英国诺丁汉大学计算机工程dissertationthesis
1.前言 1.0 Introduction
全球数以百万计的电脑连接到互联网。许多国家都涉及到交换数据,新闻和相关观点的事务。与网络服务提供者相对比(ISP)。
上表显示的是全球互联网用户和世界各地的人口,根据上面的表中,互联网用户数量随着人口增加越来越高。亚洲地区互联网用户在八个世界地区中比例增长最快。
在过去的一年中，亚太地区的互联网用户已经呈现绝对增长的态势,扩大了近22%,网站游客近十亿,大多数个别国家在该互联网领域经历两位数的增长率。
在2009年,在亚太地区，互联网用户中15岁以上的人口近4.84亿名,互联网在家庭或工作场所的应用中,已经从过去的一年里增加了22%。该地区有近十亿人在线,占全球互联网用户总数12亿人的41%。中国,成为世界上最大的互联网用户,扩大到2.208亿，增加了31%,使该地区成为互联网发展最快的国家。日本网民迅速增长了18%，用户达至6830万,印度扩大17%,达到3580万用户。亚太地区和个别国家的独立访客增长迅速,在2009年9月,与2008年比较，亚洲地区互联网的用户扩大了22%。
Millions of computers were connecting to internet globally. Many countries are involving into exchanging data, news and opinions. Contrasted with Internet Service Provider (ISP).
The table above shows that world internet users and population around the world, based on the table above, the numbers of internet users are growing highly as the population increases. The asia regions stated the most fastest growing percentage of internet users among the eight world regions.
The Asia-Pacific region has seen absolute growth in the past year, expanding 22% to nearly half a billion visitors to internet sites, with most individual countries in the region experiencing double-digit growth rates.
At the year of 2009, the internet population in the Asia-Pacific region nearby 484 million users age 15 and older that admission the internet from a home or work place, have an increasing of 22% from the past year. With almost half a billion people online, the region now accounts for 41% of the total 1.2 billion person global internet users. China, become to the largest internet population in the world, have a 31% expanding to 220.8 million, making it become the most fastest-growing internet country in the region. Japan saw its online population blustering 18% to 68.3 million, while India expanding 17% to 35.8 million users.Asia-Pacific region and individual country growth by unique visitors, and in September 2009,the users of internet at Asia Pasific have expanding 22% compare to the year of 2008.#p#分页标题#e#
*Excludes the usage of internet from public computers such as Internet cafes or access from mobile phones or PDAs.Sources getting from www.newmediatrendwatch.com
China was become the most fastest expanding for the internet users because China population are the most largest in the world, the percentage of growing populations are getting increase year by year, and thus, Chinese government was encourage the residents to use internet so that they can compete with the world outside. Furthermore, China also was the fastest development country among Asia country, so the internet was the must for the Chinese residents. Besides that, the server company at China also stated the cheaper price for the package of internet.
Based on the graph above, the percentage of internet users at Malaysia are 62.6% at the year of 2008, since the starting year of 1995. Even a small 8 year old child knows how to connect and use the internet. Besides that, the price for the package of internet that provided by the server company are much cheaper compare to the year of 2000 in Malaysia. Because of this, now every family is capable to afford a computer and an internet access. There are no reasons for those who do not surfing the internet before. Even the elders, age between 50's to 65's are having the knowledge towards the internet. Below is the chart about the statistic for percentage of internet user around the world.
Total Internet users in Malaysia stands at 8.6 million at the year of 2008, representingalmost 35 percent of Malaysia's total population.
Huei Min, Lee, Research Manager, IDC Malaysia has claimed that the increase of Malaysia Internet population remains to be in process, with an increase of 60.5 percent annually from 2002 to 2003, she commenting on the study on "Analysis and Developments of the Internet Market in Malaysia.Huei Min, Lee also claimed that a concentrated effort and corporation by the government, regulatory bodies, foreign and local multinational companies have clearly survived to abbreviate returns and chances in the current Internet economy has taken Malaysia's internet market to a higher pasture.
The IDC of Malaysia claimed that as a Internet users in Malaysia, Internet buyers also have make a better increasing improvements from 24 percent of the Internet population in 2002 to 28.41 percent in 2003. Malaysia statistic about internet usage and marketing shows that Malaysia Internet Subscribers will be going to double by 2012, the number of the Internet subscribers in Malaysia is expected to achieve at the 10 million mark in the next five years according to Telekom Malaysia (TM) Bhd General Manager of Strategic Development Division, Dr Fadhlullah Suhaimi. His statement is based on the expanding trend of Internet users from the last three years as Malaysia in process towards the advanced information, communications and multimedia services.In 2004 the number of subscribers was 3.9 million, in 2005 it increased to 4.5 million of subscribers, and in 2006 the number of subscribers in Malaysia was close to five million. This make an encouraging expanding trend, and most of the Internet subscribers were aiming for high speed broadband facilities .Regarding to the number of fraud cases which are involving the Internet transactions by comparison are small and Malaysia has enough laws to deal with such fraud cases.#p#分页标题#e#
As the number of internet users expanding rapidly, the government of Malaysia has started to introduce and sponsor the education through the usage of computer. This can clearly prove that almost every university students have to online getting their lecture notes and tutorial exercise. Not only this, some lecturer also encourages students to search more information towards the lecture because they claim that sources from textbook were insufficient. Thus, speed in internet access in University was most important factor so that every student can online to do their searching or exercises. The Malaysian government cooperates with the local telecommunications provider TM (Telecom Malaysia) have launched a broadband package for university students in Malaysia, which offers an addition of both a netbook and free broadband Internet access that were just RM50 per month for 24 months.
According to Zamzam Zairani, TM group chief executive, he claimed that they are acquiescent about the introduction of this Streamyx Cool UNI Pack exclusively promote to university students which will be aggregate of a netbook with free broadband Internet access from only RM50 per month for two years.
However, Zamzam Zairani says that for those who want higher bandwidth, they can designate for higher speed packages starting from 512Kbps to 4Mbps with minimal expanding fee of RM15 per month, this package is specially focused to university students who would like to own a PC along with with broadband but are on a budget. This new and cheap broadband PC package is aimed at increasing the use of PC and help Malaysia to move toward the technology year, 2020. With the higher bandwidth, students may use the internet without any lagging, and they may search the information that needed by them.
