Available online at www.sciencedirect.com
ScienceDirect Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 90 (2013) 196 – 202
6th International Conference on University Learning and Teaching (InCULT 2012)
Internet Dependency In Completing Academic Assessment: A Study On UiTM TESL Students Johan @ Eddy Luarana*, Noor Syamimie Mohd Nawib, Fazyudi Ahmad Nadzric, Kamarol Baharen Mohd Romd a,b,c,dd
Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA, 40200 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia
Abstract The use of the Internet has increased tremendously in the past years and this is highly discussed throughout the world. This research was an attempt to investigate the dependency level on the Internet sources among the TESL students in completing their academic assessments. The research questions to be answered in this study are (i) How does the Internet usage help in the education and the daily life of the students? (ii) How does the Internet usage to complete the academic assessments differ between the female and the male students? and (iii) What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the Internet sources from the students’ point of views? In order to answer these research questions; a survey was conducted among the ffinal year TESL undergraduates in UiTM. The research was descriptive and the data were collected using questionnaires. The findings of the study have provided some useful information about the level of dependency on the Internet sources among the final year TESL students in completing their academic assessments. This is because the students do depend on the Internet during their study. Thus, based on the results of the study, it is therefore crucial to look into the pros and cons of the Internet usage among the students, and ways to utilize the Internet to become an effective educational tool for the students. © TheAuthors. Authors. Published by Elsevier Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. © 2012 2013 The Published by Elsevier Ltd. Ltd. Selection and/orpeer-review peer-review under responsibility the Faculty of Education, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia. Selection and/or under responsibility of theof Faculty of Education, University Technology MARA, Malaysia. Keywords: Internet, TESL students, academic assessments :
1.
Introduction
The Internet has now become the nerve of global communication. According to Miniwatts Marketing Group (2010), the Internet users have exceeded 1 billion users worldwide. This shows how the Internet has spread its wings in its mission to conquer the world. In Malaysia alone, the number of users has increased rapidly as
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1877-0428 © 2013 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Faculty of Education, University Technology MARA, Malaysia. doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.07.082
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reported by Telekom Malaysia. In 2005, the number of Internet subscribers was at 3.5 million, and in 2009 the number of subscribers in Malaysia was close to 10 million. With the booming of the Internet, more and more students have become inveterate users of the World Wide Web. With that in mind, the real potential for advancement in students’ learning ability also comes along. Nowadays, the Internet has provided boundless opportunities for education and it has made the students’ work become easier as thousands of pages of readily accessed information are available with a choice of free and easy to use search engines. All the information is just one click away. However, with the increasing number of Internet users among students, there have been a lot of arguments about the disadvantages of having too much exposure to the Internet to the students. Some critics blame the Internet for making the students become less critical in their thinking. Nowadays, the Internet has become so endemic that a student prefers to“Google” rather than to turn to traditional means such as books and documents for reference. 1. Literature Review A careful review of literature discloses that many investigations have already been carried out to study the use of the Internet and e-resources in Malaysia and abroad by faculty members, students and research scholars of different academic institutions from time to time. Based on the finding by Ramayah et al. (2005), Malaysians use the Internet for 14.1 hours a day. This shows that Malaysians use the Internet frequently. This happens because the Internet facilities are adequate and many people take the opportunity to access it. The use of the Internet in education allows access to a wide range of international resources. At present, the most up-to-date information can be obtained easily from the Internet. In order for students to perform in education, they have to know how to use the Internet to seek for accurate and precise information needed in their studies. A study by Mitra et al. (2005), shows that 75% of the university students use the Internet to find information from the web. He also states that in developing countries like Asia, Africa and Latin America, the information obtained from the Internet is normally used to improve and develop the nations The Internet is the modern societies’ cheapest means of communication and is now spreading rapidly throughout the world. Nowadays, the Internet is the main source for instant information and it is often used by students as the source of information. A research by Chen in Rahmah & Arfah, (1996) states that“Unlike the Internet usage in other parts of the world, more than 90 percent of users in Malaysia are young students below the age of 30. The majority are college students or school going users”. TESL students are frequent users of the Internet as most of the information needed can be obtained through the Internet. This is not surprising considering that education and ICT are closely related to today’s world. According to the research by Mitra et al. (2005), even though both genders used the Internet equally to visit search engines, class or work-related sites and shopping sites, the female students were more likely to surf the academic sites compared to their male counterparts. In contrast, Mashra