The effectiveness of computer course on the computer self-efficacy, attitudes and success of adults Halil Cokun ELK

Siirt University, Faculty of Education, Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, 56000, Siirt, Turkey Abstract The purpose of the study was to investigate the changes about computer self-efficacy perceptions, computer attitudes and computer achievement of unemployed young people in the basic computer course within "Information and Youth are Integrating" project of SODES 2009 financed by State Planning Organization Undersecretary prepared by Siirt University. The sample of this study included 30 unemployed and young volunteers living in Siirt. The Computer Self Efficacy Scale developed by Akar and Umay (2001) was used as measurement tools to asses the participants computer self-efficacy level and the Computer Attitude Scale developed by erefhanolu (2007) was used to asses the participants attitudes toward computers. Moreover, the Computer Achievement Test prepared by the researcher was used to measure the changes of computer achievement of computer course over the participants. For our purpose, an experimental study was organized and in the study one group pretest and posttest design had been applied. Before the study, all these measurement tools were applied as pretest. After a ten-week basic computer course, these tools were then applied to the participants as posttest. The differences between pretest and posttest mean scores were determined by paired samples t-test. According to the results of the study, the computer course was effective and had a significant influence on the computer self-efficacy perception of the participants. However, it did not have a significant influence on the development of a positive computer attitude. Keywords: Attitudes; Self-efficacy; Public spaces and computing; Human-computer interface;

1. Introduction Human nature is subject to a continuous self-development. In this improvement and self-development period, as a result of his everlasting efforts to reach the best, the faster and the easier, people develop various tools and devices. Computer is the device that has been created to do works easily and quickly. In todays infinitely improving technology, it is inevitable to think about any individual living isolated from computer in the modern world. Doubtedly, the major development in 21 st century occured in computer technologies and we know that as long as people live, there will be more developments in this area. All the countries aware of the power of technology make plans to adapt technological developments. Because in todays world, the prosperity of countries is measured by information and technology. Considering the international web, nobody can ignore how important computers have become in peoples lives. That is, computer has penetrated into every aspect of daily life, particularly in educational terms such as teaching, learning, pursuing a career and planning processes. Venkatesh and Davis (1996) stated that, for a better information technology management, we need to understand why individuals readily accept and use computer applications, persist at improving their computer skills, select challenging projects, search for innovative and new ways of using computer systems, and eventually have high rates of success (quoted in Torkzadeh, Chang, & Demirhan; 2006). As for the individuals, if they want to pursue a promising career, they have to be sufficient enough to use computers so as to learn in a constructive manner how they can use the important tools such as learning, reaching the information and using the appropriate knowledge for their own sake because plenty of complex processes are performed easily and in short time by computers. Being competent in this vital issue is one of the most important ways to find a good job. Nowadays, in Turkey and many developed countries, widespread use of computer in public and private workplaces causes a great need of well educated people on computer and computer programming. In order to enable young people to have the qualities mentioned above, there are two major components: their computer self-efficacy and their attitude towards computers. A generation not catching up the phase of technology is sure to face difficulties in adapting to fast developing world. Young people will surely use their competence in computer usage even after their

