Internet Usage Among Students

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Introduction

The Internet has grown rapidly over the years. It has been the fastest growing communication technology and be the major source that connects people, and data. The usage of Internet for teaching and learning purposes has received increasing attention over the world. Nowadays, the lecturers use e-learning to give assignments or important notes to the students (Sharpe & Greg, 2005). The quality of education can be improved with Internet usage. Laurillad (1992) supported this by claimed that computer-based learning can increase understanding of theoretical and critical concepts.

Most of the university students prefer to use the internet more than they use the library to search for information. According to a study done by Steve Jones (2002), 73% of university students say that they use the Internet to search information more than they use the library while only 9% say the opposite. The Internet contains more information than the world’s largest library. With access to Internet one can retrieve information from the world’s largest information database.

Besides that, the Internet revolution is not just limited on finding information. The Internet is also used as a way to communicate with other people through email, instant messaging and social network. Students also use the Internet to download music, movies and play online games. Jones (2003) reported that 70% of college students play video, computer or online games at least once in a while, and 65% are regular or occasional gamers. Patterns of online behavior may be examined in terms of characteristic use of the Internet to communicate, access websites and play games.

The development of Internet would be meaningless if it is not used appropriately in education. Students are the avid users of information from the Internet so it is important to know to what extent is the Internet used for academic purposes by students. Thus, this paper intends to find out to what extent the Internet is used by the students of Center for Foundation Studies in International Islamic University Malaysia for academic purposes.

Definition of terms

Internet: is the international computer network of networks that connect government, academic and business institutions. Or a large global network comprised of thousands of smaller networks. The World Wide Web is one element of the Internet, is the publicly available worldwide system of interconnected computer networks that transmit data by packet switching over the Internet Protocol (IP). It is made up of thousands of other; smaller business, academic, and government networks that provide various services such as electronic mail, online chat, and on the graphical, interlinked World Wide Web.

Internet Usage: any type of usage whether it is general or advanced usage of the internet by any users in any place at any time from any technological tool.

Statement of problem

The Internet has now become an integral part of daily life, it is used for entertainment and communication as well as education. Internet is a source of information for the academic community. Students can find any information with only a click of the mouse. Besides that, they also can communicate with their peers, family and make friends from all over the world (Davis, 2007). Students more comfortable communicate through the Internet or texting than communicate face-to-face or talking to cell phone. They also can download music, playing online games and many more.

However, despite of its many benefits, the Internet also has created a new problem called "internet addiction" , in which users experience interpersonal, school or work related problems due to excessive use of Internet. Among students, the excessive use of Internet has been associated with missing classes due to overslept because surfing the Internet until midnight, academic failure and dismissal from college. For example, an Alfred University found that 43% of dropouts in a given semester had been staying up until early morning hours using the Internet, more than double the rate of academic dismissal (Young, 1988).

Objectives

The objective of this study is to determine whether the students used the Internet as their learning tool or not. To better understand about the Internet’s impact on college students’ daily lives, and to determine the impact of that use on their academic and social routines. This research is to further investigate whether Internet really helps students in their study and what reasons for using the Internet among the students of CFS IIUM. Besides that, to find out whether having personal laptop influenced the students to use the Internet as learning tool. Other objectives of this study were:

The frequency of Internet use by the students of CFS IIUM

Most used Internet resources and services

Problem occur due to excessive use of Internet

Research questions

The research questions:

What is the most used resource or service by the students when browsing to Internet?

How much time do students spend on the Internet every day?

When usually the students use the internet?

Where the students have the internet access?

Literature Review

Internet is widely used all over the world as an academic tool. According to a survey conducted by Pew Internet (2002), 79% of college Internet users said the Internet had a positive impact on their college academic experience and 73% of the students used the Internet more than the library. Students use the web to get the assignments from the lecturers through email or e-learning. 56% of the students believed that email can enhance their relationship with lecturers and 46% of them said that email enables them to express ideas to lecturers that they would not have expressed in class (Pew Internet, 2002).

Based on a research conducted by Muniandy (2010) on 92 students of University Sains Malaysia, 75% of the students find information through the Internet often while 26% of them use the library to find information through books. 40% of the students download notes from the Internet and 36% use the Internet to communicate with their friends.

George et. Al (2006) conducted a study on academic use of Internet by graduate students of Carnegie Mellon University in the USA. He reported that 73% of the students do Google search, 68% find web pages, 50% find information through journals, and 48% use citation chaining and 47% use other general searching. The study shows that Internet usage for academic purpose is increasing.

Consistent with findings that the Internet is most frequently used at home (Statistics Canada, 2006), 94.6% of the sample of college students reported frequently accessing the Internet from home. Almost all students reported using the Internet at school, 57.6% of students frequently access the Internet at school. More than 30% of students reported accessing the Internet from a cybercafé, 1% frequently visited cybercafés. Internet access via cybercafés is not an unusual experience for college students but, relative to home and school use, it is rarely a regular location of Internet access.

Data from nationwide surveys conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates for the Pew Internet & American Life Project also show that 74% of college students use the Internet four or more hours per week, while about 19% uses it 12 or more hours per week. This is somewhat higher than the amount of time most students devote to studying. Nearly two-thirds, 62% reported studying for classes no more than 7 hours per week, while only 14% reported studying 12 or more hours per week.