With already exceed 1.5 million broadband users in the country, TM is continuing its attempt to get as many Malaysians online through initiatives similar to this. Apart from accommodating towards expanding broadband acceptation, the netbook package will also has an authority on ICT as an enabler to support the government's move to drive the country towards a knowledge-based society and advanced skilled human capital.
The most well known site by a long way isrecruiters are searching Facebookto find out about job applicants.
For thebandwidth, the three most well-known sites are video ascending sites for example and the others.
Students adorably email as a formal communication channel, for keeping in touch with their friends, parents and etc. For interacting witheach other, they use instant messaging. A very huge proportion is signed up toYahoois also to be used.
95% students have their own computer; most of them listen to radio through the network. This is a major bandwidth corner, students leave streaming radio on all the day and this may absolutely use up a 10Gig per week. Something sound familiar is happening with TV appreciates to Internet TV services. Also, male students are frequent using the internet for the entertainment, compare to female, just spend their little time on internet.#p#分页标题#e#
Surveyed about what the students want and need in future from the university network, students claim that they want video podcasts, or failing that audio, of their lecturers. They don't want less individual contact with teaching staff, but they want to be able to attending to the lectures on a video phone. They want high quality access, wirelessly so that they may access to the internet anywhere. Having been brought up with Google and Amazon, they haveveryhigh standards of convenience.
Experience, Inc.'s 2006 Media Perception Survey had done a survey towards over 350 students and recent graduates internationally.
Results claim that 43 percent of the students that completed the survey spend and use more than 10 hours a week on the internet. They use it for their academic purposes and also for entertainment. Google, Yahoo and Facebook are the most visited and welcoming websites. 62 percent of the students download videos and photos and 24 percent of the students involve in online bulletin boards, forum or chats.
Twenty-two percent of the students involve in blogging. With adorable to advertisements that are displayed online, 40 percent of the students are likely to respond to an advertisement that is absurd while 28 percent prefer the real fact-based advertisements.
Most of the college students spend their time on the internet as adverse to other mediums and their usage behaviors have amplify. They are not just surf websites, rather they now use the internet to interact with their friends, doing research, share photos, download photos and view videos. And hence, advertisers have a great opportunity to accomplish 18- to 24-year-olds online in a far more meaningful way.
The attraction of internet based learning is undeniable. As technology changes, academic institutions in Malaysia need to examine their technological status. E-learning was introduced in the Malaysian higher institutions since 1998. Besides that, e-learning in the primary and secondary schools is still in its beginning. The Malaysian government has a care towards the e-learning. Sizable investments have been made in ICT infrastructure in schools across the nation. Aside from that, supporting and reinforcing the national policies for e-learning has been formulated to accentuate the government commitment in accentuating its utilization. The current policies focus on many aspects, ICT for all students and ICT culture must be anticipate throughout educational institutions. The usage of computers and internet for searching latest information, interaction, and entertainment and as a productivity tool is highly required. The strategies assigned by the Ministry of Education in arising the ICT culture is by providing quick and access to ICT, improving capabilities of instructors and students and providing better, faster internet connections.
The Malaysian Government has taken major initiatives to boost the e-learning industry in Malaysia. On the education sector, Ministry of Education has take a few strategies in advancing the use of ICT in education such as the remodeling of adequacy and update tested ICT infrastructure and equipment to all academic or educational institutions, the appear of ICT curriculum, appraisal and the accent of integration of ICT in teaching and learning.#p#分页标题#e#
The advantages bring about few projects such as the MySchoolNet, the Malaysian Smart School, and the Computing Tablet project. MySchoolNet is a website build up by the Ministry of Education to accommodate links to educational information internationally. The key aspect in the website is the conversational communication between Malaysian school children and students from other countries. At the year of 2004, the Ministry of Education cooperate with the private sector to admit a pilot project known as Computing Tablet that involving the use of laptops in advancing teaching learning experience in a wireless technology environment. Schools choose this pilot program is in many locations and those located in rural areas are targeted upon. In the Computerization Program, computer lab were built in the schools and were fully equipped with the latest computer and internet connection. The first stages of the program are involved 18 schools in six selected states and 2,400 schools were selected in the second stage. At the February of 2003, about 45% of the labs have been finished.
There was an issue related to the usage of internet by university students. Most of the students at university are using internet to completing their assignment or search more information about their related courses. The expanding usage of E-learning to the university students may also expand the usage of internet. But there still some students claim that they may not use E-learning as their academic purposes, rather they go to library, discuss with their colleagues and friends to understand the existing problem raises to their courses. Besides that, some students are less using the internet because they claim that they have no experience towards the internet and they have not much skill towards the usage of internet. University students choose to use internet when they have discover the importance of internet services for example online discussion, forum and so on. The problem exists, that were why some students may use the internet frequently but some may not? What are the main factors that may drive the students towards the usage of internet? For this research, we may determine the factors that may affect the usage of internet and find whether those factors will affecting the usage of internet.
1.2 Problem Statement
The past researches have been conducted to understand the important factors of usage of internet by students. But yet, the factors that affect the students to use the internet still existing and most of this factors are just cover by certain researcher. Yet, this research paper will determine the relationship between usage of internet as a learning tool and the stated factors. The outcome of this research showed a comprehensively integrated framework for us to understand the dynamic relationships among gender differences, attitudes toward internet, E-learning usage, speed of internet access and importance of internet services.
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1.3 Research Problem
This research has been done to examine and understand the factors that affect students to use internet in University Malaya. Besides that, we also inquisitive the most important factor that would influence the students to use the internet during their university life time. Through this study, we can discover the reason of why certain students may not use internet although internet access are available.
The research problem is formulated as:
“Factor that affecting the usage of internet by students from University Malaya.”
1.4 Research Objective
The first objective of this study is to determine the relationships among three independent variables which are independent learning attitude, knowledge of internet, peer influence and gender, would significantly affect the usage of internet.
Besides that, second objective of this paper is to identify the most important factor that could influence University Malaya students choose to use the internet.
1.5 Research Question
The research problem is too wide to be studied directly. Thus, research questions are developed. In order to reach the research purpose for this study, the following research questions are stated:-
Is there any significant relationship among four factors of students attitude, usage of E-Learning, gender and importance of internet services towards the usage of internet?
What is the most important factor that affected students to use the internet during their university lifetime?