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education period has ended. As Kinzie, Delcourt and Powers (1994) have stated, Computer technologies are important tools for learning, communicating, and retrieving information. For individuals to effectively employ these tools, they must feel self-efficacious in using them. For this reason it is important to examine attitudes and perceptions of competence that are encouraged by undergraduate educational programs. We have to train them in such a way that they can be competent enough to live in a world of technological knowledge and improvement. For that reason computer usage is one of the most fundamental issues in educational system of our country. That is, this kind of competence will be significant advantage both for the graduates and even for the unemployed themselves throughout their life. In this context, it is important to determine computer self-efficacy perceptions and attitudes which are thought as effective on youths knowledge and competency about technology. 1.1. Self-efficacy Self-efficacy refers to beliefs in ones capabilities to organize and execute the course of action required to produce given attainments (Bandura, 1997). This concept is defined as people's beliefs about their capabilities to produce designated levels of performance that exercise influence over events that affect their lives. Self-efficacy beliefs determine how people feel, think, motivate themselves and behave (Bandura, 1994). The degree of self-ecacy which a person assigns to himself constitutes a valid predictor of the expected behaviour that he will demonstrate in performing a task (Koliadis 1997: quoted in Paraskeva, Bouta, & Papagianni, 2008). The concept of self-efficacy is a subcomponent of Social Cognitive Theory. It is a conviction in which one can successfully execute a given task or behavior. It is also the self-perception of ability to accomplish an activity (Downey, 2006). Moreover, Khorrami-Arani (2001) suggest that self-efficacy is not the same as actual knowledge of a task, and it is not self-esteem, which refers more to feelings of self-worth. Accordingly, self-efficacy is situational and highly influences peoples decisions, goals, their amount of effort in conducting a task, and the length of time they persevere through obstacles and difficulties (Brown, 2008). Individuals develop their sense of selfefficacy throughout direct experiences, observing other peoples experiences, and listening to other peoples comments about what they think he or she is capable of doing (Lee, 2005). Self-efcacy is a dynamic construct that changes when new information and experiences are acquired. It is generally described as having three components: magnitude - the levels of task difculty that people believe they can reach; strengththeir conviction about its magnitude; and generality - the degree to which the expectation is generalized across situations. The purpose in evaluating these components is to discover the type of questions that will best explain and predict a persons dispositions, intentions, and actions (Torkzadeh et al., 2006). High self-efficacy has a positive attitude in regards to ones capabilities so as to organize and perform actions vital to attain a planned process for the specific tasks. Low Self-Efficacy has a negative attitude in terms of ones capabilities to organize and perform actions necessary to achieve a designated performance skill for the specific tasks (Compeau, Higgins, & Huff, 1999). Self-efficacy enhances individuals success and well-being in many ways. People with high selfefficacy overcome difficult tasks with strong commitment. They sustain their efforts or recover their selfefficacy even in failures. They approach threatening situations with assurance that they can exercise control over them. Such an efficacious outlook produces personal accomplishments, reduces stress and lowers vulnerability to depression. In contrast, people with low self-efficacy avoid difficult tasks. They have low aspirations and weak commitment to attain the goals they choose to pursue. It is hard to overcome their personal deficiencies and all kinds of adverse outcomes. They slacken their efforts and give up quickly in the face of difficulties. They are slow to recover their sense of efficacy following failure or setbacks. This kind of outlook produces failure, stress and depression (Bandura, 1994). 1.2. Computer self-efficacy Computer self-efficacy is borrowed from Banduras self-efficacy theory to suit specific needs of computer learning experience. This concept reflects an individual's beliefs about his or her capabilities to use computers. It does not deal with what one has done in the past, but rather with judgments of what could be done in the future. Moreover, it does not refer to simple component subskills, like formatting diskettes or entering formulas in a spreadsheet. Rather, it incorporates judgments of the ability to apply

