Impacts of Internet Usage on

Students’ Academic Performance

101
(CGPA)
Awais, Bilal, M Usman, M Waqas, Sehrish
LUMS, LSE, NCA, PU, UET

Abstract:

Purpose – The purpose of this research is to explore the impact of internet

usage on student’s academic performance so that universities will take effective

measures and invest in IT and encouraged students to use internet.

Design/methodology/approach – Exploratory studies method is adopted for

the entire research. Our research project is concerned with Field Study. Data
were collected from six universities students from which five are top ranked
specified university and one is general university with a questionnaire
methodology. Correlation and regression techniques were used to find out the
strength and direction of the relationship.

Findings – Internet is one of the beneficial tools in this era of IT world not only
for business but for academic point of view and enhances the skills and
capabilities of students which assist them in studies and in professional life.
Student with high CGPA use more internet for their About Authors
studies and gain more knowledge and information All authors are students of
across the world. Masters in Business
Administration (MBA) at GIFT
Research limitations/implications – The self-report University Gujranwala,
criteria are a limitation. Future research should Pakistan.
Awais:
employ more objective measures of internet use. (Awais.ghafoor@yahoo.com)
Also, antecedents of internet use might be explored Mr. Awais is specialist in
in other developing economies. We have chosen statistics and accounting.
limited universities and disciplines from a single city Bilal:
Lahore. (bilal1985@hotmail.com)
Mr. Bilal is interested in
discoursing new things.
Practical implications – To encourage internet usage Mr Waqas:
intentions, it appears worthwhile to create in potential (waqas_ashraf786@yahoo.com)
users a sense that the technology is useful, easy to Mr. Waqas has special interest
use, and that others have expectations regarding its in statistics and web browsing.
usage. H. M. Usman:
muy3112@gmail.com
Keywords: Information Technology (IT), Internet, H. M. Usman is enthusiastic to
brings about new knowledge
Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA)
and learns new skills
Sehrish:
Type of paper: Research paper (sehrish_2001@yahoo.com)
Ms. Sehrish is found of research
work.
 Introduction
Throughout the world, Marketer and Consumer Buying Behavior (CBB) are
102 changing the face of education. It has been argued that the, if a marketer can
identify CBB, he or she will be in better position to target products and services
at them. Just as computers are about to replace books (some would argue this
has already happened) as our main source of information globally, computers
will come to occupy the central position in education once occupied by books.
The Internet was initially developed by the US Defense Department and was at
one time only popular within the research community. Its ability to share
information across organizations and to interact with people at low cost has
gradually enticed other sectors to explore its use. Today, the Internet has an
impact on every facet of our life including business operation, education,
communication, entertainment, social activity, shopping, and so on. Many
universities around the world are expanding their investment in information
technology (IT), and specifically the Internet, and are actively promoting
Internet use. From a student’s perspective, learning using online tools is
multidimensional. It may entail a multitude of variables such as prior student
knowledge of IT, experience in its usage, perceptions of IT usage, computer
competencies, and background demographics.
The Internet is one of the greatest recent advancement in the world of
information technology and has become a useful instrument that has fostered
the process of making the world a global village. The Internet provides several
opportunities for the academia. It is a mechanism for information dissemination
and a medium for collaborative interaction between individuals and their
computers without regard for geographic limitation of space. The word Internet
is derived from two words: “international” and “network”. The Internet
therefore can be defined as an international computer network of information
available to the public through modem links so internet is a worldwide system
of linked computers networks. The Internet is the world’s largest and most
widely used network. It is an international network of networks that is a
collection of hundreds of thousands of private and public networks all over the
world. There are rich and varied learning experiences available on the Internet
that would have been inconceivable just a short while ago.
The Internet has a range of capabilities that organizations are using to exchange
information internally or to communicate externally with other organizations.
The primary infrastructure for e-commerce, e-banking, e-business, e-learning
and virtual library is provided by the Internet technology. The Internet provides
several opportunities for all academia, business organizations, the employed
and the unemployed, the young and the old. The Internet is a ‘live’ constantly
‘moving’, theoretically borderless, potentially infinite space for the production
and circulation of information. The Internet might thus be described as a ‘sea of
information’, containing texts which are not housed between library and
bookshop walls and subject areas span across all fields of knowledge. The
Internet can be used for other things besides email.
One can listen to international radio station on research and education on the
Internet, read national dailies of other countries, speak to friends around the
global, read books and other materials on the Internet. The list of things that can
be done on the Internet is a very long one. The Internet contains more
information than the world’s largest libraries with access to the Internet one can
retrieve information from the world’s largest information database.

