runs without even plugging in to AC current. Everything is built in and lighters enough to carry out. A survey on AIUB students show that 60% male students are fully habituated with bringing laptop and work on it almost all day. 45% female students do the same. Using laptop has been a culture of AIUB. AIUB creates professional skilful graduates. Their students are very smart and intelligent. They are really doing well in the job sector of Bangladesh for their subjective and supportive knowledge on computer technology.

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1.0. Introduction

Computers play important role in student life, on the other hand importance of computer

education to students is so high, these two complementary sentences makes student bound to be

habituated with computers. It doesn’t mean that students are forced to be habituated with

computers against their wish. Rather the reality is students are just fond of computers. Computer

makes our everyday world much easier and it is true for every sector of life. Modern world is

fully dependent on computer technology. Professional persons cannot think of a day without it.

It has both commercial and non commercial use. It can influence everyone’s life in some other

way that’s why computer has been a part of our life. The way it is interconnected with our life

and the variety use of computer in a wide range of sector is not possible to finish by describing.

It is the ever wondering discover of science and most useful electronic device in the world.

Fastest execution power, restless working, and accuracy of result are the reason of its popularity.

One can do anything he wants by the help of computer. Garments industry checks the quality of

their production, run and maintain hydro generic machine by computers. Pharmaceuticals use

computer as an auto controller of heavy machine and make sensitive drugs. Chemical industry

also uses it to calculate thin molecular chemical properly and control dump, medical science

takes the great advantage of it. Computer controlled robot can make successful surgery. Some

often computer can troubleshoot problems and cure without operation. It is widely used to the lab

for manipulating medical test report. Advance electronic circuit simulation, power plant

implementation, banking sector, spaceship authentication, natural resources digging sector,

construction of housing, education board, multimedia class room, data management, social

networking, electronic books, mail, communication, calculation, making presentation, getting

entertainment everything is controlled by computer. Contribution of computer on education is

vast. Nowadays teacher takes class through projectors, delivers note through mail service,

publish result online. It has made education life easier. Solid physics, chemical bonding,

transmission flow and many other difficult topics are easy now for 3d visualization. Moreover

students get notification from university online, submit their assignment online. As computer

dominate education sector like all other site of life students are normally dependent on it.

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Computer is a great source of entertainment also. One can play game, enjoy movies, and listen to

song, paint and so many things. Our trade culture, personal, social, commercial and non-

commercial sector has warmly received the technology. Student life is the formation period of

professional life. So students need to be habituated with these trends. Our university students are

not behind from this practice.

1.1 Evolution of laptop/pc using trends in Bangladesh

Laptop/pc using trends in Bangladesh has been started in the year of 2006-07. This trend was

exploring slowly specially among the professionals. This trend was not in a wide practice among

university students. But if you think about today’s Bangladesh you will be astonished. Near

about 38% university students use laptop/pc for academic purpose. Now the question is, when

from the trend of using laptop/pc has been started among students? Well, Current situation has

been developed by last five years only. It is incredible in context of Bangladesh. Dell was the

first laptop brand successfully captured the market from 2007. Then Dolphin computers came to

market observing the golden time of Bangladesh laptop/pc habits. Then all other foreign brands

like Hp, Asus, Toshiba, Acer and so many brands started to capture market. We can proudly

announce that a developing country like Bangladesh has its own brand of laptop specially made

for students and that is DOEL. Laptop/pc using trend has close relation with internet.ICT sector

of Bangladesh enriched by the staring of SANOG IV LAN internet protocol system, then BDIX

at 2004 and then optical fiber using from 2005. When different telecommunication company

started to be established in our country large number of computer and electrical graduates started

working with them. Their hard working is one of important component to enrich ICT sector of

Bangladesh. Then at 2008, our honorable Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina announced vision

“Digital Bangladesh-2020”. From then our government has created many chance to young

people to develop IT career. Out sourcing sector explored a new dimension of possibilities

among Bangladeshi young. By the time we achieved economic solvency a little bit. Different

multinational companies started to come in Bangladesh and were looking for IT expert graduates

specially computer graduates. By the mean time local software company also established and

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local trading company started using database software for their own. Value of computer

graduated started rising and trend of using laptop among students had been started. Not only

computer graduates but also other department’s student started practice over computer

technology. Now technological knowledge is mandatory for all students. Even a new subject on

ICT has been introduced to the curriculum of higher secondary level. Trade and employment in

Information Technology service inspire students to be habituated with IT. Female students are

not out of the circle. They are developing skills on it. Few success of Bangladesh is the evidence

of our history. In 2010 Bangladesh was the highest earning region from freelancing and out

sourcing site. Several IT farms export their production worldwide. Now our students are asset to

the government. They work on multimedia projection, animation, games development, android

application development, graphics, and cinematography and create wonderful signature of

expertness. Private university students are the large community of this trend. Public university is

also developing in this context. We have so many cyber expert and we won cyber war against

India. Bangladesh is on very strong position in this regards. All credits goes to the students of

our country. We conduct international category IT expo. We have IDB bhaban. We have BASIS.

