COMPUTER COMPETENCY PROGRAM DESIGN:
FACTORS THAT MATTER TO HISPANIC NONTRADITIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS

By
ALI MORALES

Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Texas A&M University-Commerce
In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
February, 2013

COMPUTER COMPETENCY PROGRAM DESIGN:
FACTORS THAT MATTER TO HISPANIC NONTRADITIONAL COLLEGE STUDENTS

Ali Morales, Ed.D.
Texas A&M University-Commerce, 2013

Adviser: Rusty Waller Ed.D.

Statement of the Problem A 2002 report by the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) informs that 70 percent of all students on college campuses are non-traditional. Of that percentage 23 percent are students of color and 56 percent are female (IPEDS, 2002). Today an observer visiting a typical university campus would tend to agree with those statistics. Whether the needs of that special group of students are being met by curriculum program designers is an unanswered question, as students of color are rarely the subject of program design studies. The problem of this study is an examination of what factors of curriculum program design are deemed important by Hispanic non-traditional college students who seek to learn computer competency in higher education settings.

Purposes of the Study
The purposes of this study will be to investigate to determine factors that Hispanic nontraditional college students deem important in the design of a computer competency program.
Specifically, the study will examine met and unmet needs based on gender and age. seek to answer the following questions: 1. To determine if computer competency programs are meeting the needs of Hispanic nontraditional college students. 2.