AN APPRAISAL OF INTERNET USAGE AMONG ACADEMIC STAFF MEMBERS OF

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1 Ozean Journal of Social Sciences 3(3), 2010 ISSN Ozean Publication AN APPRAISAL OF INTERNET USAGE AMONG ACADEMIC STAFF MEMBERS OF JOSEPH AYO BABALOLA UNIVERSITY, IKEJI ARAKEJI, OSUN STATE, NIGERIA. OGUNREWO J. O*. and ODUSINA E. K. JOSEPH AYO BABALOLA UNIVERSITY, IKEJI ARAKEJI, OSUN STATE, NIGERIA. * address for correspondence: Abstract: The survey investigated and appraised the use of internet among academic staff members of Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji Arakeji, Osun State, Nigeria. Pre-tested structured questionnaires were administered to sixty randomly selected respondents; fifty six were appropriately filled and were used for analysis. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study revealed a greater percentage of male (83.9%) among the academic staff members. In addition, 7.1%, 8.9%, 12.5%, 12.5%, 21.4% and 32.1% were Professor, Reader, Senior Lecturer, Lecturer I, Lecturer II and Assistant Lecturer respectively. Majority (80.4%) of them had access to the net with minimum of three years exposure to it. However, the mostly acclaimed means of surfing the net was through their own personal computers (66.1%) and the mostly sought information was on research and academic materials. More than four out of every five academic staff members indicated research and academic materials as the reason for surfing the net. The rating result gotten from summation of weighted values (SWV) also buttressed this point. The study concluded that the use of internet had greatly enhanced and contributed to effective, efficient and high performance level of academic staff members in the university. Keywords: Internet usage, Surfing, academic staff members. INTRODUCTION With the introduction and the use of the internet, some information is only a few clicks away. In the contemporary world, information is an important ingredient to success. Inability of some establishments to perform or to perform uptimally may be due to dearth of information. Availability of the right information at the right time can make all the difference between failure and success in all levels of human endeavours. Today, relevant information outweighs the price of gold. One of the yardsticks for measuring the effectiveness of individuals, institutions, organizations or corporate bodies today is the extent to which they are exposed to information communication technology, that is, among many other things, the level of computer literacy and ability to access and surf the internet. Nowadays, the slogan publish or perish is popular and a reality among the academics. This idea of publish or perish has encouraged the academics to engage in serious research and search for scientific, correct and up-to-date information through the internet or visit the library that is capable of providing access to various data bases and online journals for their various uses. Some academic staff members have been exposed to the use of computer and internet right from their secondary school education or tertiary institutions, while some were exposed to the internet when they got to the universities. The internet knowledge received has been helpful in the search for the right search-engine to use for their academic activities. Among the available popular search-engines, we have the Yahoo, Google, Alta vista, Northern light, L ycos, Excite Webcrawler, Info seek, Hotbot, to mention just a few. In Nigeria today, nearly all the universities are making use of internet to facilitate teaching, research and get connected with other activities in other universities of the world. In fact, the world indeed has become a global community 217

2 To facilitate a policy for Joseph Ayo Babalola University on Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a number of measures has been put in place, conspicuous among them is the different workshops to create awareness, educate staff members on ICT. With the establishment of computer Science Department, it has been the base and the driven force of the ICT operations in Joseph Ayo Babalola University. In this Department, academic staff members have been working assiduously to create a structure envisaged by management. The university has also thought it wise to have an ICT policy in place in order to drive its ICT activities. The constituents of the policy include: Establishment of a portal and functional website Establishment of social networks. Introduction of e-learning/e-library. Establishment of computer management policy. Creating of hotspots and expansion of networks. Creating a website for entrepreneurship and innovation. Formulation of distance and e-learning policy. Collaboration within colleges and inter-colleges and e-libraries. Fast tracking linkages with sister institutions and different research institutions. Affiliation of ICT unit with the Computer Science Department for effective and efficient performance and maximum utilization of available resources. Joseph Ayo Babalola University is ICT driven and is almost four years old now. The academics rely on internet as one of their major sources of information. Has internet contributed to their effectiveness and efficiency? What is the level of their computer literacy? How do they access, surf the net and for what purpose? What is their level of exposure, reason for surfing and frequency of use? These are parts of the focus of this study. The need for study that will answer the above questions was also mentioned by Robinson (2005) in his study. Internet can be multi-dimensionally explained. Internet is a computer-based global information system. The Internet is composed of many interconnected computer networks (Bane and Milhieim, 1995). Each network may link tens, hundreds, or even thousands of computers, enabling them to share information and processing power. The Internet has made it possible for people all over the world to communicate with one another effectively and inexpensively (Comer, 2009). The invention of internet has led to the development of virtual library, other services in all facets of life, institutions and all human endeavours. The following services can be enjoyed via the internet, they are, just to mention a few, sending and receiving s, visiting websites, chatting, reading newspapers online, learning, accessing the e- journals, databases, etc. It is not an exaggeration to say that the internet has become an invaluable tool for teaching, learning and research (Yumba, 1997; Ojedokun and Owolabi, 2003; Adomi, Omodeko and Otolo, 2004). Moreover, internet involves searching and probing for information which touches all human activity and is communicated in many ways which include speech, pictures, video, text etc. Therefore, for academics to achieve their noble ends of imparting and dissemination of information necessary for self, socio-economic and community development, internet is a sine qua non. Not only this, access to the required information is also important and paramount to effective performance in academics as well as other human endeavours and organizations. Adequate, timely and cost effective information has been generally recognized as contributing immensely to the effectiveness and efficiency of any organization. A functional internet relates to many advantages of the information systems. Recent developments in computer communication and net-working technology have given new meaning to information retrieval systems. It has created a wall-less library where necessary information can easily be retrieved when desired. This has turned the whole world to a global community. Today, there is no doubt that information sharing is being achieved through network of networks. This information super highway is growing rapidly and is connecting millions of people globally. Internet and Information and communication technology have turned the whole world into a global village. METHODOLOGY Structured questionnaires after pre-tested at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State, Nigeria were used to collect quantitative data from randomly selected sixty respondents. Quantitative information on gender, status, access, exposure, frequency and purpose of internet use among many other were collected. Data collected where edited, coded and analysed using descriptive statistics. 218

