Assessment of Internet Awareness and Use by the Undergraduate Students of College of Agricultural and Science Education in Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike

Abstract

This study examined internet awareness and use by the undergraduate students in college of Agricultural and Science Education, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Abia State, Nigeria. It sought to find out their level of internet awareness, frequency of internet use, purpose of internet use, impact derivable from the internet use and factors affecting their usage of internet. A descriptive survey design was used for the study with a population of 1800 undergraduate students. Sample size of 360 (20%) of the population was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was structured questionnaires. Percentages and frequency tables were used in analyzing the data. The findings revealed that all the undergraduate students are aware of the internet. It also discovered that majority make use of the internet often. The study also showed that the students make use of the internet for learning purpose, sending of e-mail, entertainment/recreation and chatting among others. It was also discovered that internet use has a very high impact on the academic excellence of the students. Unstable power supply, low bandwidth, low internet skills, high subscription prices, difficulty in finding relevant information among others were found to be the problems the students encounter in their use of internet. The study recommended that there should be improvement in power supply and the university authority should also make provision for alternative power supply in case of power outage, there should be training and retraining of students on the use of internet facilities, efforts should be made to increase the internet bandwidth in order to ensure speedy access and the subscription prices should also be made relatively cheap so that majority of the students can afford the services.