Effect of Internet on University Students Performance
Effect of Internet on University Students’ Performance
Institution
Name of Student
Introduction
Education is increasingly becoming too expensive and technical as technology advances. More and newer techniques of learning are propping up and students in both university and high school are found to have no option than adapt the changing environment in education. While the changes in education technology are immense, the internet is a major aspect of the technology providing benefits to student and creating barriers to good performance in the universities. Today lecturers and university instructors are encouraging the use of the internet in education research, assignments, and studies. The same educators use another basis for discouraging the increasing cases of internet use especially on other aspect that are non-academic as they deteriorate student performance. This aspect becomes a critical area of research but a proposal created would be great in providing guidelines for conducting the main research.
There is an increasing need to establish whether the internet has some negative impact on student performance and the best thing about the use of internet in education specifically in campuses. This research proposal would be used as a guideline for conducting a research on the topic within university campuses. The research proposal tents to propose that theme that the use of internet in university education has a positive impact on education and student performance (Castaño-Muñoz, 2010). Students are encouraged to learn more and beyond their scope by the high level of education resources on the internet. The internet also has some negative effect on student performance but the negative aspects of internet use by university students are too insignificant to pose threat to the greatness that can be established in education by the introduction of internet in university systems of learning. The proposal provides a clear guideline that education and student performance in the universities are stimulated by the use of internet (Chifwepa, 2003).
Research Questions
Establish the way universities incorporates internet in their education systems
Point out some major benefits of the internet to university students’ performance
Discuss how the internet negates student performance in the universities
Research objectives
To establish the way universities make use of the internet in their education systems
To show the major benefits of the internet to university students and their performance
To figure out how internet use negates student performance in the universities
Literature Review
The internet is identified as one of the latest advancements in technology as far as the world of information and related technology is concerned. Other than its increased use in education, internet is today a useful instrument promoting the efforts of changing the world into a global village. Students have increased their achievements on both academic and social life as they increase their use of internet in both academics and social interactions (Asdaque, Khan, & Rizvi, 2010). Today a significant number of students in the universities can hardly study without making consultation on the internet as a source of resource material for academic performance. Earlier researches find great correlation on student performance and internet usage in the universities. In most of the earlier researches, the correlation between student performance and internet use is positive and researchers have provided a wide range of reasons why the internet is a major positive contributor to students’ performance in the universities (Asdaque, Khan, & Rizvi, 2010).
Arguments exist whether internet is reliable on student intellectual improvement while there is the existence of many social evils associated with the use of internet as a tool for improving academic performance among university students. The internet promotes student performance through provision of study techniques and the application of a wide range of technologies in education and learning. The internet has social tools and websites that help student interaction in education and internet based discussions. Sites like the wikis provide descriptions on various technical processes that university students can always refer while in their studies (Hendel & Harrold, 2004). The internet is also found to provide significant material for researches. It is found that about 50 per cent of all scholarly materials used by university students in their research are obtained from internet sources (Asdaque, Khan, & Rizvi, 2010). Researches make use of wide varieties of secondary data especially due to the nature of secondary data. In almost all fields of research, studies have been carried out and the internet provides detailed information on these researches for use in guiding their primary researches. Students also find it difficult to do their university projects without majorly relying on the internet for the resource materials (Hendel & Harrold, 2004).
While the internet has been found as, an important tool in education and student performance enhancer, there is the evil side of the internet as far as education and performance is concerned. Education is negatively influenced by internet in various ways. The combination of internet technologies and computer technologies such as improved phones make it difficult for some students to concentrate during their lectures. Social networking, also useful in initiating distant discussions among students, is found to be use in busting discussion hardly related to academics during classes. Students addicted to the internet are also found to spend more of their time on the internet than the time they spend in studies (Lijuan, Xin, Mingzheng, & Aihong, 2006). The social aspect of internet outside the scope of academics has been found to negate internet in student performance in the universities.