et al. (2005) conducted a study to find out the Internet utilization pattern of undergraduate students and the findings showed that 61.5% of the male and 51.6% of the female students used the Internet for the purpose of preparing for their assignments. The education system in Malaysia has become more advanced and learning through referring to textbooks is no longer enough to provide students with knowledge or the information that they need. In addition to that, the students also agree that the Internet makes their life easier. A research carried out by Bashir et al. (2008) shows that for the participants, the most appealing features of the Internet were the ease of work and time saving. Browne (2000) states that one of the advantages of using the Internet is its accessibility because it can be accessed 24/7. However, one of the disadvantages of using the Internet is the distraction. Students can easily be distracted once they are online. The Internet users can sometimes participate in real-time conversations like the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Yahoo Messenger (YM). Based on Jones (2002) on Pew Internet and American Life
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Project, seventy-eight percent of college Internet users say that at one time or another they have gone online just to browse for fun. 2. Purpose of the Study The main purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of the TESL undergraduates use the Internet for academic purposes. 3. Research Methodology In this study, a questionnaire was used to gather data on the use of the Internet for academic purposes among TESL undergraduates at UiTM. A sample of 65 undergraduate students was randomly selected to participate in this study. The findings of the study were presented using descriptive statistics. The questionnaire consists of four sections: (i) Demographic information, (ii) Use of Internet Sources in Academic and Daily Life, (iii) Use of Internet for Educational Purposes between Male and Female students, (iv) Advantages and disadvantages of the Internet. 4. Discussion 5.1 Demographic Data Table 1 shows the frequency and percentage of the respondents based on gender of the 65 university students participated in the study, 36.9% were males and 63.1% were females. Table 1: The frequency and percentage of respondents based on gender
Frequency
Percentage
Male
24
36.9
Female
41
63.1
Total
65
100.0
5.2 The Use of Internet Sources in Academic and Daily Life Based on Table 2, it could be concluded that the Internet has a substantial impact on the daily life of the students as the majority admitted to use the Internet in their academic and also in daily life. 87.7 % of the students are engaged in finding information from websites. Meanwhile, 78.5% of the respondents used the Internet to do assignments. The result generally corroborates the findings by Livingstone and Bober (2006), who found that the students used the Internet to obtain information (94%) and also 90% to do assignments.
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Table 2: Types of work done using the Internet
Items Assignment Information searching Communication Downloading Others
Frequency 51 57 42 42 7
Percentage 78.5 87.7 64.6 64.6 10.8
Under the strong influences of the “Technological New Age”, it could be concluded that the students exploited and maximized the use of Internet for their professional as well as their personal development. In other words, not only do they use the Internet for academic purposes but also for entertainment. 5.3 The Differences in the Use of Internet for Educational Purposes between Male and Female Students Based on Figure 1, it was found that 50% of the female and 61% of the male respondents use the Internet for academic purposes every day. This is consistent with the study by Papanis et al. (2000) who found that there was no significant difference in the use of the Internet between both genders.
100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
sex MALE sex FEMALE
61 50 29
37 21 2
every day
a few times a week a few times a month
Figure 1: The frequency of using the Internet between the male and female students
199
200
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100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
87.5 MALE
6 65.9
FEMALE
14.6
8.3 4.9
4.2 2 Internet
Lecturer
Other students
0
4.9
Library
9.7 0 Others
Figure 2: The references for assignments
Based on Figure 2, it can be seen that the female respondents also used other sources as their means of completing their assignments while the male respondents relied heavily on the Internet to complete their academic tasks. The female respondents are more creative because they had varied sources in looking for information to finish their assignments. The results support the research by Mashra et al. (2005), who conducted a study on Internet utilization pattern of undergraduate students as the findings show that 61.5% male and 51.6% female respondents used the Internet to prepare for their assignments. The male students are more skilful in handling the technical works and they are more IT savvy as compared to the female students. This explains why the male students tend to rely on the Internet ffor information. 5.4 The Advantages and the Disadvantages of the Internet Based on Figure 3, 73.8 % of the respondents agreed that one of the advantages of using the Internet is that it provides all kinds of information needed. The mobility and accessibility of the Internet are the two things categorized as availability. 55.4% of the respondents agreed that the Internet could be accessed from anywhere and at all times. The respondents also stated that the Internet is easy to use. 52.3% of the respondents claimed that the Internet is simple and practical and could be utilised by anyone. This support the previous research by Bashir et al. (2008) who found the ease of work and time saving as the most appealing features. The information from the Internet is easilyobtained thus making the Internet the best tool for the students to use in their academic assessment. The exploitation of the Internet among the students would definitely provide a huge advantage for the students to improve and enhance their knowledge in various fields.