This is an integrated result of laptop/pc using trend. Having good command over Microsoft

office, internet browsing, little expertness on local network system, making good level

presentation capability are normal requirement from all discipline of students. Nowadays

computer expertness on any category like graphics design, website design, e-marketing etc has

been a great medium of earning. Social communication is more flexible on laptop as one can

complete other formal sheet, document, report, research etc on computer. Students have started

using laptop frequently and now it is a habit, it is a trend.

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1.2. A brief background of AIUB students

American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB) is a private research university located at

Banani in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It was established in 1994 by Anwarul Abedin under the Private

University Act, 1992. Talented graduated from public university has a trend to going abroad after

finishing graduation. It was “brain-Drain” problem. It can have negative effect over national

economy. On that moment AIUB had been introduced as a solution to “Brain-Drain”

A university is a fountainhead of knowledge. New knowledge, skills and meaningful experiences

spring from the university. To quench the thirst of individuals who are in search for wider

horizon of learning and discover novel challenges in life is the inherent intention of AIUB even

at the time of its conception. Students are honed and nurtured to become Leaders in their

respective chosen discipline. It continuously transforms students into active participants in the

development process in both curricular and extra-curricular activities. It has built and maintained

its reputation as a leader in the pursuit of quality and excellence. The primary beneficiaries are

the students who stand to benefit from all the resources and services provided by the university.

Under the stewardship's of dedicated and visionary founders, dynamic management, competent

faculty and skillful support staff, the university continues to be the venue for change and

producing leaders in various arenas of endeavors. My opinion about this university is their

attempt of making professional graduates and providing computer based education has been

successful. As proof I am going to hold up the mission and vision of AIUB.

Mission:

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY-BANGLADESH (AIUB) envisions promoting professionals and excellent leadership catering to the technological progress and development needs of the country.

Vision:

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY-BANGLADESH (AIUB) is committed to provide quality and excellent computer-based academic programs responsive to the emerging challenges of the time. It is dedicated to nurture and produce competent world class professional imbued with strong sense

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of ethical values ready to face the competitive world of arts, business, science, social science and technology.

They have been succeeded to implementing their goal. They are building asset for the country.

AIUB students are smart in the field of technology. Reason behind this success is having linkage

with some well known technological institution. Following data is collected from www.aiub.edu

Linkages and Networking

Microsoft Security Cooperation Program (SCP)

Microsoft IT Academy (www.cec.aiub.edu)

MSDNAA (www.cec.aiub.edu)

CCNA and IT Essentials in collaboration with CISCO (www.cec.aiub.edu)

Authorized Sun Education Centre (www.cec.aiub.edu)

Education Partner of Bangladesh Cricket Board (www.cec.aiub.edu)

Oracle Academy (www.cec.aiub.edu)

Certifies Internet Web (CIW) Professional Program (www.cec.aiub.edu)

CTP Authorized Training Academy (www.cec.aiub.edu)

The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award (www.intaward.org)

No doubt AIUB students are expert in technology as they remain close touch to all those institution mentioned in the linkage and networking section. Moreover AIUB has been established to provide computer based academic program and make excellent graduates having technological expertness. Out of these historical or theoretical terms you can see the same image on their real academic area. They introduced VIUS system which is teacher-students communication platform and this system also make them touched by the administration also. So they are somehow bound and habituated with laptop/pc. Same image will be reflected to all the disciplines. AIUB students have some national and international achievements which is proof of their computer habits. Some of their students have placed first in national and international category programming contest. Their EEE and BBA department’s students are also doing fine. Finally one line about AIUB is their mission has been succeeded and vision has been visited.

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1.3: Common function of laptop/pc

The laptop computers are made for increasing the convenience of users. They can be used in travelling for

business purposes. The laptop computer is portable equipment. The laptop computers are portable due to light weight. They

have many features when they are compared with desktop computers. Laptop computers are operated

using built in batteries. These batteries are made for long life. The laptop computer has a built in touch

pad so that it can be operated without a mouse. The key board and monitor have also been built in so

that the equipment facilitates all functions.