Objectives of study 103

A study of different disciplines was conducted to identify the intensity of
internet usage by student who belongs to different disciples. The purpose of our
studies is to evaluate weather is their any relationship between the usage of
internet and students academics performance. To better understand the
relationship how the Internet affects university students learning, the following
questions should be answered. What are the benefits of using the Internet as
part of a university education? What are the main factors affecting such use?
What is the impact of such use on student learning? What does it take to
encourage positive attitudes in students toward Internet use? This study tries to
answer these questions by exploring the antecedents to, and the impacts of,
Internet use in university education.

The specific objectives were to:

• Identify attitude of students toward IT.

• Determine the purpose of internet usage for students.

• Find out the intensity of internet usage by students.

• Evaluate that whether the use of internet improve the academic

performance of students or not.

Significance of study
This study could be beneficial for student as well as for institutions. The
valuable feedback from 500 students should help student to realize the benefits
of internet in their education. Institutes can invest more in internet facilities to
enhance the performance of their students and produce better results. Based on
Pakistan’s experience, international readers may take advantage from this study
work.

Literature review
Advancement in technology brings major impacts on education (Underwood
2003).Many universities around the world are expanding their investment in
information technology (IT), and specifically the Internet, and are actively
promoting Internet use in university education (Al-Nuaimy, Zhang & Noble,
2001; Bargeron, Grudin, Gupta &Sanocki, 2002; Chandler, 2002; Chen & Paul,
2003; Dringus, 1999; Huang et al, 2004;Kinshuk, 2002; Owston, 2000; Pahl,
2003; Richardson, 2003; Rovai, 2001). Instructors are being requested to make
their teaching materials and other supporting resources accessible through the
Internet (Alavi, 1994; Barker, 2002; Coppola, Hiltz & Rotter, 2002; Lee, 2001;
Topper, 2002).Students are encouraged to communicate with instructors, or
 with one another, via email. As universities promote Internet use, they need to
understand their students’ attitudes towards using it (Frank, Reich & Hum-
phreys, 2003; Milliken & Barnes, 2002).

104 Instructors have long since considered the introduction of novel technologies
into the classroom in hopes of stimulating student interest, focusing attention
and fostering learning (Palloff & Pratt, 1999). Indeed, the advent of the Internet
in recent years has brought with it new possibilities for instructors to creatively
deliver effective course instructions to students (Carswell , L., Thomas, P.,
Petre, M., Price, B. & Richards, M., 2000). For instance, Kekkonen-Moneta and
Moneta (2002; see also Xie and Zhang, 1999) compared the students’ learning
outcomes in a lecture with an online version of an introductory computing
course. Both lecture- and online-learning students achieved comparable factual
learning outcomes. Moreover, the online students outperformed the lecture
students in applied-conceptual learning. Among others, these findings suggest
that the use of carefully designed interactive learning modules can effectively
foster higher-order learning outcomes. Indeed, Martin and Taylor (1997)
regarded a virtual classroom as the next step in the development of educational
technology.

There are various types of possible support that may be provided at

organizational level by a university, such as support from instructors and
technical experts and training opportunities. These types of support may lead to
greater Internet use and more effective learning. Future studies should take
these research limitations into consideration at the design stage, so that research
can be improved and accuracy further increased. While Internet use in
university education is becoming more widespread and provides a supplement
to traditional teaching methods, more extensive research in this area should be
conducted to fully understand what factors lead to greater Internet use and
better learning performance in students (Waiman Cheung and Wayne Huang,
2005).

Although there are many organizational factors (Igbaria & Tan,1997; Igbaria
Parasuraman & Baroudi, 1996) that may influence an individual’s perceptions
and attitudes, only two are considered dreadfully important: organizational
support and IT support (Igbaria et al, 1996). Internet usage among university
students, including the frequency and intensity of Internet use also significant
for relationship between internet usage and student performance (Igbaria &
Tan, 1997; Igbaria, Zinatelli, Gragg & Cavaye, 1997).

Research methodology
Local and international articles and journals were referred as secondary source
of information in the study. Primary data were collected from the distribution of
self-administered questionnaires to 500 students from Lahore, Pakistan where
there are so many recognized universities than other cities of Pakistan.

