Perceptions of Students on Culture and Its Impact on Web-based Information Seeking at Solusi University in Zimbabwe

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify cultural implications and differences through the perceptions of postgraduate students (male and female) at Solusi University, in Zimbabwe and assess the cultural implications and cultural differences` impact on information seeking, management and evaluation in the information environment and information practices, of an institution of higher learning. Literature has shown that there are differences between the success and failure factors in the developed and developing countries with regard to the development and use of Web-based or online information sources for learning purposes in Universities. There is very little literature, and evidence of attention given to this area of study in Zimbabwe in particular. This study is build on the premise that “information seeking” is socio-culturally bounded and that the success of use of Web-based information is highly related to – if not found at, the intersection between the implied by the perceptions of students, that is, information seekers and learners and the technology applied to achieve the desired information search outcomes. The data were collected by use of an instrument of a questionnaire that was administered among postgraduate students at Solusi University, in Zimbabwe, in 2011. The data were analysed quantitatively with SPSS version17.0 for Windows using mainly cross-tabulations and Chi-squared tests. The statistically significant differences focused on the general Web-based information seeking, management and evaluation in this information environment, and information practices used within the Solusi University. The conclusions drawn from the study were that cultural differences and implications influence the seeking of Web-based learning information and that the impact of cultural differences and implications should be examined more thoroughly in future studies, which should apply both qualitative and quantitative methods.