Internet Usage and Academic Performance of Undergraduate Students in University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the influence of internet usage on academic performance of undergraduate students of the University ofIlorin, Nigeria.This study adopted descriptive survey method. Six faculties were randomly selected from the 13 faculties in the University while 200 undergraduate students were sampled across these selected faculties using simple random sampling technique. Researchers’ designed questionnaire was used for data collection while mean rating, t-test and ANOVA were used for data analysis.The findings of this study revealed that internet usage among undergraduate students of University of Ilorin had positively influenced their academic performance in their various disciplinesthough; it distracts students’ attentions and prevents them from attending lectures regularly. It was also found that students have not been able to use internet to develop networking website that could help them in their academic activities. Insignificant differencewas found to exist in the influence of internet usage on the academic performance of undergraduate students of University of Ilorin on the basis of gender and age. However, a significant difference was found on the basis of their faculty and educational level. As such it was recommended that school administrators and counselors should provide proper guidance to students on appropriate ways of using the internet to positively enhance academic performance of undergraduates of University of Ilorin.

Key words: Internet, Academic performance, Undergraduate Student