Study conducted by Oludayo (2012) among undergraduate students of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye, Nigeria, the greatest number of respondents 66.1% accessed the Internet at cybercafés located outside the University campuses, followed by cybercafés within the University campuses 30.4%, and homes 19.5%. Relatively few participants used the Internet in other places, such as the library, the University ICT centre and Faculties/Departments and none of the respondents indicated having access through the computer laboratories. Majority of the students 60.6% spent 1-5 hours per week on the Internet followed by 23.8% that spent 6-10 hours per week, while 9.9% spent 11-15 hours weekly on the Internet. The average time spent by all the students was 4.6 hours per week (Bankole, 2012).

Methodology

Sample

In this study, a questionnaire was used to gather data on the pattern of Internet usage among the students of CFS IIUM. A sample of 50 students was selected randomly to participate in this study.

Research instrument

The questionnaire was self administered to students in the lecture rooms. This method of questionnaire administration has been found to produce a high response rate (Oppenheim, 1992). The students were informed before completing the questionnaire that the forms were anonymous and that there is no information in the questionnaire that could identify any individual student.

Data collection procedures

The finding of the study was presented using descriptive statistics. The questionnaire consists of eight questions. Question 1 identifies how much time students spend on the Internet every day. Question 2 is determine when usually the students surfing the Internet. Question 3 is about whether the students own a personal laptop or not. Question 4 is looks for where the students have the Internet access, question 5 is to find out about the primarily reason for the web used by the students. Question 6 is investigating how often the students use the Internet for checking emails, to search information, for online shopping, for studies, play online games, download music and as a communication tool through the social networks. Question 7 asked the students the awareness of using the Internet excessively and the last question is to identify whether the wireless connection provided by UIA satisfy the students expectations.

Data analysis

The data collected was analyzed with descriptive statistics using the Microsoft Excel.

Results and Discussion

Access to personal laptop

The students were asked to indicate whether or not they had access to personal laptop. Most of the students had access to personal laptop while only 16% of them do not have personal laptop. With access to personal laptop, maybe it is easier for the students to use the Internet anywhere, anytime.

Frequency of Internet use

The result shows that majority of the students (60%) spent two hours and below surfing the Internet in one day, followed by 14% that spent 2 to 3 hours per day while 26% spent more than 3 hours daily on the Internet. As a student, they need to organize their time efficiently as they have lots of assignment to do and other activities. That’s why majority of the students spend only a little time daily on Internet.

Time spending on the Internet

Based on the pie chart, 84% of the students spend their night on the Internet as night is the only free time they have. 14% of them surfing the Internet at morning and only 2% of the students use the Internet in the afternoon.

Source of Internet access

The results reveal that the greatest number of respondents (56%) accessed the Internet at the university. It is easy for the students to access the Internet as wifi is available in the university area. 44% of the students had Internet accessed at home while none of the respondents access the Internet at cyber café as there is no cyber café within the university.

Primary activities on the Internet

Based upon activities identified in the literature review, lists of 5 primary activities were listed. Respondents were asked to indicate for which of these purposes they used the Internet. The bar chart above shows that majority of the respondents (34%) mentioned that they were using it for purposes of communication, 32% of the students use the Internet for entertainment, followed by 24% of them surfing the Internet to gather information for personal needs, to update their knowledge. Others use the Internet for education.

Frequency of students using the Internet for following activities

Based on the bar chart above, there are high number of students who never use the Internet for online shopping and online games. Most of the students often use the Internet to search information, for studies and to download music and movies.

Does excessive Internet use result in academic, social or lifestyle difficulties?

Majority of the students agree that excessive use of Internet result in academic, social and lifestyle difficulties. The excessive use of Internet has been associated with missing classes due to oversleeping, academic failure and dismissal from college.

Does the wireless internet connection in UIA satisfy the students’ expectations?

Based on the result, most of the students agree that the wireless connection provided by UIA does not satisfy their expectations.

Conclusion

Globally today, the use of Internet facilities for communication and sharing of knowledge can never be overemphasized. This study has shown that the use of Internet is widespread among students of CFS IIUM. The study concludes that most of the respondent access websites which are related to communicating with others as Internet is a convenient choice for communicating with friends. The majority of students reported that they either use the Internet less than one hour per day (30%) or 1 to 2 hours a day (30%). Of those students, 34% of them use the Internet as medium for social communication and 32% of the students use the Internet as entertainment source.

All these findings suggest that students view the Internet as a functional medium that can be used to enrich college students’ social environment. Perhaps this is the evidence that college students are making a transition from the teen years, when Internet use is mostly oriented toward entertainment and social communication, toward adulthood where Internet use dominated by social engagement and information seeking.

Despite the fact that a great majority of students (84%) own a personal laptop, 56% of them have internet access at the university since they spend a lot of time in the university compared at home and it is convenient for them to access the Internet since wireless connection is provided by the university. However, 92% of the students agree that wireless connection provided by the university does not satisfy their expectations.

Majority of the students agree that the wireless connection provided by the university does not satisfy their expectations. The wireless internet connection is too slow for them to browse the Internet since there are many students who use the Internet at the same time. Internet should be accessible at more places and at faster speeds with maximum bandwidth. The Internet facilities located inside the university should be made more functional to encourage Internet usage by members of staff and students within the university. Access points should be installed in all buildings in the campus so that users can maximize the utilization of Internet services.

As with all research, this study has certain limitations. One limitation is the possibility that respondents might not answer the survey questions accurately. One way to address this issue is to have future studies using other methods of research to get more accurate results. Besides that, the subjects sampled might not be representative of other millions of Internet users as only a small sample size of students was being studied and only one quantitative method had been used. To overcome these limitations, some recommendations are suggested, for instance using both qualitative and quantitative methods for this research. More research is recommended to be carried out in the future as this is an important issue in the society.