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Internet Usage and Academic Performance: A Study in A Malaysian Public University
Internet Usage and Academic Performance: A Study in A Malaysian Public University
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Harlina Halizah Siraj, Abdus Salam, Nurul Ashiqin bt Hasan, Tan Hiang Jin,
Raihanah Binti Roslan, Muhammad Nazam Bin Othman
ABSTRACT
Introduction: Internet is the most wanted information and communication technology that brought the worldwide revolu-
tionary change in the information scenario. It helps students to broaden their academic knowledge, research and assignments by
accessing to the information world and also by easy communication to their academic community. Though there are many bene-
fits linked with Internet use, there has been a growing concern regarding the risk associated with Internet overuse. It is reported
that Internet has a significant decrement onto students' performance. This study aimed to determine the association between
Internet usage and academic performances of students in a public University of Malaysia.
Methodology: This was a cross sectional study conducted in a Malaysian Public University among 186 year-4 medical student
of session 2011-2012. It used the Internet Addiction Diagnostic Questionnaire instrument which contained eight questions and
were asked to answer either 'Yes" or "No" responses. Respondents who answered five or more answer as "Yes" were designated
as dependent Internet user.
Results: Majority (73%) of the respondents were female and resided in campus (69%). Thirty six students (20.5%) were
identified as dependent Internet users. Internet user > 6 hours were observed to have higher CGPA (p = 0.003). No significant
difference was detected between CGPA of dependent and non dependent Internet users. A total of 64.4% respondents perceived
that internet acts as supplement to the information given by the lectures.
Conclusions: Medical students with high internet usage are associated with higher academic performance.
KEY WORDS
internet usage, academic performance, internet addiction
Table 1. Demographic data of the respondents, n = 176 Table 4. Correlation between duration of internet use during
Variables Frequency (n) Percent (%) weekdays and weekends and CGPA
Male 47 27 Academic
Non-course 38.3 45.0 44.3 40.7 43.2 Dependent Internet user 2.97 ± 0.37
related t = 6.782 0.092
Chat 63.8 28.7 40.2 33.3 38.1 Non-dependent Internet user 3.10 ± 0.27
Email 25.5 39.5 39.3 27.8 35.8
Download 38.3 31.8 26.5 38.2 33.5
music
that examines symptoms of Internet addiction such as (1) users feeling
Play game 23.4 7.0 8.2 18.5 11.4 of preoccupation with the Internet use (2) feeling of need to use Internet
Download 10.6 2.3 0.8 13.0 4.5 with increasing amount of time (3) feeling of repeatedly made unsuc-
game cessful effort to control, cut back or stop Internet use (4)feeling of rest-
less, moody, depressed or irritable when attempting to cut down or stop
Create web 2.1 1.6 1.6 1.9 1.7
Internet use (5) staying on-line longer than originally intended (6) ever
page failed an exam because of the Internet (7) lied or concealed the extent of
Internet use to family members (8) used Internet as a way of escaping
from problems or relieving a dysphoric mode. Each participant was
asked to answer each question by choosing from 'yes' or 'no' response.
family-related, financial, psychological, or physiological functioning" Respondents who met five or more 'yes' answer of the items were classi-
(Bellamy and Hanewicz 2001). He suggests that a parallel of Internet fied as dependent users and those who did not meet at least five of the
Addiction Diagnostic (IAD) would be pathological gambling. Young questions were classified as Non-dependent users. Survey was also done
(1996) expressed internet addiction as an impulse-control disorder which to assess the time spend on internet per day and also to detect the pur-
does not involve intoxicant. She stated that problematic Internet users pose of internet use. In addition, five decision scenarios were developed
show similar symptoms to those who suffer from pathological gambling to assess the user's perceptions how internet usage affects academic per-
as well as dependency on alcohol and drugs. formance. Students were asked to choose only one decision. All answers
In Malaysia, the internet service was started since 1992 through the were kept private and confidential.
internet service provider 'Jaring' (Ministry of Education 1997). Now it Consent was taken from all the participants regarding the participa-
becomes an integral part of the student life. Hence we intended to see the tion and also to disclose their cumulative grade point average (CGPA)
role of internet among Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) students. of semester 1 year 4. Exclusion criteria were those who did not give
The objective of this study was to identify the internet dependency rate consent. Before administering the survey questionnaire a pilot test was
among UKM medical students and to determine relationship between done on 10 undergraduate students, each of whose felt that the survey
internet use and academic performance. This study also intends to realize instructions and items were easily understandable and appropriate for
the student's perceptions how internet usage affects academic performance. study with the intended university student population. The results were
analyzed using SPSS version 18. Statistical test was done using ANOVA
and student t test.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
RESULTS
This cross sectional study was conducted using an online question-
naire to all 234 year-4 UKM medical students of academic session
2011-2012. Data was collected by using the Internet Addiction Demographic data in terms of gender and residency of the respon-
Diagnostic Questionnaire (IADQ) (Young 1998). Demographic data on dents was shown in Table 1. Out of 234 medical students, 176 complet-
gender and residency were also collected. ed and returned the questionnaire, giving the response rate of 75.2%.