3 RESULTS A total of 60 academic staff members of the institution were randomly selected and interviewed by using structured questionnaire. The study sample that cut across all colleges represented about 30 percent of the total academic staff members at the time of the survey. However, out of the 60 respondents, 56 filled their questionnaires appropriately and were used for data analysis. TABLE 1: Gender of Respondents SEX N % Male Female Total As shown in Table 1, the sampled population contained more of male than female. More than three quarter of the sampled population of academic staff members of the university were male (83.9%). The record of academic staff members in the university buttressed this finding. TABLE II: DISTR IBUTION OF STAFF MEMBERS BY STATUS/DESIGNATION STATUS/DESIGNATION Professor Reader Senior Lecturer Lecturer I Lecturer II Assistant Lecturer Graduate Assistant TOTAL Table II showed the distribution of academic staff members by status/designation. It could be observed that 32.1% and 21.4% of the sampled population were Assistant Lecturer and Lecturer II respectively. The table also revealed that 12.5% of respondents were Lecturer I while the same percentage also applied to Senior Lecturer. Both Reader (8.9%) and Professor (7.1%) were not less than 16.0% of the sampled population. 219

4 TABLE 111: DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY THEIR ACCESS TO INTERNET Do you have access to internet? Yes % Table III above showed the distribution of respondents by their access to internet. The study revealed that majority (80.4%) of the academic staff members had access to the internet. The study carried out in Kuvempu University by Birader and others (2006) had similar result. TABLE IV: DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY THEIR YEARS OF EXPOSURE TO INTERNET EXPOSURE TO INTERNET < 1 year years years > 5 years TOTAL Table V indicated that 60.7% of the respondents had more than five years of exposure to the internet or had been using computer/internet for more than 5 years. More than one quarter of the respondents (21.4%) had been using the internet for about 3 to 4 years. While about 20% indicated they had been using internet in less or equal to 2 years. TABLE V: DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY THE CHANNELS USED TO SURF THE INTERNET CHANNELS USED TO SURF THE INTERNET Personal Laptop/desktop Office Cybercafé Computer Laboratory University Library Cafe Departmental Cafe TOTAL

5 Table V showed that more than two third of the respondents (66.1%) indicated the use of personal laptop/desktop as channel to surf the internet. While 12.5% indicated the use of Computer Laboratory to surf the net, 8.9% percent claimed that they used Office Cybercafé and University Library Café. TABLE VI: DITRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY TIME SPENT FOR SURFING THE INTERNET PER WEEK TIME SPENT PER WEEK < 10 Hours Hours Hours Hours Hours > 51 Hours TOTAL A reasonable number, 27 (48.2%) of the respondents had a sort of romance with the internet for less than 10hours per week. While 17.9% and19.6% of the respondents used the internet about hours and hours per week respectively, 8.9% used the net for about hours per week. TABLE VII: DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY PURPOSE OF SURFING THE INTERNET PURPOSE OF SURFING THE INTERNET For research and academic materials To send and receive Reading of Newspaper, for entertainment & sport Others Multiple responses were allowed Table VII showed the distribution of respondents by the purpose of surfing the internet. Close to 85% (83.9%) of the respondents indicated that they used the net for research and academic materials while 57.1% used the net to send and receive electronic mails. Those who used the internet for reading of newspapers, entertainment and sport represented 35.7% of the total respondents. 221