2.0 Literature Review
2.1 Students Attitude towards usage of internet for learning
Students and lecturers are encouraged to use information technology in their campus so that neither students nor lecturer, they will build up positive attitudes towards computer and thus promoting the usage of information technology in all respects of life. However, their study have found that the students' attitudes on using the Internet for learning are based on their field of study. (Hong, K.S, et al, 2003). According to a study by Vandana and Tanvi (2008),an internet learning where most of the students have easy access to computers could build up positive attitudes toward the use of computers in teaching and learning. They found that a computer-advanced learning environment was related with students' attitudes toward computers.( Vandana, & Tanvi, 2008)
A study by Cubukcu, (2008) claimed that internet learning is a learning which makes and encourage students work both individually or as a group, makes students put effort in having knowledge rather than learning passively or learning based on their hardcopy, and which allows students to express problems. This strategy gives students more rights and control over subject choice and yet, they will have a good study attitude towards usage of internet for learning. (Cubukcu, 2008). Based on the study by Usun, (2003), he claimed that the universities should be clearly estimate why they are consoling students to use the Internet as learning instrument. To achieve success in academic applications of Internet, they should used the students' attitudes and views into consideration. Furthermore, Universities should organize an extra courses that require use of the Internet. (Usun, 2003)#p#分页标题#e#
According to a study by Isman and Dabaj (2004), through the Internet, students may have the real and true experiences of learning. The idea that is learning is formative process that are widely accepted. Learners do not just receive information passively but also actively create knowledge. Technology has alter on education with today's modern term as Educational Technology. Within this angle, computers and Internet are one of the part of the academic learning technology but not substituting all technological developments, it is only a part of the general concern term. (Isman, & Dabaj, 2004). A.Asan and N.Koca (2006) say that most of the students have positive attitudes and they focused on positive and cognition about Internet. High percentage of students was thinking that the Internet is a universal digital library, accord convenience learning ways, and is a fastest way to get or gain knowledge. (A. Asan & N.Koca, 2006).
On the study by Ray.K and Day.J (1998), 96.4% of respondents recognized an consciousness of access to a networked computer via university, although many affirmed computer accessibility prevent them from using the resources. The outcomes were abundant dependent upon subject studied for most of the questions, suggesting three things which may directly effect how the respondents feel, the first are the use of technology in the degree course, second, relevant information available electronically, and third, the effectiveness and efficiency of academic staff in promoting these new internet services.(Ray.K & Day.J, 1998)
A study by Fusilier.M and Durlabhji.S (2005), claimed that for those with highly positive attitudes were relatively unaffected by other people opinions. Besides that, for those with low positive attitudes were affected by others opinion because they are care towards what people saying to them. (Fusilier.M & Durlabhji.S, 2005),
2.2 Usage of E-learning
According Bertea (2009), he claims that usage of E-Learning may influenced by the student's attitude and hence, it may affect the usage of internet by students. There are specialists who consider that e-learning means any teaching process which uses any form of technology, but there are others who says that e-learning represents a teaching solution for distance education, facilitated by the large scale insight of Internet as a form of communication. From the student opinion, e-learning is a form of education which denotes involvement, motivation and efficiency in communication.
The lack of human interaction or communication strongly influences a person performance in education. The results that he found emerged that there is a relation between technical skills and students' attitude towards e-learning and yet, influenced the usage of internet. Attitude is also affected by time appropriate to computer use and instructor of pc experience. Most of the students are frequently using E-learning during their revision time because they need to search the important sources that are not having in the notes given by the lecturer.#p#分页标题#e#
Besides that, instructors play an important role because they need to have a good skills and knowledge towards internet and pc so that they may teach the students in the proper way, this will help the students to using the E-learning correctly and easily. There were found that attitude alteration in the case of recruit students compared with the unemployed students. No affection was enrolled due to specialty and year of study. Bertea (2009) anticipated to search an influence arise from postgraduate studies, where over 60% of students have a job and attitude towards e-learning should have been according to specialists more advantageous. An illustration can be different between the academic system and the introduction of Bologna cycle, students considering masters' studies as valuable as bachelors. As the student's opinion, usage of E-learning are far more important during the study of Master, and they always stick towards internet so that they may find any important resources to done their research or assignments, The student must interact very often with his colleagues, teachers or lecturers so as to be able to complete all assignments; he has to search the internal resources as incitement to overpass the difficulties of a socially unique environment. (Bertea, 2009).
A study by Naqvi.S.J and Ajiz.M.A, (2006), they claimed that web Course Tools is a course management system that enables to the usage of online education. With an arrant set of learning tools for course development, course delivery, and course management, Web Course Tools accommodate a system for student learning and an effective settlement or solution for faculty of all experience levels. The results of the survey by by Naqvi.S.J and Ajiz.M.A, (2006) claimed that that most students had little revelation to WebCT previous to the course and did not oblige its benefits. After finishing the course, students implied a more positive attitude towards WebCT.
This positive alter in their attitudes appears have give a better understanding and learning the course element through WebCT as it was made easily achievable from any Internet enabled location at any time. Students who using the WebCT may found that they have gain a knowledgeable sources, this is because students may automatically using another web pages to search for information that they needed and thus, they may found some resourceful information besides for their academic purposes. Students are have positive attitude towards WebCT because they may use the WebCT to enhance their learning skills and also the skills for using the WebCT. Most of the students prefer to use WebCT compare to the notes that given by lecturer because they may found additional information about their couse compare to the notes given. And this may influences the usage of internet by students in which they have a positive attitude towards WebCT, they need to surf internet so that they may search the learning sources and materials for their study. As result, those students who had entering or access to WebCT had more positive attitude towards it and show great understanding and learning of the course material. in that greater use of IT brings about more positive attitudes and hence greater confidence in the users. This increases confidence and may results in more use, which may bring to even proficient learning. (Naqvi.S.J & Ajiz.M.A, 2006).#p#分页标题#e#
A study by Ryu.M.L & et al, (2002), future academic learning and training schemes demand proper tools such as Virtual Campus which is adequate of overwhelming space time and performance demands. Moreover continually update in technology related information is needed for modern leaning environment. On the other hand the desegregated use of multiple forms of information strengthens the learning effectiveness. Ryu.M.L & et al, (2002) also claimed that Virtual Campus was acts as a web based education gateway admit teachers instructors to fully put to use the Internet easily accessible without worry much about technical details. Besides that, adequate cooperation between the instructor and students is essential. These essential factors may determine the student's attitude towards using of internet; this is because instructor is the main character to influence the students towards the web based education. Instructor play an important character to teach students about the steps of using web based education. Besides that, instructor may influence the students to use the web based education through expose the importance of using web based education. In Virtual Campus, both learners and instructors need not to be intimate with high technology although they can interact with each other anytime. Moreover, Virtual Campus contributes the developmental direction and support which are concerned with the learners overall movement across all courses and study programs. A great cooperation by teachers or instructors are most important factor that may affected the students to use the web based learning and hence, influencing the usage of internet. (Ryu.M.L, et al, 2002).
