The ICT Facilities, Skills, Usage, and the Problems Faced by the Students of Higher Education

Abstract

The present survey research was aimed at identifying the ICT facilities, skills, usage, and the problems faced by the students of higher education while using ICT. The population of the study comprised the students of public sector universities of Lahore, Pakistan. Instrument was developed by the first author. About 250 students were selected from three public universities. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the students have computers and Internet facilities at home and universities. They are expert at simple skills like MS Word, MS Power Point, Searching and Browsing at Internet, Social networking, Email, File attachment, and Computer games but are less skilled or poor on other skills like using digital library, discussion forums, and Blogs. Students spend more time on computers for recreational and other purposes than for academic purpose. They believe that the use of ICT supports their learning. Slow speed of computers, signal problem in Internet, virus threat, poor working condition of computers, load shedding, and lack of access of Internet are the problems faced by the majority of the students. The universities should invest more on improving the infrastructure to address the ICT related problems of students at the universities.