Research instrument
Closed and open ended questionnaire form was designed for this study. There
were five sections in the questionnaire. Section A identified the attitude of
students towards IT whether they feel comfort with usage of internet. Section B
deal with social pressure on students from instructor. The usage of Internet was
acknowledged by Section C. Internet facilities were asked in Section D.
Personal information about respondents were elicited in Section E. 105
Sample design
The convenience sampling method was used to select 500 students from top
ranked institutes listed on website of Higher Education Commission (HEC). We
have selected five disciplines including Masters in Business Administration
(MBA), Masters in Computer Sciences (MCS), Masters in Arts (MA),
Bachelors in Engineering (BE) and Bachelors in Medicine and Bachelors in
Surgery (MBBS) from public and private institutes.
Public institute was The University of Punjab (PU) for all disciplines. On the
other hand private institutes include Lahore University of Management
Sciences (LUMS) for MBA, Lahore School of Economics (LSE) for MCS,
National College of Art for MA, The University of Engineering and Technology
(UET) for Engineering, King Edward Medical College for MBBS. Selection of
private institutes was based on high ranked by HEC in some particular
discipline. See detail on table I.
Data collection procedure
The survey method was used to collect primary data in this research paper. A
pilot test was conducted by distributing questionnaire forms to 50 students in
beginning of 2008. Minor editing was done before the final questionnaires were
used to collect data from students by acting on their feedback.
We personally went in above mentioned institutes and collected data by
interacting with students. Before hand over questionnaire form to students, we
approached to desire discipline students and make sure that they are not from 1st
semester and had GPA result which is compulsory variable of our study.
Data analysis techniques and selection of measures
The Statistical Package for Social Science Program (SPSS) was used to
summarize and run correlation on data obtained from the survey. Frequency
distribution used to mention demographics of students. Correlation technique
was utilized to discuss relationship between students’ academic performance
(CGPA) and internet usage.

Research findings
Demographics characteristics of respondents
Table I Table II and Table III show the demographic characteristics of
respondents with their institutes. There were no missing values in response.
Out of 500 respondents, 50 students were from each discipline from two
different institutes.
Overall male were 59.6 per cent, while the rest were females. About 21.8 per
cent were under 20 years old, 70.8 were between 20-24 years old and rest of
them was 25 or more than 25 years old.
 Disciplines
Public MBA MCS MA BE MBBS
106 n % n % n % n % n % Total
PU Male 23 46 31 62 21 42 45 90 28 56 148
Female 27 54 19 38 29 58 5 10 22 44 102
Total 50 100 50 100 50 100 50 100 50 100 250
King Edward
Male 36 72
Female 14 28
Total 50 100
Private
LUMS Male 33 66
Female 17 34
Total 50 100
LSC Male 29 58
Female 21 42
Total 50 100
NCA Male 22 44
Table I Female 28 56
Number of Total 50 100
students UET Male 30 60
with their
disciplines Female 20 40
in institutes Total 50 100

n %
Under 20 109 21.8
Table II 20-24 354 70.8
Age of 25 or more 37 7.4
Students Total 50 100

n %
Table III Male 298 59.6
Gender of Female 202 40.4
Students Total 500 100.0
Attitude of students
Table IV revealed that 37 per cent of total respondents were strongly feel
comfort while using internet and 9.8 per cent are not feel comfort while using
internet. The survey showed that majority of students thought that the use of
internet in education can increase the quality of study.
According to 59 per cent student said that instructor encourages them to use
internet as given in Table V.

1 2 3 4 5 107
n % n % n % n % n %
Feel comfort while 2 5. 8 19 17 3
using computer 20 14 7 4 9 18 0 38 4 5
Feel comfort while 3 6. 8 1 17 3 18 3
using internet 22 4.4 2 4 8 7.6 4 4.8 4 7
Internet increases 3 6. 8 1 20 4 16 3 Table IV
quality of study 12 2.4 2 4 4 6.8 3 0.6 9 4
Attitude of
Note: Where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = strongly agree students

1 2 3 4 5 Table V
n % n % n % n % n % Instructor
encourages
20 4 53 11 129 26 201 40 97 19
the use of
Note: Where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = strongly agree internet