those skills to broader tasks (Compeau & Higgins, 1995:192). Additionally, computer self-efficacy refers to individual confidence in ones capability to use a computer and may help determine ease of skill acquisition; however, self-efficacy about ability to complete computer related tasks may heighten or weaken performance (Robinson, 2008). The strongest determinant of computer self-efficacy is prior experience (Bandura, 1986). The most common determinants of computer self-ecacy include training method, prior computer experience, organizational support, encouragement by others, and others use factors that can be manipulated in a training context. The dependent variables typically used in self-ecacy studies include training performance, computer anxiety, ease of use, outcome expectations, or aect. While these dependent variables are appropriate for the training context, they are hardly adequate for assessing the ongoing use and impact of operational applications. For the most part, studies of computer self-ecacy have limited their exploration of independent and dependent variables to factors that make sense in the training context (Deng, Doll, & Truong, 2004). As computer usage is an important factor that influences computer selfefficacy, the most effective way to improve computer self-efficacy perception of individuals is increasing their computer usage (Hsu & Huang, 2006). In general, researchers confirm that computer self-efficacy not only determines decisions by individuals to accept and use the computer system, but is also a good predictor of achievement in computer-related tasks (Torkzadeh, 2003). It is defined that there are three dimensions of computer self efficacy; magnitude, strength and generalizability. Magnitude: The magnitude of computer self-efficacy can be interpreted to reflect the level of capability expected. Individuals with a high computer self-efficacy magnitude might be expected to perceive themselves as able to accomplish more difficult computing tasks than those with lower judgments of self-efficacy. Alternatively, computer self-efficacy magnitude might be gauged in terms of support levels required to undertake a task. Individuals with a high magnitude of computer self-efficacy might judge themselves as capable of operating with less support and assistance than those with lower judgments of self-efficacy magnitude. Strength: The strength of a computer self-efficacy judgment refers to the level of conviction about the judgment, or the confidence an individual has regarding his or her ability to perform the various tasks discussed above. Thus, not only would individuals with high computer self- efficacy perceive themselves as able to accomplish more difficult tasks (high magnitude), but they would display greater confidence about their ability to successfully perform each of those behaviors (Compeau & Higgins, 1995). Researchers have shown that it is important to capture both the magnitude and strength dimensions when measuring self-efficacy. Therefore, the concept of self-efficacy is context specific (or the valuing of self through specifically defined situations) and highlights the importance of distinguishing between component skills and the ability to perform actions (Saade & Kira, 2009). Generalizability: Self-efficacy generalizability reflects the degree to which the judgment is limited to a particular domain of activity. Within a computing context, these domains might be considered to reflect different hardware and software configurations. Thus, individuals with high computer selfefficacy generalizability would expect to be able to competently use different software packages and different computer systems, while those with low computer self-efficacy generalizability would perceive their capabilities as limited to particular software packages or computer systems (Compeau & Higgins, 1995). In assessing these dimensions, the purpose is to discover the type of questions that will best explain and predict someones dispositions, intentions, and actions. Thus self-efficacy should be measured at various levels of specificity and at different degrees of correspondences. Within any given domain there are different levels of task demands. These different tasks can range from the simple to the complicated. Individuals are then asked to quantify the strength of their belief in their capability to perform these at these task levels. In this way the efficacy assessment provides multiple specific items of varying difficulty that collectively assess the domain (Torkzadeh, Pflughoeft, & Hall, 1999). 1.3. Attitude towards computers Another important construct related to computer usage is the attitude towards computers. According to Fishbein and Ajzen (1975:6) attitudes are learned predispositions to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with respect to a given object. Attitude is the state or tendency of an emotional readiness observed in a way of in the visual's accepting or rejecting a certain person, group, institution or an opinion (zgven, 2007: 353). Attitude is an important factor to determine behaviors. This theory can