According Hart.D & et al,(1999), Online Web Based Learning have a positive acceptance by students from University of Massachusetts. Students are assigned to work with a guided exercise or intelligent tutor that is embedded in Online Web Based Learning, using it to assure in a learning activity much like an online laboratory. Hart.D & et al,(1999) claimed that the importance of Online Web Based Learning may affect the usage of internet by the students. This is because most of the time students spend their time towards Online Web Based Learning rather than only refer to the hardcopy distribute by their lecturers, and they may searching for the important information or sources related to their courses during surf the Online Web Based Learning. Online Web Based Learning is a must for students to get the latest information about their academic, and yet, it also may enhance students educational level because most of them may search for extra information about their courses and not just only refer for the reference that suggested by lecturer. Online quizzes may also help the students increasing their understanding for their courses, students may get their quizzes result immediately after they finishing the quizzes that uploaded by lecturer.
Lecturers are using these online quizzes because it may save lecturer time to mark their student's paper if doing the quizzes manually, the marks for the quizzes that done by students are automatically saving in the lecturer databases. When the students finish the exercise, control is returned to Online Web Based Leaning and the exercise results will be store at students Online Web Based Learning database. Online Web Based Learning allows the absorption of these new resources by treating them as extra added quizzes or homework assignments, all delivered over the Web. Students are assigned to work with a command exploration exercise or tutor that is embedded in Online Web Based Learning, using it to appoint in a learning activity much like an online laboratory. When the student complete the exercise, control is returned to Online Web Based Learning and the results are save in the student's fixed record in Online Web Based Learning database. This allows instructors to assign active learning exercise in addition to quizzes and keep up with the students' progress in finishing them. (Hart.D, et al, 1999).#p#分页标题#e#
Based on the study by Zaiane.O.R, (2002), the Web is an splendid tool to have an on-line courses in the context of distance education. However, the goals of these applications and methods like e-learning are “turning learners into effective better learners.” Most of the students stay used the e-learning as their alternative learning tools and hence, they frequently use the internet during their study at University or college. E-learning not only help students in academic purposes, but may also enhance their skills of using internet and computer, also they may gain more knowledge if they have found some information that related to the courses but also related to their daily lifetime. The frequent the students using E-learning, the frequent the students use the internet. For the educator using a web-based course delivery, it could be favorable to keep up with the activities happening in the course web site and derive methods and behaviors pressing the needs to alter, advance, or adapt the course contents.
For a learner using a web-based course delivery environment, it could be favorable to get hints from the system on what consequent activity to execute based on similar behavior by other “successful” learners. Zaiane.O.R, (2002) summarized the major steps of web log data transmission, first was abolish impertinent entries identify access sessions, further by group access sessions by learner to identify learning sessions, lastly, accommodate with other data about learners and groups of learners. In contrast, students may choose to use web based learning as their learning tools because the web based learning are more sufficient and convenience towards their study. Web based learning also enhance the students ability to complete their assignments effectively and also, integrate the students group work performance. Besides that, students may also practice an effective learning. (Zaiane.O.R, 2002)
Based on the study by Pang.V & et al (2005), they say that the importance of enhance new technologies and suggests that learning technologies supply universities with the chances for advanced and more efficient teaching of on-campus students through the accommodation of electronic multimedia learning materials, special imitate and demonstrations, availability to a assortment different of knowledge data bases and experts, continuous contact with instructors and peers, better application of lessons for discussion and enlargement. Pang.V & et al (2005) claimed that E-learning is a supreme tool to advocate the out-of-classroom experience. It can be incorporated into current classroom curriculum, and related learning tactics, to help carry the learner beyond the boundaries of the classroom. Internet is a must for the students a university, especially for those group members that are in distance away each others. Besides that, internet has become an important source that may let students to learning extra aside from just learning from lecture. Online learning has help a lot for students because students may get the latest information about their courses, receive an important materials that can easily serach at website and so on.#p#分页标题#e#
From their survey result about 96.9% of the University Malaysia of Sabah students agree that discussion via online discussion board advocate social negotiationof ideas. About 98.8% of University Malaysia of Sabah students found that online learning contributes the better learning experience than face-to-face learning and also 98.8% of University Malaysia of Sabah students agree that online learning provides adaptabilityin setting step for studying. Students who take the course online is important for them to familiar with the technologies used in the online courses. They need to frequent using internet to chat with their lecturer, double searching for information through online for those who are not taking online courses. Pang.V & et al (2005) have also argued that the successful accomplishment of any new technology rely upon the factors related to users' attitudes and opinions. It is becoming more valuable to understand how traditional students accommodate to online learning, as more and more online commencement will be introduced in University Malaysia of Sabah.(Pang.V, et al, 2005),
A study by Kian S.H & et al (2003) have claimed that should had the basic skills in using the Internet and ascertained the learning environment in the university to encouraged them to use the Internet as their educational learning tool. The students' basic skills in the Internet and their notion of the learning environment were affiliated to their use of the Internet to augment their learning requirements. Students with better basic skills and ability in the Internet and observed the learning environment to be encouraging of using the Internet for their learning and academic tasks usually had better attitudes toward using the Internet to improve their studies. This study disclosed that usually students at University Malaysia of Sarawak had positive attitudes towards learning using the Internet. This consciousness was not race or gender. It was also not affiliated to students' scholastic ability and capability.
