Universities and colleges are investing millions of dollars in information technology infrastructure to support teaching, research, and service, and thousands of dollars annually in faculty training programs. And yet, many college graduates entering the workforce lack adequate technology skills. To ascertain the frequency of faculty adoption of information technology, we surveyed a random sample of faculty in the liberal arts and sciences departments in our university. Overall faculty members ( n = 174) reported a low usage of information technology for teaching, though the rate of software adoption is higher than the rate of hardware adoption. While opportunities to learn technology are available, about two-thirds of the faculty members have not completed the available seminars and workshops on information technologies but prefer more informal ways of learning information technology, such as talking with other faculty members.

Word processing programs now allow instructors to provide online personalized, detailed critiques of students’ writing assignments. The article discusses the advantages of online critiquing assignments using the Track Changes, Comment, and AutoCorrect functions. It provides guidelines for online critiquing and grading of student assignments, including preparing students for online grading, preparing for online critiquing, setting policies, orienting students to sending e-mail attachments, avoiding pitfalls, and developing time-saving strategies for online critiquing of student assignments.