apply for computer use. Attitude provides the basis of explaining our reactions, thoughts and ideas about other people, situations and ideas (Bordens & Horowitz, 2002:177). On the basis of various definitions about attitude, attitudes toward computer had been defined. According to this, attitude towards computer can be defined as a tendency that includes individuals thoughts, feelings and behaviors about computer, computer usage, computer users and social and personal affects of computer (Deniz, 1994:30). Attitude towards computer is an important variable in the field of researches on education and it has a major impact on students success about learning computer-related items, learning/teaching a variety of courses through computer. The improvement of computer self-efficacy is highly related to computer attitudes (Zhang & Espinoza, 1998). According to Kay (2006), sometimes self-efficacy is regarded as a subscale of computer attitudes. Additionally, self efficacy and attitude are major factors in affective features effective on success and performance (Kseolu, 2010). Furthermore, it turned out that selfefficacy had a small effect on computer attitudes in general (Meelissen, 2008). Recently, computer self-efficacy and attitude towards computer have been a topic in many different disciplines of education from primary school students to university students and teachers. Most of the researches in this field include levels of computer self-efficacy, attitude towards computer and relationship between them. Also the relationship with other variables such as gender, socio-economic status, computer ownership, computer literacy, computer use and experience were examined. Computer self-efficacy and attitude towards computer are known as important concepts related to computer use. Khorrami-Arani (2001) reported that there is a positive relationship between computer selfefficacy and attitude towards computers, while one study found no relation between these two concepts (Sam, Othman, & Nordin, 2005). Several studies on computer self-efficacy have demonstrated that individuals who have a high degree of self-efficacy tend to perform better than those who have a low degree of self-efficacy (Compeau & Higgins, 1995; Torkzadeh et al., 2006). Furthermore, some other researches indicate that computer self-efficacy and computer attitudes are also related to demographic variables such as gender, age, computer use, computer experience, socio-economic state and computer ownership. Gender differences with regard to perceived self-efficacy expectations and attitudes towards computers represent an important issue in the area of computer education. This may affect computer interest, enrolment for courses in the college, choice of career, and the use of computers in future work settings (Bush, 1995). Research studies related with gender differences showed that males exhibited a higher level of computer self-efficacy than females (Akar & Davenport, 2009; Akkoyonlu & Orhan, 2003; Berkant & Efendiolu, 2010; Cassidy & Eachus, 2002; etin, 2008; man & elikli, 2009; Topkaya, 2010). On the other hand, several researches stated that there was no significant correlation between computer selfefficacy and gender (Akkoyunlu & Orhan, 2003; Pamuk & Peker, 2009; Sam et al., 2005; Torkzadeh et al., 1999; Ylmaz, Gerek, Kseolu, & Soran, 2006). An individuals attitude is an important variable in the learning process (Bush, 1995). Research studies confirmed that there are several factors affecting computer attitude such as gender, computer experience, age, and socio-economic status. Among these, gender is the most studied factor (Pamuk & Peker, 2009). Previous research has shown mixed results. In many studies about attitude towards computer, it was found that males had more positive attitudes than females (North & Noyes, 2002; Sinz & Lpez-Sez, 2010; Saraolu, Serin, Serin, & Serin, 2010; Whitley, 1997), while others found that females had significantly more positive attitude towards computers than males (Almahboub, 2000; Ray, Sormunen & Harris, 1999; Roussos, 2007; Subhi, 1999). Computer experience is a strong predictor of attitudes and self-efficacy (Kinzie & Delcourt, 1991). In most studies, it is reported that computer experience and training have been identified as the most important factors affecting computer self-efficacy. Several research studies suggest that computer experience (Akar & Umay, 2001; Akar & Davenport, 2009; Fagan, Neill, & Wooldridge, 2003; Hasan, 2003; Igbaria & Livari, 1995; Karsten & Roth, 1998; Ortiz de Guinea, 2004; zelik & Kurt 2007; Potosky, 2002; Topkaya, 2010; Torkzadeh & Koufteros 1994) is positively related to computer selfefcacy. Also, computer training is highly related to computer self-efcacy (Torkzadeh et al., 2006). On the other hand, it was found that there was no significant correlation between computer training and computer self-efficacy (Ylmaz et al., 2006). Additionally, computer training does not have a fundamental effect on self-efficacy, but interacts with computer attitude (Beas & Salanova, 2006). In some studies, researchers have examined the relationship between computer experience and computer attitudes (Bove, Voogt, & Meelissen, 2007; Vekiri & Chronaki, 2008; Roussos, 2007).