Students from University Malaysia of Sarawak are exposed to the online web learning because most of the lecturers upload the learning notes, exercises and solution to the university website. Moreover, most of the students spend their time to the internet for the academic purposes because they need to complete the assignment that needs important sources. Students choose to use internet for their academic purposes because it is convenience, students can get their needed sources just a few minutes, compare to searching information at library that is long hours require. Meanwhile students from the Faculty of Information Technology, Faculty of Engineering, and Faculty of Sciences and Technology had more positive attitudes against to the students from the other two faculties. This would happen because the students from these two faculties were more reveal and had more chances to use the Internet for their course related activities. This kind of learning are less importance on face-to face lectures but more on learning partially or totally on the Web. It is important to let the students disclose to this type of learning so that they could get advantageous from Web-assisted and Web-based courses managed in their field of specialization by different faculties. (Kian S.H, et al, 2003)#p#分页标题#e#
Based on the study by Fuchs.T & Wobmann.L (2004), the result claimed that there is a negative relationship between home computer accessibility and student accomplishment, but a positive relationship between home computer usage for internet interaction and educational software. Also, there is a positive relationship between school computer usage for internet and student accomplishment in their academic learning. Fuchs.T & Wobmann.L (2004) have found that notwithstanding bivariate relations that show a positive relationship, once family background and school characteristics are comprehensive controlled for, the mere obtainability of computers at home is negatively related to student performance in math and reading, and the obtainability of computers at school has not relation to student performance. By contrast, student performance is positively related to the usage of computers at home for entering or accessing emails and webpage and to the obtainability of educational software at home.
Students are more motivated to use the internet for online learning if they have learning the usage of online learning from their school teachers. Student performance shows an inverted U-shaped relationship with the bound of computer and internet usage at school, rising with some use but decline again with a use of particular times per week. Fuchs.T & Wobmann.L (2004) suggest two potential explanations of these positive results of computer usage at home. First, they may simply consider that more students tend to be likely to have an internet access and educational software at home and to use emails and webpages ordinary. While this explanation is possible, it is not apparent that this kind of capability bias is the main focus here. The parents tend to be more likely to give their children with internet access and educational software if they want to make up for comparatively low capability. Especially in the case of educational software, parents may tend to buy this educational software for the low-ability rather than high-ability students. (Fuchs.T , Wobmann.L 2004)
According to Wagner.B, et al, (2008), they claimed that E-learning is a huge and expanding market with high conceivable in higher education. In order to maximize these conceivable, e-learning accomplishments should attempt to satisfy the needs and interests of all stakeholder groups as much as possible. As shown in their e-learning Stakeholders' Responsibility Matrix, each stakeholder group plays an important role while working together towards the general goal of enriching the general learning experience. Students and Instructors should participate as proactively; provide feedback and reply to advance future experiences, and communicate the learning feasibilities that e-learning creates. Institutions of higher education should provide the technical infrastructure and support require to facilitate complete solutions.
Technology Providers should provide high quality and interoperable explanation that consider learning principles. Employers need to identify the validity of this form of education and cooperate with other stakeholders to make sure that graduates fulfill the needs or requirements of the job market. Institutions of higher education could make use of the stakeholders' responsibility matrix presented as a starting point when undertaking a new e-learning commencement. The stakeholders involved and their joint responsibilities could then be adjusted to the nature of the exacting commencement at hand. As such, the matrix will help institutions of higher education to recognize the appropriate stakeholders' and advance a set of expectations for each. E-learning give an completely new learning environment for students, thus needed a different skill set to be successful. Critical thinking, research, and evaluation skills are expanding in importance as students have extending volumes of information from a difference of sources to categorize through. This may also allow the students use the E-Learning to search the information that they need. Also, especially in courses that are absolutely electronic, students are more self-reliant than in the traditional setting. This necessitate that they be highly motivated and perform to learning, with little social interaction with peers or an instructor. For those students who are in online courses tend to do well compare to those in classrooms, but there is higher degree of withdrawal or uncompleted grades.2.3 Gender differences#p#分页标题#e#
According to Ono.H and Zavodny (2002), the differences in socioeconomic and demographic toward the use of computers and the Internet are important because capable to use these technologies has become progressively crucial to economic success. In 2000 and 2001, in contrast, the usage of internet by women is increasing, according to the CPS data. Besides that, women were also more likely to use the internet compare to men in the year of 2001. In contrast to the trends in the usage of internet, the gender gaps in the number of usage of the Internet and in the frequency of Internet use persevere over time. As the past survey resulted, women have significantly lesser usage of the Internet compare to men. However, the evaluated coefficients resulted that this gender gap diminished between 1997 and 2001; the coefficients of the female for the year of 1997 and 1998 are significantly different from those for 2000 and 2001. This is because of improvement of technology has forcing women to use it during their working time or at home. Women nowadays are more motivated to use internet compare to male because they realized that there is a must for them to learn and using the internet sources. The women that graduate from colleges or universities spend more time to the internet for their working purposes. Besides that, nowadays women are holding a higher position in the company and hence, they need the skills of using computer to work their job. The results designate that there is no longer a gender gap in the usage for internet. However, there continues to be a gender gap in frequency and intensity of use, although this difference appears to have lessened over time. (Ono.H, Zavodny.M, 2002).
Based on the study by Shaw.L.H and Gant.L.M (2002), technological is a must in higher education and in many sphere of the job market. If females are shy away from the Internet or feel disapprove from using it, this would bring to a serious educational and professional loss among women. Thus, it is indispensable that we clearly understand how females view toward the Internet, what attract them to email or other applications that are abundantly well-known among female users, and what obstruct them from logging on or in, in order to maximize the latent benefits of Internet use. The deficient of gender differences might be assigned to the population studied. The participants for this study were get from college undergraduates in the year 2000, a population likely to be among the more technologically proficient and Internet apprehension studied thus far. Even assuming that earlier research indicates that gender differences was real; computers and the Internet are so quickly becoming an important component and a need for daily life. Hence, Shaw.L.H and Gant.L.M (2002) conclude that the deficient of gender differences found in this study deliberate a rapidly closing gender gap among younger generations. Another explanation that might be considered is that the extensiveness get from the earlier research, namely, that males are overall more comfortable and more likely with the usage of Internet, but females are more likely to use the Internet for communication. In that case, it would be easy to diminish stronger gender effects by using a “male” activity, such as playing online Internet games and etc. Female usually spend on their time towards internet just for important purposes for example downloading learning materials, sending email and so on. Based on the survey result, 82% of female claim that they often use internet for getting latest information about their related courses and searching for the important updated by their lecturer, compare to male, just 62% of them agree with it. Yet, 86% of male will using the internet and computer for playing games and for entertainment but just 58% of female respondent agree with it. ( Shaw.L.H, Gant.L.M 2002),#p#分页标题#e#
Based on a study by Luan.W.S & et al (2008), their study results stated that the amount of time that the females students use on using the Internet were the same as that of their male counterparts. No gender differences perceived between them. This was also true in the circumstances where the respondents were with or without using the Internet at home. The results show that the gender gap in the usage of Internet among the respondents was marginal and almost not active and females in this study spent as much time on the Internet as their male complement. The results reveal that female spend most of their internet usage time in academic purposes or getting information for those who join the activities at university. For male, most of them spend their time in internet for entertainment purposes. The results disclosed that despite of gender, almost all the participants used the Internet to search and find for information, mainly for educational and academic intention.