6 TABLE VIII: DISTRIBUTION OF RESPONDENTS BY SELECTED REASONS FOR USING THE INTERNET AND THEIR RATING Variables Strongly agreed 5 Agree 4 Just agree 3 Disagree 2 Strongly disagree 1 Total Index Ease downloading of related information materials for teaching and research Ease the exchange of study materials/ideas with colleagues Ease the sending and receiving of materials/articles Ease access to study materials in obtaining peer review thereby strengthening research and journal publication Helped in having access to database not found in the library Making choice of research easier and ease the sending and receiving of mails Note: The values shown in the table were obtained by multiplying the preference scale (1-5) by the number of respondents at each level, e.g 28 respondents 5 =140, 8 respondents 4 = 32 etc. BENEFIT OF THE INTERNET There were many reasons for the use of internet by the academic staff members. The study listed six perceived reasons and respondents reacted to them. The results were analyzed using the statistical method of summation of weighted values (SWV). Five ratings were used. They were namely strongly agreed, agree, just agree, disagree and strongly disagree corresponding to scales of preferences of 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1 respectively. The preference index was obtained by dividing the SWV for each attribute or reason by the total number of respondents analyzed. Table VIII revealed that ease downloading of related information materials for teaching and research was given the highest priority as the reason for surfing the internet with an index of 3.88 by the academic staff members. This was followed by ease the exchange of study materials/ideas with colleagues with an index of Sending and receiving of materials /articles came third in the rating with an index of 3.21 while an index rating of 3.07 represented respondents who claimed that it helped in having access to data base not found in the library. The fifth position in the rating with an index of 3.00 went to ease access to study materials in obtaining peer review thereby strengthening research and journal publication as the reason for surfing the net while the least position with an index of 2.79 went to the claimed that internet was useful for making choice of research easier and ease the sending and receiving of mails. CONCLUSION The study revealed that the majority of the academic staff members at Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji Arakeji, Ilesa, Osun State were male. All categories of academic staff members were well represented in the institution. More than four out of every five academic members indicated that they had access to the net and had at least three years of exposure to the net. The mostly used means through which they surf the net was through own personal computer. Most importantly, internet was being used for research and to search for academic materials. The rating of the purpose of 222

7 surfing the net also buttressed this point. More than half of the sampled population spent minimum of ten hours to surf the net every week. The study revealed that internet had contributed immensely to high level performance of academic staff members in Joseph Ayo Babalola University. The earlier studies of Nath (1989) and Griffiths and Brophy (2005) buttressed this point. The study had also increased and deepened our knowledge and understanding about the use of internet by the academic staff members in the universities, Joseph Ayo Babalola University as a case study. It had shown that the University had a functioning internet network that was contributing greatly to teaching, research and other activities in the university. RECOMMENDATION In view of the findings from this study, the following recommendations were made: Taking the benefits of internet into consideration, its use should be encouraged in order for it to contribute more to effectiveness and efficiency in the institution. Since most of the academic staff members prefer the use of their personally own computer to surf the net, the management of the university should encourage this by purchasing personal computers for them or in the least subsidize or give soft loan in this respect. Moreover, the effectiveness of the internet needs to be ensured for greater productivity. Feminism or gender issues in internet usage and employment need to be considered and studied. REFERENCES Adomi, E. E., Omodeko, F. S., and Otolo, P.U. (2004). The use of Cybercafé at Delta State University, Nigeria. The library Hi Tech 22(4): Bane, A. F. and Milhieim, W. D. (1995). Internet insights: how academics are using the internet. Computers in the Library 19 (2), Biradar, B. S., Rajashekar G. R. and Sampath Kumar B T.(2006). A study of internet usage by students and faculties in Kuvempu University. Library Herald.44 (4); December Pp Comer, Douglas E. "Internet." Microsoft Encarta 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, Griffiths, J. R and Brophy, P. (2005). Student Searching Behavior and the Web: Use of Academic Resources and Google. Library Trends Spring. pp Nath, R. (1989). Are frequent computers users more satisfied? Information Processing and Management 25(5) P Ojedokun, A. A. and Owolabi, E. O. (2003). Internet access competence and the use of the internet for teaching and research activities by University of Botswana Academic Staff. African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science, 13(1): Robinson Jannie W. (2009) Internet use among African - American college students: An Exploratory study. Retrieved from 22 nd June, Yumba, D. (1997). Internet in the Library: potentials. African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science 7(2):