The laptop computers are smaller and energy efficient. The parts used to make them are expensive.

The facilities provided in a laptop computer are similar to that of a desktop computer. Different versions

of laptops are available in the market with large screens, high capacity graphic cards etc.

The specialty in laptop computers includes light weight and lower energy consumption. Also they are less

noisy and easy to handle. Similar to desktop computers the laptop computers include mother board,

processor, hard disk, memory, graphic card, keyboard, mouse and display device battery life etc.

The major benefit of a laptop computer is that it is lighter in weight and can be used while travelling.

The disadvantage of a laptop computer is that it does not support for expansion or upgrade. The laptop

computers are equipped with built in wireless network cards. It facilitates users to connect to the Internet

without a cable.

1.4: Check before buying

Laptop has several advantages over desktop but you must have concern about few things while

going to buy laptop. Here I show you what should be your concern on a laptop to have a better

experience than desktop.

Hard Drives: Your laptop’s hard drive should have 500 gigabyte to 1 terabyte space solid date

drive (SSD).

RAM: Your laptop should have minimum 2 gigabyte random access memory

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Processor speed: In old days you would have judge a computer almost exclusively on its

processor speed. Your processor should be minimum 1.6 GHz speed. If you are going to use

your laptop for major gaming, data processing, or video, or graphics design your laptop should

have higher speed in processor (GHz) and multi core processor.

Laptop weight: Nowadays you don’t need DVD drive. Flash drive is the alternative for you so

buy slim and light laptop.

Screen size: At least 11” and maximum 17”

Screen resolution: Resolution is the other critical factor determining how much information you

will be able to see on your laptop’s screen. (1280×800)- (1600×1200).

Screen backlight: LED lighting technology offers a better picture, is more durable, and

consumes less power.

Track Pads: Your track pads should be sensitive and gesture mode should ne enabled.

Keyboard: Flexible fit with your figures.

Battery Life: One of the limiting factors of laptops is battery life. You need to consider your life

style and decide how important battery life is. The best laptops will offer you 10 hours of battery

life. This can enable students to use laptop through the day without ever having to plug it.

Ports: Your laptop is meant for portability. Your laptop should have adequate number of USB

ports. All ports should USB 3.0 standards.

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1.5: Common academic use of laptop/pc

Laptop/pc is frequently use by a consumer of it in various purpose. Students pick up greatest

advantage of this device on academic purpose. They use it on various conditions for academic

purpose. Following data highlights some common necessity and field of using laptop/pc by

students on their academic life.

1. Presentation: Students from all discipline usually needs to prepare presentation. This

time they need to work on Microsoft power point/ prezi. Associating with

presentation making task they often need to use drawing tools, excel, adobe acrobat

or Photoshop etc.

2. Assignment on word document: Teachers often ask for assignment to be done by

students. So they need to work with Microsoft word and all associating software.

3. Report: Like presentation and word doc assignment report writing is frequent practice

of students nowadays. So they need to work on Microsoft office.

4. Poster/cover page design: Most often students feel the necessity to design a cover

page for their assignment, project, report, or presentation. They take help from adobe

series software to do this.

5. Animation: Sometimes students need to prepare a little animation clip to visualize a

concept. This time they need to be habituated with maya 3D.

6. Access to academic protocol: Most common use of laptop/pc for AIUB students is to

access university FTP protocol or VIUS system. They get everyday class notes on

VIUS. Sometimes they need to submit their task on the system. Sometimes they need

to be notified weather the class is going to be happen or not or some other

information.

7. Tools: Students from all discipline are dependent on some software. CS students need

to practice coding all day long with Codebooks, Microsoft visual studio, Oracle

DBMS, EMU8086, android studio, Net bean IDE and so on. EEE students need some

software for simulating circuits before practical implementation. Architecture

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students need to work on CAD, Maya 3D and so on. BBA students need to work on

M/S word, excel, PowerPoint, Photoshop and so on. MMC students need to be

habituated with all graphics and video editing software.

8. Doing home work/class work: Sometimes teacher provide some task which is not

possible to complete without laptop/pc.

9. Browsing internet for research.

10. Submitting or getting file to teacher

11. Visiting VIUS

12. Registration purpose: AIUB offers open credit system and has the most advanced

database system of its own. On every semester students need to be registered with

subjects and sections. Laptop/pc helps them a lot in this context.