This recommended that the most famous Internet functionalities used and seek by the respondents in this study were affiliated to education. This is anticipated as the respondents were university students and their search at the Internet would have been affiliated to the accomplishment of their educational or academic tasks. In terms of the communication functionalities, the usage of the e-mail for their studies was the most preferred choices by both genders and they used these functionalities mostly for their educational purposes, followed by a lesser expand for socializing and freedom. Again, being students played a significant contribution towards these preferences as they were expected to give priority to activities affiliated to information retrieval for educational and academic purposes instead of for social or leisure purposes. Scores of the perceived usefulness and perceived control sub-scales for both genders did not occur at any statistical alternation. It seemed that both genders perceived same levels of usefulness of the Internet but the problem is they were defective in the required skills or ability when using it. In other words, these students may desire to have someone more experienced to provide guidance and practice to them. (Luan.W.S, et al, 2008).
A study by Heimrath.R and Goulding.A (2001), they argued that female are deter from expending the Internet because of the male-directed culture and behaviors affiliated with it, along with male monopolization of discussion lists and bulletin boards and the harassment of female users. However, although women's attentiveness in the Internet is especially in a tool capacity, they are less positive than men about its capacity to liberate. The studies suggested that women do not observe any benefit in going online, the women had more negative educational and recreational knowledge of computing which could have led to the apprehension that the Internet had less to offer them. The reality that few female respondents in the study began use the Internet on their own initiative but rather had to be commencement to its services by a male user, contrast the view that gender roles and stereotypes in control women's relationship between technology and present practical hardship of time and access. It has been suggested that the invincible factor permitting equality with consider to information technology is social stereotyping and conditioning. It has been argued that women's advocate gender role means that they have lesser free time and more limited access to the internet compare to men. Male ascendancy of online communication networks, the sexist view of Internet culture and women's dislike of the impersonal nature of computer-mediated communication results in women assuming less positive attitudes compare to males to the earlier Internet services and facilities and distinguishing them as less useful. Besides that, women spend most of their time at home for take caring their children and for housework, and therefore, they have seldom time to spend on internet. Furthermore, the respondent form women claimed that using the internet is wasting their time and the internet is just for those who are working and for those which has the higher ability towards internet usage. Therefore, not surprising that women take up the Internet later than men, it is because internet was become necessary for their work or study, and use it especially as a tool and in a limited capacity. (Heimrath.R &Goulding.A, 2001),#p#分页标题#e#
According a study by Seybert.H (2007), about (53%) of young male and (48%) of young female used the Internet daily. A much smaller group of older people used the Internet and there were a huge differences between female and male. Only 9% of female aged from 55-74 used the Internet daily compared to 18% of male that in the same category in age. The gap between male and female is even alter for basic computer skills than in the take-up and use of ICT. And yet, this proves those males are more basic computer knowledge than female. The gap between male and female in the usage of computers is often repeated for each broad age group, though it is more important in older age groups where the general scale of use decreases. For young people aged fro 16-24, some 62% of female in the European Union use a computer daily as opposed to 67% of male, but the gap close to only 2 percentage points if those using once a week. The number usage of internet among female and male is the same to that of computers, with once again a significant gap between the distribution of male and female using it on a daily basis in European Union. The distribution of male averaged 38% as against 28% of female. In all European Union Member States more male than female use the internet at least once per day. Moreover, the difference between the shares of male and female usage of internet was only 7 percentage points or less in all the new Member States. Seybert.H (2007) has claim that the male teenager that age around 15 to 20 years old at European Union spend most of their time toward internet for entertainment purposes. They often use the internet for playing online games, get to meet new friends through social website for example Twitter, Facebook, so and so forth. Compare to female teenager at this group of age, they seldom use internet nor using computer because most of their time are spending on studying, learning extra activites for example piano, ballet, and others. This is why female at the age from 21 to 25 years old have less basic computer skills compare to male. (Seybert.H, 2007)
A study by Kennedy.T & et al, (2007) have claim that gender obligation and domestic responsibilities (such as housework ,take caring for children and etc) in the home influence how much time female spend online. One expects that female have less chances to go online in the home because of these domestic obligations, and therefore the frequency of online are less than men. Women and men use the Internet oppositely and in different extent because of social anticipation leaded by gender roles. As women are the great communicators in families, they use and spend more time than men in emailing to family and friends. Women's Internet usage is build by their roles of childcare, kinkeeper and etc. In contrast, usage of internet by men's is less social, as they spend more time searching information and sources for their work. It shows that women use the Internet especially for email and list communication, and less than men for working use. In Netville, women and men also use email on a common basis, and in alike amounts. Netville women claim that the Internet very useful for contact with their old friends. In fact, women rate the beneficial of the Internet much higher than men do. Kennedy.T & et al, (2007) say that men have also use the chatroom through online but is much lesser than women; they are spending most of their time in working time. Besides women just using internet for communication purposes, they also utilize the internet sources by paying bills and shopping. Because most of the time women stay at home, they have enough time to use the internet besides take caring their children, do the housework and go for the market. Compare to men, they seldom use this facilities because most of this work are for women but not for them. Thus, Kennedy.T & et al, (2007) conclude that women also a good internet user compare to men. (Kennedy.T, et al, 2007).#p#分页标题#e#
According to Debrand.C.C and Johnson.J.J (2008), people in general may using email and instant messaging to interact with one another more frequently nowadays. This causing that male and female could be using this technology in similar numbers. Because the Internet is growing at such a rapidly, interaction through this channels (specifically email and instant messaging) may have become a core interaction channel in today's society. Given that this information could also designate that the gender gap between computer users is narrowing. The results of this study by to Debrand.C.C and Johnson.J.J (2008) suggest that with little exclusion, men and women have a like apprehension regarding the usefulness of email and instant messaging. Men and women have also using email and instant messaging to a like degree. One explanation is that since the usage of internet are frequently by college students and college graduates than the general population, college attendance may be a great prediction of email and instant messaging use than gender. College students are often using internet during their study time because they need to use internet for academic purposes, for example sending email to their colleagues, getting important information related to their courses, and also communicate with their friends that are in distance for team assignment. College students may be forced to use email and instant messaging to frequently interact with their course mate, lecturers or professors. Lecturer or professor often uploading the study materials to the university website so that students may downloaded easily. People in general may be using email and instant messaging to interact with each other more often than in the past. Both men and women could be using this technology in a like numbers.