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100 80
them mes
73.8 55.4
52.3
60 40 20 0 Informative
Availability
Practicality
Figure 3: The advantages of the Internet from the student’s point of view
100 80
6699.2
60
themes
3 .5 38
40
27.7 27 27.7
20 0 Distraction
Procrastination
Plagiarism
Figure 4: The disadvantages of the Internet from the student’s point of view
The respondents were also asked about the disadvantages of using the Internet. Most of the respondents (69.2%) agreed that they would be easily distracted to surf other websites such as Facebook, YouTube, Friendster and other social networks. The respondents also stated that other than social networking, the distraction would also come from other people who participate in the real-time conversation like the Internet Relay Chat (IRC) and Yahoo Messenger (YM). The result is supported by Pew Internet and American Life Project in Jones (2002) who found out that “multitasking” activities were going on in the computer laboratories. In addition to that, 38.5% of the participants admitted that they would have the tendency to procrastinate their work. They tend to do it at the last minute because they think that their tasks can easily be done with the help of the Internet. Another disadvantage of the Internet according to the respondents, was the tendency to plagiarize as information could be obtained easily.
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6. Conclusion and Recommendations More students are relying on the Internet for their academic needs. The nation would benefit much if the students use the Internet properly and it is recommended that future studies should continue to monitor students’ usage of the Internet. The Internet provides a large amount of information across various disciplines, including education. Based on the research it can be concluded that the Internet is very popular among students. More places need to be upgraded as WIFI zones especially in the campus area to enable students easy access to information. The government should also set a lower and standard Internet charge rate as well as to increase the speed of the Internet connection. This is important to ensure that the rate is affordable and the students are satisfied with the connection speed. The Internet brings enormous benefits to the students especially in their academic endavours. It is also recommended that students are provided with designated websites to enable them to find information for their courses. The Internet provides advantages for academic, hence, the consistency in its use should be emphasized at all times. The relevance of the Internet should be emphasized continuously so that the Internet can be utilized to its maximum to help the students produce quality assignments. The information from the Internet when combined with the students’ critical analysis and thinking skills could help the students to produce high quality assignments. References Bashir, S., Mahmood, K. and Shafique, F. (2008). Internet Use Among University Students: A Survey in University of the Punjab, Lahore . Retrieved February 11, 2011, from http://www.pu.edu.pk/dlis/pjlis/Previous%20Issue/pjlis-9-mahmood.pdf Browne, M. N., Freeman, K. E., and Williamson, C. L. (2000). The importance of critical thinking for student use of the internet. College Student Journal, 34, 391-398. Retrieved January 8, 2011, from http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0FCR/is_3_34/ai_66760560/ Jones, S. (2002). The Internet Goes to College: How Students Are Living in the Future with Today's Technology.. ERIC – World’s largest digital library of education literature. Retrieved on February 26, 2011, from http://www.eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/search/detailmini.jsp?_nfpb=true&_&ERI CExtSearch_SearchValue_0=ED472669&ERICExtSearch_SearchType_0=no&acc no=ED472669 Livingstone, S. and Bober, M. (2005). UK children go online: Final report of key project findings. Retrieved on February 6,2011, from http://www.Ise.ac.uk/collections/ukCGOfinalReport.pdf Mashra, O.P., Yadav and Bisht. K (2005). Internet utilization pattern of graduate students. University News, 43(13), 8-12. Miniwattsmarketing group (2010). World Internet usage and population statistics. Retrieved on February 14,2011 from http://www.internetworldstats.com/ Mitra, A., Willyard, J., Platt, C., and Parsons, M. (2005). Exploring web usage and selection criteria among male and female students. Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication, 10(3), article 10.Retrieved on January 3, 2011 from http://jcmc.indiana.edu/vol10/issue3/mitra.html Muniandy, B. (2010). Academic use of internet among undergraduate students: a preliminary case study in a malaysian university. International Journal of Cyber Society and Education, 3(2), Retrieved on February 18,2011 from http://www.academicjournals.org/ojs2/index.php/IJCSE/article/view/916/52. Papanis, E., Giavrimis, P., Papani, E.M. (2010). The Contribution of the Internet into Learning. Review of European Studies, 2(1) . Retrieved on March 17, 2011 from http://www.ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/res/article/view/5962. Rahmah Hashim and Arfah Yusof (1996). Internet in Malaysia. Retrieved October 19 2009 from Inter Asia: http://www.interasia.org/malaysia/hashim-yusof.html Ramayah, T., Ignatius, J. and Aafaqi, B. (2005). Pc usage among students in a private institution of higher learning: the moderating role of prior experience. Jurnal Pendidik dan Pendidikan , 20, 131-152.