13. Advance simulation of project: None is going to implement a project without being

sure about its practical effect. Laptop/pc helps them a lot in advance graphical

simulation of projects.

14. Group work: Sometimes student are provided group task. So they bring laptop/pc in

university, discuss and finish their task through the help of laptop/pc.

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2.0: Research and Methodology

The purpose of this study is to observe laptop/pc using habits of AIUB students. Therefore I had

made a survey on AIUB students from all discipline. Data for this report were gathered from 1 -

7 April 2016.  A questionnaire survey was carried out from 2 - 5 April. The questionnaires were

distributed to a total of 180 staff, consisting of 60 staff at senior level and 120 staff of junior

level. Staff representatives from both senior and junior levels were interviewed on instant. Close

ended question pattern had been followed for 23 questions. 160 copies were returned by the

students fully answered. Rest of the copies was not fully completed with answers. I have used

100 copies of questionnaires paper for data analysis. 25 of them were from CSE department, 20

from EEE department, 20 from BBA, 15 from MMC, 10 from LLB, and 10 from Architecture

department.

Survey Questionnaires

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Topic: Laptop/pc use habits in AIUB

A detailed survey on AIUB students

Spring 2016 at American International University Bangladesh

Name : ________________________

Department : ( ) CSE, ( ) EEE, ( )BBA, ( )MMC, ( )ARCH, ( ) LLB

Credit Completed : _________________________

Please give a √ mark beside your choice

1. Do you have a laptop for academic use?

2. How long you have been using laptop?

3. How long you have been using it for academic purpose?

4. What is your laptop brand?

5. How long a day you usually use laptop?

6. How long a day you use laptop for academic purpose?

7. Do you bring your laptop at university?

8. How many days in a week you bring your laptop?

9. What you often do with your laptop?

10. Do you use your smart phone for academic purpose?

11. Do you thing smart phone is flexible alternative of laptop?

12. Which you more prefer for academic use?

13. Did you use laptop for academic purpose before joining AIUB?

14. What is the most often academic use of your laptop?

15. Do you think the necessity of laptop for students of your department?

16. Which software you frequently use as your study tool?

17. Do you have good command over Microsoft office?

18. Did you ever prepare report, assignment, and presentation single?

19. Do you browse internet for academic purpose on laptop?

20. Which one you use more for academic purpose?

21. Do you play game on laptop?

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22. How long you use laptop not for academic purpose?

23. Do you thing laptop is an entertaining device?

24. What is better for academic help? And why?

25. What are the advantages of laptop over smart phone?

26. What are the disadvantages of laptop over smart phone?

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3.0: Graph

Analysis and Findings

CSE EEE BBA Arch MMC LLB0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Department wise laptop/pc using rate

Laptop Desktop don’t have own laptop/pc

Figure 1: Department wise laptop/pc using rate

Above bar chart shows the rate of laptop/pc user from all departments. I found based on the survey of AIUB students Computer Science background’s entire student has a laptop/ desktop or both. 70% of them have laptop. Sky blue color represents the rate of laptop user, red bar represents rate of desktop user and finally green bar represents the rate of student who don’t have a laptop/ desktop of his own. But the wondering thing is every one of them has expertness over computer. AIUB offers a great lab facility for students. 35% EEE students use laptop and 45% use desktop. 60% BBA students have laptop and they usually use it a lot but not as engineering students.

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43%

26%

15%

13%

4%

Purpose of using laptop/pc by studentsAcademic Entertainment Internet browsing Social networking Others purpose

Figure 1: Department wise laptop/pc using rate

Figure 2: Laptop/pc using rate on different purpose

This pie chart shows purpose of students of using laptop. 43% AIUB students use laptop for academic purpose. This rate of each sector doesn’t mean that a specific one is the only practice of AIUB students. This chart shows the most common activity with its rate. Obviously every student performs all other task from the circle. Wondering news is that most of them haven’t laptop before getting admission to this university. So it can be said that using laptop is the habit and culture of AIUB. 25% students use laptop for entertainment purpose most often. Survey says AIUB students feel comfort by using laptop over other devices. All other sectors name is denoted by the color and rate is written inside the circle.

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Smart Phone14%

Laptop39%

Desktop27%

Tablets20%

Preferable device for academic purpose

Figure 3: Preferable device of AIUB students for academic purpose

When looking for a computing device, there are many options out there. Today, a decision you may have to think about is whether to purchase a computer or a smart phone. Both can provide computing capabilities, run software and perform other tasks, but there are many factors to consider between the two options. Below is a chart to highlight some of the important factors to consider, including the pros and cons of each.