The differences between men and women that begin in this study appeared when people interact with each others at a distance. Women appeared to use email and instant messaging more when interacting with people for those who were geographically distant. This reveal that women used email more than men did to interact with geographically distant people. Besides that Debrand.C.C and Johnson.J.J (2008) claimed that most of the men at university spend most of their time towards internet without any arranging time. This is because internet web site such as Freindster, Facebook, Myspace and so on may entertain them during their daily study. Most of them have been addicted to those website. It is different compare to female that have their own proper time management for study and internet usage. Female are more using the internet for important purposes for example sending email, searching for important sources and latest information about their course. Most of the female students utilize the time when using the internet and seldom using the internet for entertain purposes. (Debrand.C.C, Johnson.J.J, 2008).
A study by Codoban.I (2005), revealed that there is a positive attitudes for women when they face towards the usage of internet. Most of them respond that they will use the internet that prepared at office all the time, also when their company begin to use new software to for the database, they will try and discover the new software so that they will not fall behind to male. Even if females have declare the same physical access chances as males, and their skill levels are not so different, the number of time spent and use on the Internet, and the amount of knowledge are clearly in favour of males. Nevertheless, the quality of the divide is different to that of other countries, especially with consider to abilities and impact apprehension. Males have more computer and Internet knowledge than females, and likely to use these technologies more, so that the gap might be broaden. On the other hand, there are condition in which gender differences are not significant and an illustration positive attitude on the part of females - ready to accept and use this new technology, in the case they did not already to do so. Codoban.I (2005) also claimed that female nowadays have the highly motivation to use the internet compare to male. They may often learn the new software or the function of computer by their colleagues or learning from the computer and internet tutorial. Besides that, female utilize their time in the internet to search for information for their company and they are not waiting their time to the unbeneficial website when they use the internet. (Codoban.I,2005).2.4 Importance in of internet services#p#分页标题#e#
According Sharma.P and Maleyeff.J (2003), they claimed that with the internet, the number of information sources that are easily available has greatly increased; almost all are free of charge. Hence, the internet seems to be a perfect instrument of education that provides the great convenience to students while offering endless for innovative and usable teaching. Internet plays an important role towards students, lecturers and professors. They may get the information that they want in several minutes without waiting long. Classroom exercises and practices, in mixture with a workshop on a technology appraisal, might advance student's understanding and therefore allow them to practice some control over the interaction between their learning and technology. If they have some comprehension of the factors that infringe on their learning and hence their acumen, they might be better prepared to face the complicated, uncertain world that awaits them. Thus, Sharma.P and Maleyeff.J (2003) have also claimed that, students may use internet for their education if the internet sources is very useful towards them. They may use the internet for their learning usage, better attractive compare to just reading books and hardcopy provided by lecturer, they have their motivation to full use the internet sources to search the important sources for their assignments. Students may often access the web based learning to get the latest information about their related courses and also help them to complete their assignments. If the technology with internet are using during their study time at school, they may have the skill to use the internet because they may found the importance of internet when they work on it. (Sharma.P, Maleyeff.J, 2003).
A study by Taylor.R.W (2002), online learning is splendid for most academic courses and training programs requiring understanding learning - where the student uses memorization, evaluates data and use this knowledge to drive the solution. Examples of understanding learning include augmenting one's knowledge of accounting procedures, economics and etc. Online learning is very important for the students in this global era. The university is continuing education institutes and innumerable commercial organizations are changing to online learning for a number of very valid reasons.
It gives schools the ability and capability to broaden their reach well exceeding their location. For employers, online courses can essentially cut down the cost of training, especially if the organization has distant locations. Besides lowering the training costs, less time is spent and use away from the office, lower management and administration costs result and hence, the productivity is increased. Students are willing to take control of their own learning and to learn in their own stride. They are not limited to the tread of the slowest learners in their classroom. Taylor.R.W (2002) has claimed that, internet are a very important element in students study life, it may not only enhance their knowledge when they search the importance information, but may also increase their skill and ability towards the usage of internet. Besides that, students may use the internet base on the importance and need to use. The study result that 98.9% of the students frequently use the email and chat room website like Windows Live Messenger, Facebook and etc, this is because they claim that this internet tools are very useful and important when they are studying or doing assignment. They may receive any latest information from their colleagues and lecturers by the email, and very convenience for them to chat with their friends with a distance so that they may inform the latest information to their friends. Besides that, online discussion is welcoming by the university students. This is because they may discuss the courses problem by posting their question at the discussion board, and there will appear some students to provide the solution also by posting their words at discussion board. This may not help students to understanding their problems but also help them understanding how the solution is and hence may improve their knowledge towards their courses. Thus, Internet was an importance tools for students to receive important information.#p#分页标题#e#
(Taylor.R.W, 2002).
According to Volery.T and Lord.D (2000), students attending a class with an instructor who has a positive attitude towards distributed learning are likely to experience positive learning result. In distributed learning surroundings, students often feel segregated since they do not have the classroom environment in which to communicate with the instructor. The study findings claim that the Internet can be a powerful and great tool in education. This tool has the latent both to support effective and efficient education programs and to expose students to the implications of computer networks. Internet may help the students to provide resourceful information that This paper designated three crucial success factors in online delivery: technology (convenience of access and steering and level of interaction); the instructor (attitudes towards students and classroom interaction); and the past usage of the technology from a student's attitude. It is clear, though, that lecturers need to upgrade and enhance their technical skills so that it can follow up with the technological developments that are taking place soon. As this study has explained, the Internet and traditional classroom teaching methods are not same, but should be seen as an extra extent in education which can assist the lecturer's task while benefiting and bring advantageous the students as well. Volery.T and Lord.D (2000) have also claimed that, based on their survey result, most of the students may use the online learning if their lecturer guided them correctly and bringing them the importance of the internet sources. This is because most of the students claim that the lecturer skills of using internet are worst and the lecturer usually just explain how to use the online learning without showing the step. Students will face difficulties towards web based learning if they get insufficient knowledge about the web based learning. Furthermore, lecturer should enhance their internet and computer usage skills so that they can teach their students correctly and without any mistake. (Volery.T, Lord.D, 2000).
