A Questionnaire Survey On Use Of The Internet By Students Of The University Of Ibadan, Nigeria

Abstract

The study was carried out to examine use of Internet by students of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria\'s premier higher educational institution. Adopting a sample survey research design, systematic sampling was used to select 560 students who are resident in the main campus hostels, and data was collected from the respondents using a self-developed questionnaire. A one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) technique, it is shown that who the students communicate with varies significantly with age, gender and level of study while the various tools they use vary significantly with age, gender, faculty and level of study. Younger users (10-24 years old) use chat rooms more than their older colleagues. Across gender, educational purpose dominates reported use of the Internet, but it varies with age, level of study and faculty. Higher educational level is associated with less use of the Internet for leisure and entertainment. About 73% of the respondents considered the Internet information as useful while much less than this (44.4%) reported finding Internet information as trustworthy. Based on our result, we suggest discriminated Internet education programmes and access by faculty, level of study and gender in order to maximise the use of the Internet services by the students in the university.

Keywords: use of Internet, user evaluation, University of Ibadan, Internet, Nigeria

African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Vol. 11 (1&2) 2008: pp. 340-358