Pattern of usage of internet among Students of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

The internet technology has revolutionized the teaching and learning methods, and appropriate use of the technology is critical for University students. The unprecedented growth of information on internet necessitates the continual evaluation from time to time how students have embraced the technology. Thus, the research explored the pattern of internet usage by students of Federal University Oye-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. The research approach adopted for the study was descriptive survey in which a questionnaire was used as the research instrument to collect data from 200 undergraduates selected by stratified random sampling from the four faculties in the university, with a valid response rate of 95%. Findings showed that nearly all respondents used Internet regularly; the main access point being from home/hostels (51.6%), while only 21.1% used the university library, and mobile phones (91.1%) was the main access device. The acquisition of internet use skills was mainly from University training (49%) and by trial and error (45.8%) and the majority of them used the Internet to complete class assignment (78.4%), entertainment(76.3%) and for communication(73.2%). The most used internet services and resources were the social media and search engines, online newspapers and e-books. The respondents that agreed that they filtered their information were 53.2%, while only 28.9% claimed to know how to use the Boolean logic operators. The respondents agreed that internet use has been of immense benefits to their academic pursuit even though, only 36% respondents were satisfied to some extent with the Internet service provided by the university. The major constraints faced in using the internet were slow internet speed, difficulty in finding relevant information and lack of skills of information retrieval methods. To optimize student’s internet use, the authorities at FUOYE should pay more attention to providing enabling environment for the development of appropriate internet infrastructure and strengthen the students’ information literacy capacity. The other institutions of learning in Nigeria and elsewhere that have similar situations highlighted in this study could also benefit from the findings to improve their internet provision.

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