Social Support Program (SODES) is a program that focuses on human and aims responding to the needs caused by the problems like migration, poverty, unemployment and changing social structure in the fields of employment, social integration, culture, art and sports. Prepared and implemented at the local level under the coordination of governorships, SODES projects aim improving employability, providing the participation of disadvantaged sections of society in economic and social life, giving contribution to local children, youth and women to better express themselves. The project of "Information and Youth are Integrating" is one of the 88 projects of SODES 2009 in Siirt conducted by Siirt University financed by the State Planning Organization Undersecretary. Within this project, a basic computer course giving 160 credits to 30 unemployed and young volunteers living in Siirt for ten weeks between the dates of 6 th of February 2010-11th of April 2010 is envisaged. In this respect, the project aims to educate unemployed young people to use computer and related technologies and to increase their employability by making them qualified. Considering the achieved goals and objectives of the projects within the practises under SODES and not encountering any research about the validity, sustainability and results of the applications by the researhers literature scaning enhance the importance of this study. 2. Purpose Computer technologies are important tools for learning, communicating, and retrieving information. For individuals to effectively employ these tools, individuals must feel self-efficacious in using them. For this reason, it is important to examine attitudes and perceptions of competence that are encouraged by educational programs (Kinzie et al., 1994). The purpose of the study was to investigate the changes about computer self-efficacy perceptions, computer attitudes and computer achievement of unemployed young people in the basic computer course within "Information and Youth are Integrating" project of SODES 2009 financed by State Planning Organization Undersecretary prepared by Siirt University. 3. Research methodology In this study, one group pretest and posttest model was used from the experimental designs. In order to study the affects of computer course about computer self-efficacy, computer attitudes and achievement of young people, Computer Self-Efficacy Scale, Computer Attitude Scale and Computer Achievement Test were applied beforehand the course as a pretest for 30 participants. Afterwards these participants had a computer course of 160 hours during a ten-week period. 3.1 Research participants The participants were 30 unemployed young people who attended the basic computer training course in the scope of the so called SODES project Information and Youngs Integration in 2009 conducted by Siirt University under the finance of the State Planning Organization Undersecretary. In order to get data in a more reliable way, the study has been conducted on every person in the group rather than choosing samples alone (ilenti, 1984:137). This means that 30 volunteers all contributed to study. 3.2 The course The content of this basic computer course was determined within the education cirriculum of Secondary Education Computer Course Program of The Ministry of Education. The course contains introduction of computer and operating systems in general, the important DOS operating system commands, Windows operating system, Excel software package as a spreadsheet, Word software package as a word processor, Internet and Power Point. After the ten-week course, the measurement tools as mentioned above were reapplied to the participants as posttest to determine that whether there was a difference compared to the pretest.

3.3. Research instruments The research instruments for the data collection in a questionnaire consist of four major components: (a) Demographic Information, (b) Computer Self-Efficacy Scale (CSES) (c) Computer Attitudes Scale (CAS) and (d) Computer Achievement Test (CAT). Related data collection tools were applied to all participants as pretest and posttest. (a) Demographic information: It includes participants gender, age, computer ownership, frequency of computer use, attending any computer course and previous computer training. (b) CSES: In order to asses the participants computer self-efficacy level, the CSES developed by Akar and Umay (2001) was used. This scale consists of 18 items and is scored in five-point Likert format (ranging from 1= strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). Cronbach alpha reliability coefficient of the scale was =0.71. It was determined in such a way that most of the items in the scale had high discrimination degrees (Akar & Umay, 2001:3). In this study, reliability coefficient of the scale was found to be =0.88. CSES was conducted to the participants as pretest and posttest. Total scores of this scale ranged from 18 to 90, with high scores indicated a high degree of confidence in ones ability to use computers. (c) CAS: In order to asses the participants attitudes toward computers, the CAS developed by erefhanolu (2007) was used. This scale consists of 21 items and is scored in five-point Likert format (ranging from 1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree). Total scores of this scale ranged from 21 to 105, with high scores indicatinged a positive attitude towards computer. Reliability coefficient of the scale is =0.87. The scale consists of four sub-scales and the variance explained by four subscales is 42.6%. In this study, reliability coefficient of the scale was determined as =0.83. CAS was applied to the participants as pretest and posttest. The positive items in CSES and CAS scales were scored as 5=strongly agree, 4=agree, 3= undecided, 2=disagree and 1=strongly disagree; for negative items were reversed as 1=strongly agree, 2=agree, 3=undecided, 4=disagree and 5=strongly disagree. (d) CAT: To measure the changes of computer course over the participants, this test was prepared by the researcher. It is a multiple-choice test consisting of 40 questions. The content validity of this test was provided by the experts review. In the test, each correct answer was scored with 2.5 points. In this case, the highest score of the test was 100 points and the lowest score was 0 point. The data about CAT were encoded by giving 1 point for each correct answer and 0 point for the each wrong answer of the participants. Reliability coefficient of the test was calculated as =0.78. This test was applied to the participants as pretest and posttest. The reliability of a scale depending on alpha coefficient is interpreted as follows. If 0.00 <0.40, the scale is not reliable; if 0.40 <0.60, reliability of the scale is low; if 0.60 <0.80, the scale is very reliable; if 0.80 <1.00, the scale is highly reliable (Kalayc, 2005: 405). According to these results, it would be claimed that the data collection tools used in this study are highly reliable. 3.4. Data analyses In the analysis of resolving data by using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 15.0, transferred to computer environment; frequency, percentages, paired samples t-test method and correlation analysis were used and the significance level was taken as 0.05. 4. Results The findings of the study were examined in four groups. The first group includes findings about demographic information of the participants; the second, the third and the fourth groups respectively include findings about computer self-efficacy, computer attitudes and computer achievement. 4.1. The demographic information of the participants