Methodology
The research would use the methodology section to provide basis for establishing the methods to be used in conducting data and information concerning the impact of internet on university students’ performance. This section would guide the data collection techniques to be used. The research shall make use of both primary data collection methods and secondary methods of data collection. Each kind of data collection method would be used due to a variety of reasons. The research would be conducted from a university campus to find out how students make use of internet in their studies and whether all departments have incorporated the use of internet as a key tool in education (Asdaque, Khan, & Rizvi, 2010). Secondary data would be used to provide evidence of other researches done to find the truth on the same problem. The use of secondary data broadens the scope of the study and thus decreasing the time and money to be spent in primary data collection. The researcher shall collect only the data whose coverage can hardly be established in the secondary data collection techniques.
Primary data would seek to collect information from specific respondents, most of whom would be students and lecturers. Data would be conducted using survey methods and respondents would be expected to provide their views and their experience concerning the application of internet in studies. The respondents would provide information on how much time they spend on the internet and what proportion of this time is spend on non-academic activities like social media and other internet activities (Kuh & Nelson, 2004). The primary data would also involve seeking information from departments to find if the internet has been incorporated in each of the departments. In the actual research, various variables would be used. The dependent variable would be gender, age, and race. They would form basis for establishing internet use is influenced by the factors and then the way internet influences students’ performance with respect to each of the independent variable.
Results and Discussion
The results obtained would be used to establish the correlation between internet use and age, gender, and race. In this case, age, gender, and race would be used as the factors influencing the use of internet. From the analysis, the results would show how the internet affects students’ performances in the universities. The issue of race, age, and gender would be used to show the most pronounced group in internet and the way internet influences each of the stated group in academic performance. The research would. The research shall establish that increased hours spent on internet increases the performance of students in terms of their GPA. At the same time, the research would establish that spending more time on internet and specifically on social media networks decreases students’ performances. Students using internet for studies and research are more likely to perform better than students who hardly use internet for studies and research (Chifwepa, 2003). Again, the research would show that there is a significant difference in internet usage among various students distinguished by age, gender, and race.
Conclusion
The correlation between internet use and student performance is positive. Internet use has some negative impact to student performance especially when the use of internet for more time than the time spends in studies. The use of social media for studies can initiate discussions between students or group vastly separated by distance. Social media create an aspect of internet addiction and therefore becoming a negative aspect to student performance as student committee more time to the internet than the time spend in studies (Liao & Hsieh, 2011). The research shall use all necessary tools to establish that although the internet leads to bad practices and mismanagement of time that contributes to the lost of time by university students, the net impact of internet to students’ performance is the improvement in their performance.
References
Asdaque, M. M., Khan, M. N., & Rizvi, S. A. (2010, December). EFFECT OF INTERNET ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE AND SOCIAL LIFE OF UNIVERSITY STUDENTS IN PAKISTAN. Retrieved April 29, 2013, from Journal of Education and Sociology: http://www.academia.edu/1000534/EFFECT_OF_INTERNET_ON_THE_ACADEMIC_PERFORMANCE_AND_SOCIAL_LIFE_OF_UNIVERSITY_STUDENTS_IN_PAKISTAN
Castaño-Muñoz, J. (2010). Digital Inequality Among University Students in Developed Countries and its Relation to Academic Performance. Revista de Universidad y Sociedad del Conocimiento, 7(1) , 23-45.
Chifwepa, V. (2003). The use of the internet and internet by teaching staff of the University of Zambia. Afr.J. Archives Inf. Sci. 13(2) , 119-132.
Hendel, D. D., & Harrold, R. D. (2004). Undergraduate student leisure interests over three decades. College Student Journal, 38 (4) , 557-568.
Kuh, G., & Nelson, T. (2004). Student Experiences with Information Technology and their Relationship toOther Aspects of Student Engagement. Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Association for Institutional Research, Boston, MA .
Liao, P.-W., & Hsieh, J. Y. (2011). What influences Internet-based learning? Social Behavior and Personality: an international journal, 39(7) , 887-901.
Lijuan, C., Xin, Z., Mingzheng, W., & Aihong, X. (2006). Lijuan, C., Xin, Z., Mingzheng, W., & Aihong, X. (2006). A A research on the effects of Internet addiction onadolescents’social development. Psychological Science (China), Vol. 29 , 34-36.
