Millennials, Electronic Natives, the Net Generation. Many names have been used to describe the new generation of college students, whom population experts have identified as being distinctly different from the previous generations in terms of their technological abilities, teamwork skills, and openness to participatory pedagogies (e.g., Howe and Strauss 2003; Lancaster and Stillman 2002).

Meanwhile, Taylor (2006) offers a much less encouraging characterization of "the Generation NeXt student" (college students younger than 26 years old) as the "disengaged, entitled, student customer". Such contrasting accounts suggest that even if younger students have greater levels of comfort or proficiency with new technologies, it is still debatable whether such traits necessarily entail more open, progressive, or positive perspectives of the educational process.
 
Hartman, Moskal, and Dziuban (2005) analyzed student surveys for generational differences in learning engagement, classroom interaction, and learning approaches in response to online environments. Their findings showed that older students, in this case Baby Boomers (born between 1946-1964), had the highest levels of satisfaction with engagement and interaction; their findings also indicated that older students were the most likely to change their approach to learning whereas Net Generation students were the least satisfied and the least likely to change their approach to learning.  In other words, although students from different generations had very different attitudes about the online teaching practices to which they were exposed; all students maintained the same fundamental expectations of quality from their faculty teachers.
 
In light of these competing viewpoints, we sought to investigate the differences between older and younger students at Northern Arizona University (NAU) and to analyse what those differences, if they indeed exist, mean for online teaching and learning.
 
The Study at North Arizona University
In order to provide sufficient structure and focus to our inquiry, we initially isolated three key elements that shape a student's approach to the online learning environment  and operationalized these variables for measurement in our study
Technical ability, operationalized as students' perceptions of their comfort level with various technologically based learning tasks, such as participating in online discussions;
Learning beliefs, operationalized as students' beliefs about effective ways to learn;
Learner responsibility beliefs, operationalized as students' perceptions of who is responsible for different course-related activities.

Instrument
The survey asked for the participant's background, including age, gender, and academic level; perceived technical ability; attitudes toward online vs. traditional teaching methodologies (i.e., learning beliefs); and attitudes toward responsibility for various teaching and learning activities (i.e., learner responsibility).
 
Results
With regard to perceived technical ability, ANOVA results showed that there were significant differences among the four age groups in 13 out of 22 questionnaire items. Post hoc analyses indicated that participants in Age Group 2 were significantly more comfortable than participants in Age Group 4 in performing technical tasks such as participating in an online asynchronous discussion; participating in an online synchronous discussion, uploading a web page to a server, creating a presentation using PowerPoint or a similar software program, inserting graphics, tables, or charts into a word processing document, navigating a Web site or course that is online, looking up professors' or fellow students' e-mail addresses using the university's online directory, logging on to a university computer to find personal documents and settings and learning new tools and techniques independently.
 
In a follow-up analysis, we used paired-samples t-tests to compare the whole group's beliefs about learning. Results showed that students across all age groups agreed significantly more with the statement "Learning university-level course content is effectively done through lectures" than with the statement "Learning university-level course content is effectively done through reading." Similarly, results also indicated that students across all age groups agreed significantly more with the statement "Learning university level course content is effectively done through discussions with instructors" than with the statement "Learning university-level course content is effectively done through discussions with other students (peers)."
 
Additionally, follow-up analysis compared the whole group's attitude toward learning responsibility using paired-samples t-tests. The results showed that students across all age groups tended to consider "coming up with course assignments" and "presenting course content" as instructor responsibilities whereas evaluative activities, such as "evaluating course effectiveness" and "evaluating student learning," were seen as the responsibility of students.
 
Findings
Older students (36 years old and older) were generally less comfortable than Net Gen students (ages 21 to 25 years old) with technological learning tools, such as online discussions, course navigation, and presentation software.
 
They were also less comfortable with computer networks and were more accustomed to being isolated computer users. Net Gen students had the highest level of comfort with technological tools, particularly with advanced tools such as Web page design software and spreadsheets.
 
Although younger students have more facility with online learning tools, they seem to view the online learning environment as a collection of shortcuts to learning that require less time than face-to-face courses. Therefore, course assignments in online learning courses should be plentiful and rigorous and include clearly articulated expectations as well as transparent links to learning objectives.
 
In turn, participants of all ages agreed on the distribution of responsibility for course activities. Activities such as designing course assignments, presenting course content, and leading discussions were considered the responsibilities of instructors. In general, participants viewed evaluative activities as the students' responsibility. These results imply that in order to foster self-regulation and independence in students, courses should be designed to give learners more responsibility for developing discussion activities, presenting content, and creating learning activities
 
Conclusion
Today's multigenerational student body requires that educators understand generational differences, particularly in terms of technological ability. The findings of this study show that although Net Generation and older students differ in terms of their comfort levels with technological learning tools, student preferences and attitudes towards effective learning and teaching activities are consistent across age groups.
 
What does this mean to higher education? On one hand, it means that educators can expect to find that students, young or old, share common values regarding pedagogical practices, which educators may take as reassurance that Net Gen students, even though they are more electronically adept, still feel comfortable with traditional learning models.
 
A more critical conclusion, however, is that educators in all media need to do more to expose students to novel approaches and provide them with opportunities to take responsibility for learning activities. Only when university-level learning is perceived as equivalent to independent and self-regulatory learning will students be prepared to take responsibility for their own learning and excel in online, hybrid, and other electronically mediated delivery modes.
 
by Paula Garcia & Jingjing Qin
 
[Editor's note: The findings in this paper were part of a poster presented at the Learning & Technology Meeting of the AAC&U in Seattle, WA, April 2006].
This article was originally published in Innovate (http://www.innovateonline.info/) as: Garcia, P., and J. Qin. 2007. Identifying the generation gap in higher education: Where Do the Differences Really Lie?. Innovate 3 (4). http://www.innovateonline.info/index.php?view=article&id=379 (accessed May 9, 2007). The article is reprinted here with permission of the publisher, The Fischler School of Education and Human Services at Nova South Eastern University