Table 1 provides detailed information about some demographic information such as gender, attendance to a computer course, computer ownership, frequency of computer use and computer competence of the participants.
Table 1 Some demographic information of the participants Gender Male Female Attendance to a computer course Yes No Computer ownership Yes No Everyday Frequency of computer use A few hours each day A few days a week A few hours a week A few hours a month Not at all Computer competence Very competent Competent Not very competent Incompetent N 18 12 1 29 11 19 3 6 6 11 2 2 5 11 10 4 % 60.0 40.0 3.3 96.7 36.7 63.3 10.0 20.0 20.0 36.7 6.7 6.7 16.7 36.7 33.3 13.3

Table 1 illustrates that 12 (40.0%) of the participants were female, 18 (60.0%) of the participants were male. Participants' ages ranged from 18 to 26 years old. The mean age of participants was 21.4 (SD=2.253) years. Twenty-nine participants (96.7%) did not attend any computer course before. While only 11 (36.7%) participants reported they had a computer at home, the other remaining 19 (63.3%) did not have a computer. As shown in Table 1, it was clear that 3 participants (10.0%) use computer regularly every day, 6 participants (%20.0) a few hours each day, 6 participants (20.0%) a few days a week, 11 participants (36.7%) a few hours a week, 2 participants (6.7%) a few hours a month. However, 2 participants (6.7%) said that they have never used computer before. The participants had been asked whether they felt themselves competent enough to computer use or not. Their respond was as follows; 5 participants (16.7%) scored themselves as very competent, 11 (36.7%) as competent, 10 (33.3%) as not very compotent and 4 (13.3%) as incompetent. 4.2. The relation of computer course with self-efficacy To find out whether there is a significant difference between the mean scores of pretest and posttest of participants according to CSES, paired samples t-test was carried out. The results are shown in Table 2.
Table 2 The paired samples t-test results of the mean scores of pretest and posttest according to CSES Measurement N Mean SD Correlation S.d (CSES) Pretest 30 3.565 0.638 0.764 29

t -2.539

p .017

Posttest

30

3.756

0.498

The results presented in Table 2 indicate that there is a statistically significant increase between the pretest and posttest mean scores of participants' according to CSES [t(29)=-2.539; p<0.05]. While pretest mean score of participants computer self-efficacy was 3.565, posttest mean score was increased to 3.756. Also, the findings about correlation analysis show that there is a high level of positive correlation between the pretest and posttest scores of participants according to CSES. 4.3. The relationship between computer course and attitudes toward computer To find out whether there is a significant difference between the mean scores of pretest and posttest of participants according to CAS, paired samples t-test was carried out. The results are shown in Table 3.
Table 3 The paired samples t-test results of the mean scores of pretest and posttest according to CAS Measurement N Mean SD Correlation S.d t (CAS) Pretest 30 4.187 0.429 0.702 29 -0.872 Posttest 30 4.239 0.422

p 0.390

The results presented in Table 3 indicate that there is not a statistically significant increase between the pretest and posttest mean scores of participants' according to CAS [t(29)=-0.872; p>0.05]. While pretest mean score of participants computer attitudes was 4.187, posttest mean score was increased to 4.239. Also, the findings about correlation analysis show that there is a high level of positive correlation between the pretest and posttest scores of participants according to CAS. 4.4. The relationship between computer course and achievement of the participants Table 4 presents the paired samples t-test results that indicate the significance of the difference between the mean scores of pretest and posttest of participants according to CAT.
Table 4 The paired samples t-test results of the mean scores of pretest and posttest according to CAT Measurement N Mean SD Correlation S.d t (CAT) Pretest 30 47.18 13.02 0.353 29 -8.566 Posttest 30 67.25 8.594