Topic Computer SmartphonePower More powerful computing

processors typically require greater amounts of power and cooling. Computers are equipped to provide these requirements for processors, thus being able to feature higher computing power overall.

Smartphone’s are more compact and do not have the capability of providing the amount of power and cooling that more powerful processors require. They are limited to lower voltage processors, although processors of this type are becoming more advanced and powerful.

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Cost Prices for a computer (desktop or laptop) can vary widely, depending on its capabilities, storage, and features. A more powerful computer will be more expensive, but computer prices can range from $300 to $2000.

Cell phones, specifically smart phones, can vary in price based on power and various features, but not as much as computers. Prices can be $100 to $500 in most cases with a contract.

Screen sizeDesktop computers use monitors with large screen sizes. Standard monitor sizes are between 17" and 24" in most cases, but larger displays can be used. These include a TV or projector. Laptops typically feature screen sizes up to 17".

Smartphone’s, due to their smaller size, feature smaller screen sizes ranging from 2.5" to 4.8", with a few exceptions. To get a bigger screen size (up to 10"), you would have to venture into the tablet market, which can sometimes feature phone call capabilities, but that is not standard.

Portability Desktop computers are not considered to be portable. They are not easy to move around. Laptop computers are portable, lightweight, and easy to place in a backpack. However, laptops with larger screens (17"+) can be bulky and more difficult to carry, weighing up to seven or eight pounds.

Smartphone’s, while a bit bigger than a standard cell phone, and are still more portable than any computer. They are very lightweight and can fit in a purse or pants pocket with ease. They are designed to be taken everywhere with you, thus the very definition of portable.

Storage Computer hard drives are already over one terabyte (TB) and continuing to increase in size. Even the most basic computer comes with a 250 gigabyte (GB) hard drive today. This applies to both desktop and laptop computers. For most

Some smart phones come with built-in storage, ranging from 8 GB to 64 GB. In some cases, an expansion slot may be available for adding an additional memory chip for more storage capacity. Smartphone’s, in general, will offer less storage capacity than a computer, but for most users, the storage provided is more than adequate. As memory chips increase in size, so will the

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people, storage will not be an issue, since even 250 GB is more than enough for many users.

storage capacity of a smart phone.

Connectivity

Although a computer can connect to a 3G, 4G or other phone network, computers do not come with the necessary equipment. Most laptops rely on a Wi-Fi signal to connect to the Internet.

Smartphone’s have a data plan that allows them to be connected to the Internet at all times, as long as the phone is receiving a signal from a cell phone tower.

Operating system

Computers come with a more fully featured operating system due to having the computing power and memory requirements. Both desktop and laptop computers can run a fully featured version of an operating system, with the option to choose the operating system on PCs.

Tablets come with a more slimmed down operating system due to having more limited computing power and memory. The Android OS and Appleadequate operating systems for tablet users, but not the fully featured operating system found in a computer. Even the Windows operating system found on select smart phones is a slimmed down version of that found on a computer.

Data Entry and user input

A computer uses a keyboard for data entry that most users are familiar with and comfortable using. The mouse is also available for easy scrolling and clicking.

Smartphone’s feature an on-screen touch keyboard that is much smaller than that of a standard computer. The smaller keyboard can make typing more difficult for users, especially for those who have big fingers. Some smart phones feature a slide-out keyboard, with actual keys to press. Again, this keyboard is much smaller than a standard computer keyboard and can still be difficult for some users.

Most users today have both a smart phone and a computer in their home. They use a smart phone for phone calls, messaging, browsing the Internet, reading e-mail, and other small jobs and use a

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computer for more complicated projects or work. If you are trying to decide between only a smart phone or a computer, also consider a tablet or a hybrid computer, which offers the best of both a laptop and tablet.

Finally, if you're considering a smart phone but don't think you'll use the Internet much, we highly recommend purchasing a feature phone instead of a smart phone to avoid monthly data costs.

Presentation14%

Assignment/ Report

10%

Programming41%

Study20%

software simulator

15%

Most frequent academic task

Figure 4: Most frequent academic task on laptop/pc by students of AIUB

Students need to frequently do the task of making presentation, assignment, report, project, poster designing, programming , study and specially they are dependent on some software like adobe

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PhotoShop, visual studio etc. Based on the survey above graph shows us the rate of most frequent academic task by AIUB students.