The IADQ is a widely utilized screening instrument examining One hundred and twenty nine students (73%) were female and 47 (27%)
compulsive Internet use. The instrument is an eight-item questionnaire were male. This corresponds to the male: female student ratio of the
Internet Usage and Academic Performance 85
Figure 1. Student perception on the impact of internet usage towards academic performance. A total, 64.4% of the respondents agreed
that internet acts as supplement to the information given by the lectures.
university. Regarding the residency of the students, 121(69%) students Nearly, three fourth of the respondents in this study were female
were resided in hostel while 55(31%) were resided out-campus. (73%) and around one fourth (27%) were male (Table 1). Regarding
Table 2 revealed the respondents' time spent for the internet during time spend on internet, 71.6%, and 45.5% used internet <6 hours during
weekdays and weekend. There were 126 respondents (71.6%) who used weekdays and weekends respectively while 28.4% and 54.5% respon-
the internet for < 6 hours while 50 (28.4%) respondents spent at least ≥ dents spend at least >6 hours on weekdays and weekends respectively
6 hours for the internet on weekdays. However, during weekends, the (Table 2). It is obvious that internet use for >6 hours has been increased
number of internet users for > 6 hours were increased. There were 80 during the weekend (55%) compared to weekend (29%). This result is
(45.5%) users for < 6 hours compared to 96 (54.5%) for ≥ 6 hours. similar to the study of Young (2006) where internet use has increased
Table 3 showed the purpose of Internet use and their percentage dis- during weekend compared to the weekdays.
tribution in different gender and residencies. On average, 84% respon- The main purposes of Internet use were to obtain course related
dents used Internet for course related information while around 2% information as stated by 84.1% respondents while 76.1% stated for
respondents used Internet to create webpage. In between the purposes of entertainment purpose and 71.6% opined as to complete assignment
Internet used were entertainment, assignment, non-course related, chat, (Table-3). This result corresponds with Livingstone and Bober (2005)
e-mail, down load music, game and play game. who reported that 90% of the participants used the Internet for school or
Table 4 showed the relationship of duration of Internet usages college work. Similarly, Kumar and Kaur (2006) have found that 72.2%
during weekdays and weekends with academic performance in terms of respondents used the Internet for education purpose while 50.8% for
cumulative grade point average (CGPA). Significant relationship was research. Jones and Madden (2002), reported that 73% of the college
observed between CGPA and Internet usage during weekdays (p = students used Internet more than that of library for retrieving their
0.003). However, there was no significant relationship between Internet research material. They found Internet as an easy way to communicate
use and CGPA during weekends (p = 0.677). with teachers, do research and access library. Survey in Australian
Table 5 revealed that the rate of internet dependency and their rela- University revealed that 885 students used Internet for course related
tionship with internet use in weekdays and weekends. Dependent inter- research (Foster 2000). Recent study in Malaysia by Lauran et al (2013)
net users were 36 (20.45%) while 140 (79.5%) were non-dependent revealed that 98.3% students' have access to website for search of infor-
users. Among the dependent users during weekdays, 16 (44.4%) used mation and assignment as it is faster and easier. However, regarding the
the internet ≥ 6 hours and 20 (55.6%) used < 6 hours. Among the use of Internet as a communicating medium, our study finding is not so
non-dependent users, 34(24.3%) used the internet ≥ 6 hours and 106 obvious. It is less than 40%. Similar study in UiTM showed that they
(75.7%) used < 6 hours during weekdays. There was a significant rela- depend on Internet very much for their communication. They reported
tionship between internet dependency with duration of internet use the use of email and chatting was 96.7% and 70% respectively for com-
during weekdays (p = 0.017). During weekends, among the 24 (66.7%) munication (Lauren et al, 2013). It is very surprising that < 40 % stu-
dependent internet users used the internet for ≥ 6 hours while 12(33.3%) dents uses email or chatting for their communication. Further study may
used < 6 hours. Meanwhile 72(51.4%) of non-dependent internet users reveal the exact reason for this.
used the internet at least ≥ 6 hours while 68(48.6%) of them used < 6 Correlation between CGPA and duration of Internet use showed that
hours. No significant relationship between internet dependency with higher CGPA was observed among the users who used internet ≥ 6
duration of internet use during weekends was observed (p = 0.10). hours in both weekdays and weekends (Table 4). However, it is only
Increased numbers of students were found to use internet for ≥ 6 hours significant during weekdays (p = 0.003). Similar reports were revealed
in both dependent and independent user groups. in the study done by Young (2006) where students with higher average
Correlation between Internet dependency and CGPA which revealed academic grades tended to spend more time using the Internet than oth-
no significant relationship between Internet dependency and CGPA was ers. Asdaque, Khan and Rizvi (2010) reported students who used inter-
shown in Table 6 net for downloading assignment and books/journal have higher CGPA
Figure 1 showed the student perception on the impact of internet as compared to those who used internet for other than assignment or
usage towards academic performance where 64.4% of the respondents downloading software/songs. Mathew and Schrum (2003) also reported
perceived that Internet acts as supplement to the information given by affirmative association between academic performance and quantity of
the lectures. time used for internet per week. In this era of IT world, internet actually
helps students to achieve their academic performance.
Thirty six respondents (20.45%) were identified as dependent inter-
DISCUSSION net users (Table 5). This value is less than the value obtained in Nepal.
Study in Nepal revealed that among 130 students, 40% had mild addic-
tion, 41.53% had moderate addiction and 3.07% had severe addiction.
Internet has become an integral part of our society. There is no About 31.53% felt restlessness when deprived of Internet (Pramanik et
doubt that internet brings benefits to the users, however there are nega- al 2012). However the scale used for detection of Internet addiction is
tive impacts that are identified by the researchers which includes different in both these studies. There are few studies examined the gen-
impaired academic performance, health problems, personal relationship der as a predicting factor for internet addiction. Scherer (1997) reported
problems and social dysfunction (Wanajak 2011). Researchers reported significantly large proportion of male (71%) are internet dependent
psychological problems including social isolation, depression, loneli- compared to the female (29%) whereas in the non dependent group
ness, and difficulties with time management are related with over inter- there were equal number of male and female (50% vs 50%). Our study
net use (Young and Rodger1998). This study explored the impact of did not evaluate the result among different gender and future study can
internet use on the academic performance of the medical students. be done in this respect.
86 Harlina H. S. et al.