p 0.000

The findings in Table 4 show that there is a statistically significant increase between the pretest and posttest mean scores of participant according to CAT [t(29)=-8.566; p<0.05]. While the pretest mean score of participants computer achievement was 47.18, posttest mean score was increased to 67.25. This finding shows that the computer course is productive. 5. Discussion and conclusion A generation not catching up the phase of technology is sure to face difficulties in adapting to fast developing world. Young people will surely use their competence in computer usage even after their education period has ended. We have to train them in such a way that they can be competent enough to live in a world of technological knowledge and improvement. For that reason, computer usage is one of the most fundamental issues in educational system of our country. In this context, it becomes important to determine computer self-efficacy and computer attitudes which are thought as effective on youths knowledge and competency about technology. The perception of the self-efficacy is important because of its potential effects on computer use. Selfefficacy plays an important role in shaping individuals feelings and behaviors (Compeau & Higgins, 1995; Igbaria & Livari, 1995). Individuals with high self-efficacy used computers more, derived more enjoyment from their use, and experienced less computer anxiety (Torkzadeh et al., 2003).

Attitude towards computer is an important variable in the field of researches on education and it has a major impact on students success about learning computer-related items, learning/teaching a variety of courses through computer. It has been claimed that successful completion of a computer course is advantageous for the ongoing computer approach and practice (Colley et al., 1994; Comber et al., 1997: quoted in Mcilroy, Sadler, & Boojawon, 2007). However, involvement in a computer course does not necessarily produce beneficial effects as not all engaged in such a course emerge with increased confidence (Collis, 1985: quotation in Mcilroy et al., 2007). In this study, it is aimed to investigate the changes about computer self-efficacy perceptions, computer attitudes and computer achievement of 30 unemployed young participants in the basic computer course within the Information and Youth are Integrating project of SODES 2009, conducted by Siirt University. The study had been conducted on every person in the group. This means that 30 volunteers all contributed to study. At the application stage of the projects which are accepted within SODES, the projects reaching its aims and goals, the validity of practices, continuity and not encountering any study on literature scanning about results had shown the importance of this topic. The research examined that the computer course organized for the young people had significantly improved their computer self-efficacy. This relationship is consistent with studies that the computer course was effective and had a significant influence on the computer self-efficacy (Hasan, 2003; Kseolu, Ylmaz, Gerek, & Soran, 2007; Shue, 2003; Torkzadeh & Koufteros, 1994; Torkzadeh, et al., 1999; Zhang & Espinoza, 1998). The perception of self-efficacy improves with the impact of various factors. The researches on this concept have shown that self-efficacy, computer perception and experience have a positive relationship (Akar & Umay, 2001; Fagan, Neill, & Wooldridge, 2003; Hasan, 2003; Jeffery, 2006). As a result, this research examined that the computer course had positive effects on participants computer self-efficacy. It has been determined that computer courses have an important role on making the students gain common computer concepts and skills. The ones who achieve these courses completely will have the high level skills to use computer efficiently in working areas (Kim & Peterson 1992, Kim & Keith 1994, quoted in Karsten & Roth, 1998). Similarly, the course was successful in helping students develop significantly more positive attitudes toward computers (Uzunboylu, 1995; Papastergiou, 2010). But, the results of this research indicated that the computer course did not have large effects over participants to develop positive computer attitudes. Ten-week computer course was not enough for young people to develop positive computer attitudes. By organizing longer courses, differences about related computer attitudes can be investigated. The small sample group and short length of the course are the limitations of this research. These limitations require limited generalizations about the achieved results. In later researches, it may be beneficial to organize long-term computer courses over larger and different masses. In this way, the researchers can achieve more general results about computer self efficacy, computer attitude and computer use achievement. During our computer course, it is anticipated to teach the basic computer concepts to the young to make them gain computer use and skills and to improve success level by means of that. The moderate difference between the pretest and posttest mean scores which the participants got obtained from the computer achievement test showed that computer course was productive. Therefore, especially educational and health institutions and civil society organizations should use all the opportunities to create, develop and give continuity to the educational systems for young people about computer use which is one of the indispensable basic elements of modernization.
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