Watching movies21%

Playing games19%

Academic32%

Social networking8%

Photo editing8%

Others11%

Overall laptop using habits

Figure 5: Overall laptop using habit of AIUB students

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4.0.Conclusion

The majority of the respondents have one or more personal computers in their home, whereas only 2 of them do not have a personal computer. It represents that personal computer almost a standard of equipment in some families; especially for the teenagers. With respect to the findings in question 2, we can believe it is trendy and common for young people nowadays.

The result signified that 142 of the 160 respondents shared their personal computers with their family members. From the result, we could draw a conclusion that the personal computers still remain expensive. People cannot afford to have one computer for themselves. In addition, limited area may be another factor in Hong Kong.

Most respondents' personal computers could connect to the Internet (81%). It indicated that Internet is very popular for people in Hong Kong. While the fee of the Internet Service Providers (ISPs) is falling, Internet becomes more attractive. Almost all personal computer would assess to the Internet. According to the increasing numbers of personal computers, computers play an important role in our life nowadays (85%). Computers not just a high-speed calculator, it provides a multimedia channel for all computer users. The responses reveal the three main purposes of personal computers were studying (75%), working (45%) and entertainment (80%).

For study, Internet brings an alternative and interactive way of education compared with the traditional teaching method. Hence, it explains why most respondents would like to use the computer for their study. About 50% of respondents would like to work with the personal computers, it represented that computers can increase the effectiveness of the work (from part of the result of question 11). For instance, with the help of additional software, such as Microsoft Office, Windows series, we can almost create and edit all kind of documents and print them in a suitable outlook. Besides documents, people can handle other functions, including audio, video

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and picture as well. As a result, the vast majority of the respondents stated that the purpose of using computer was entertainment (80%).

While a large percentage of computer users use their computer frequently, it was remarkable that 35% of them spend more than 21 hours a week on computers and over 50% of users spend more than 2 hours a day on computers. It showed the fact that computer is much closer to our daily life. With respect to entertainment, many respondents (38%) say that they would spend 16~20 hours each week. Since the enhancement improves the quality of the computer games and it brings a great excitement to people. On the other hand, most PCs are installed with CD-ROM, and even DVD-ROM devices. They are now commonly offered as standard peripherals for stand-alone computers today, which allow people to listen to music in CD and watch video either VCD or DVD. Personal computers act as a multimedia entertainment center in most families.

Is it essential for everyone own a computer? That's a question in our survey. There are roughly half of the respondents do believe. From the conclusion above, we can’t object that computers have become a part of our life. Not only in family, as we hang around out of our homes, there are still computers around us, “Computer make us work more effectively” is considered as a main advantage by majority of the respondents. With the help of Internet, we can get latest information and communicate with others easily. So roughly half of respondents believed that “Getting information easily” and “learning more” are other advantages. Although, most respondents agreed the main purpose of using computer was entertainment, but it is surprising that only 2 respondents thought that computers could make us relax. There was 2 respondents thought that computer is perfect because they thought that computer is amazing and can “Do things other things cannot do”. These showed still a very little portion of people were too depend and relied on computers psychosomatically.

After all, from the survey, we discovered that people do think that computers bring some disadvantages to us. Nearly half of the respondents thought that computer is harmful to health and it is expensive. People rely too much on computers and the security system of computer program are other major problems. And some respondents thought using computer make them anti- social. From the result, the health problems were their main concern when using computers. And as the increasing number of internetworking and the application of Internet are extended to banking and purchasing, more people will be concerned the security system of their computer and affair they will rely on it too much.

Last for all, although the price of computers have become much cheaper now, but people still expect that the cost of computers could be lower and the size of it can be reduced with higher processing speed. For their great expectation to the development of e-commerce, growth in

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security in the Internet is expected to continue. While the Operation System and the software application become more user-friendly, but there has a small portion of respondents expect their ease of usage can become much simple.

5.0. Recommendation

People should use computer in the proper way, such as not to use the computer for a long period (above 3 hours). They should have a short break of about 15 minutes according to the medical research. It is recommended there is a distance gap between the eyes and the monitor, avoid harmful to our eyes.

As discussed above, the standard of personal computer is enhancing and the price is declining. About the security, we recommend the password is the most effective way for protecting personal information. However, some statistics reveal that the number of cracker is increasing rapidly. Thus, Government should provide resources in educating the youngsters.

Finally, people should not “live” in computer’s virtual life, which will just make them anti-social. Computer brings us so many benefits, but communication and friendship between human beings are most important.

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End

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