1 2 3 4 5
n % n % n % n % n % Total Rank
Information 288 57.6 81 16.2 43 9 50 10 38 7.6 500 1
2
School Work 65 13 148 29.6 135 27 101 20 51 10.2 500
4
Communication 45 9 157 31.4 189 38 66 13 43 8.6 500
3 Table VI
Chatting 62 12.4 75 15 77 15 178 36 108 21.6 500
5 Purpose of
Other 44 8.8 39 7.8 56 11 105 21 256 51.2 500
internet
Note: where 1 is most important and 5 is least important usage
Usage of internet
The survey disclosed in Table VI 57.6 per cent student’s ranked information is
most important for purpose of internet usage. They ranked other purposes 2, 3,
4 and 5 to school work, chatting, communication and other i.e. entertainment,
gaming respectively.
Table VII suggests that out of 500 respondents, 51 per cent, 30.2 per cent, 4.2
per cent and 3.2 per cent students used to access internet daily from home,
school/institute, office, public terminal and other places respectively. 53 per
cent students were financially sported by parents according to Table X. Our
study confirmed that majority of students use internet on night and face
difficulty of speed/bandwidth mostly. Table XI shows majority of students
spend 2-3 hours on internet.
Experience of Students

Table XII 30.2 per cent students have 3-6 years experience of internet and 49
per cent students agreed their internet skills are high.
 Twice a
Daily Weekly month Monthly Never
n % n % n % n % n %
108 25 11 8.
From Home 4 51 4 23 30 6 42 4 60 12
15 3 10 8. 17
From School 1 0.2 0 20 43 6 30 6 6 35
1 1 3. 35 3.
From Office 56 1.2 54 0.5 16 2 5 19 8 71
From Public 6. 34
Table VII terminal 21 4.2 40 8 32 4 60 12 7 69
Places of 38
where from From Places 16 3.2 23 4.6 20 4 60 12 1 76
they 50 10 50 10 50 10 50 10 50 10
internet Total 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

n %
Self 151 30.2
Parents 268 53.6
Table VIII Office 31 6.2
Financial School 32 6.4
sport Other 18 3.6

n %
Morning 29 5.8
Table IX Afternoon 104 20.8
Time of Night 367 73.4
usage Total 500 100

n %
0-1 93 18.6
2-3 219 43.8
3-4 115 23
Table X 4-5 36 7.2
Hours spend 6 or more 37 7.4
on internet Total 500 100

n %
Filtration of relevant
information 132 26.4
Table XI Speed/bandwidth 270 54
Critical issue Hardware/Software 39 7.8
facing while Paying for online services 56 11.2
using the Other 3 0.6
internet Total 500 100
109
110 n %
1
Less than 6 months 2 3 374 5 7.4 Table XIII
n %
6-12 months n % n % n 80 % n %16 Internet
skills are
1-321
years4.2 59 12 176 35 166
114 33 78 22.8
16
Note: Where 1 = Strongly Disagree and 5 = strongly agree high
Table XII
3-6 years 151 30.2 Experience
7 years or more 118 23.6 of use
Total 500 100 internet

CGPAs n %
less than 2.5 91 18.2
2.5-2.8 31 6.2
2.8-3.1 115 23
3.1-3.4 70 14
3.4-3.7 106 21.2 Table XIV
3.7-4.0 87 17.4 CGPAs of
500 100 students

Performance of students

Table XIV showing that 18.2 per cent, 6.2 per cent, 23 per cent, 14 per cent,
21.2 per cent and 17.4 per cent out of 500 respondents had CGPA lesser than
2.5 or between 2.5-2.8, 2.8-3.1, 3.1-3.4, 3.4-3.7 and 3.7-4.0.

Limitation of study
It is acknowledged that the work here is exploratory study because previously
no study was done. The survey took some time due to personal visits. Time
constraints and cost are also the limitation of our study. Study is to subject to a
number of limitations because of small sample size and self-reported data
collection technique. Students hesitated to mention the true CGPA. May be
their CGPA was over stated by students to some extend but have nominal
variation.

Recommendations for further study

Consider some limitations in this study which does not enable us to generalize
our results. The following suggestions and recommendations could be
beneficial for further study.

1. Increase sample size that include more institutes and no. of students
from other areas of Pakistan.

2. Conduct longitudinal study that could enhance results of study.

 3. Use IT tools like selects students that use internet only from university
computer lab and create profile of their activities on internet. Observe
the internet usage patterns over the period of time.
111
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Appendix