According to Dadzie.P.S (2005), it is necessary to increase the awareness of the existing of other search tools and library resources to enable students to be familiar with a diversity of computer and web-searching skills and experience, so that students may easily understanding their related course and doing the assignment with existing electronic resources. Dadzie.P.S (2005) explain the survey result show that 28 per cent of the students designated lack of information about how to use electronic resources and the internet; 16 per cent of the students designated lack of time to gain the skills that required to use electronic and internet resources. It is quite clear that one of the blockade to electronic resources is the insufficient number of PCs. Result also show that 83 per cent designated that the library should improve the connectivity of wireless; 79 per cent of the students designated to having more computers to the library. It is necessary so that it could increase the attention of the existence of other search tools and library resources to enable students to be experienced with a difference of computer, internet-searching skills and experience. Students almost spend their time to the internet during their life time in university, they will online and search for something usefulness towards their related courses, make a discussion at the forum with their colleagues or members that from different university but same courses.#p#分页标题#e#
This may not only make them gain more knowledge for their related courses but also having opportunities to met some new friends from others university. Some of the approaches suggested include introducing information competency beyond the curriculum with the effectual commitment of faculty or the establishment of a one-unit course to teach information competency at all levels at the university. Students are willing to use the electronic and internet sources because they associate with the importance of the internet to finishing their assignments, searching the latest information for their courses and so on. Materials or information that they downloaded are much more useful from what their lecturer teach. This is because the teaching content by their lecturers are much more little compare with the existing information that can search from internet. Dadzie.P.S (2005) has suggested that lecturer play an important role towards student because they are the medium to teaching students everything. They are require to teach their students the way to use the internet and the importance of using online learning. (Dadzie.P.S, 2005)
A research done by Luambano.I & Nawi.J (2004), they claimed that internet presence helps to improve the educational process and to address problems related to weak cooperative partnerships, fail in educational standards, rising costs, increasing the numbers of student and to meet the general increased demand for higher education. Students should also be driven to use the internet for their education and academic purposes. For instance, they should be more conscious of the many resources on the internet that can benefit them academically or make them have advantage in learning. Lecturers should also inspire their students to use internet sources rather than relying on printed sources or existing hardcopy. Based on the study findings, a few issues have to be discoursed so that students may beneficial themselves of the benefits that contribute by the internet. More computers with the internet facilities should be provided so that it could increase the student's level of access. The computers provided should be better and faster to access. Speed and internet connectivity that increasing will follow by bringing the usage to higher levels. More bandwidths should be seek so as to provide and giving faster access that will save time for the users and be a source of motivation to use the internet for learning purposes. Faster access of internet may help the students to search the information faster and also for downloading useful materials. Besides that, most of the lecturer also uploads their teaching materials through internet and they will require students to download it. As a result, the speed of internet may affect the students to downloading or accessing the learning materials. Maintenance of computers should also be done oftenly so that it may improve the speed of access computer internet and making sure the computer are spoilt because of infected by virus. Students should be provided and given with more opportunities of formal training in order to gain skills on effective internet usage. Students may access the web based learning because they found the importance of internet usage, for example sending email that just require few seconds, acquire latest information about their courses so and so forth. To let the students access the web based learning frequently, faculties or universities should increasing the number of computers and increasing the speed of internet connectivity. (Luambano.I, Nawi.J, 2004).#p#分页标题#e#
Based on the study by Adogbeji.O.B, and Akporhonor.B.A, (2005), they prove that students that are respondents to their study have an advantage when doing assignment, studies or others related coursework, this is because the result says that internet may helps them in obtaining materials relating to coursework, make it possible to send and receive research materials from colleagues that at a distance without travelling, also internet makes access to all kinds of data and information possible. The study result that 38 percent of students benefited from the use of the internet in one of the following ways: downloading materials and sources that relating to the research work: making the option of research easier and convenience as others views can be easily found and search from the internet: sending and receiving research materials by email from colleagues that are in distance; obtaining peer review and findings, thereby strengthening and augmenting students research; accessing and receiving all kinds of data and information that related to coursework; having the updated and latest information and exchanging study materials with colleagues. Web based learning may not only help them work in research but also may help them to think innovatively towards their current research problem. Students are choosing the use of internet because there a numbers of importance and advantageous for using the internet and hence, this may influence the students using the internet frequently. (Adogbeji.O.B, Akporhonor.B.A, 2005)
3.0 Methodology
3.1 Introduction
Methodology is the concept that relate to a particular discipline or field of inquiry which includes a collection of theories, concepts or ideas, a comparative study of different approaches and the critique of the individual methods.
The methodology controls the study, dictates the acquisition of the data, arranges them in logical relationships, sets up a means of refining the raw data, design an approach so that the meanings that lie below the surface of those data become manifest, and finally issues a conclusion or series of conclusions that lead to an expansion of knowledge. The entire process is a unified effort as well as an appreciation of its component parts.
3.2 Sampling Design
The populations targeted for this research are students from different faculty at University of Malaya. We used random sampling to conduct the data collection to examine the factors that affecting the usage of internet by students from University of Malaya. The four factors that are being tested by us were students attitude, usage of E-Learning, gender and importance of internet services.
3.2.1 Gender of Respondents
Out of 100 questionnaires distributed, the entire questionnaires enable to collect back and do the future analysis. The sample is divided equally between 50 male and 50 female as shown in Table 1: Demography in List of Table in this report.#p#分页标题#e#
3.2.2 Races
Again, from Table 1: Demography shows that distribution of race of respondents. The respondents divided into 4 groups generally and equally which are Malays, Chinese, Indian, and others. Each group of races is representing 25 respondents or 25% respectively.
3.2.3 Year of study of respondents
Table 2.1 shows that the distribution of year of study of respondent. Majority of the respondents are second year students, which are 35% or 35 respondents. In contrast, the minority respondents are first year, 26%, third year 17%, and fourth year, 22%.
3.2.4 Level of study
From the table 2.1, the majority level of study of respondents is Degree which represents 83% or 83 respondents. On the other hand, the remaining respondents are taking Master in their level of study are 17% respectively.
3.2 .5 Valid and Missing Value
After we collected the data through doing the survey, there are no missing values exist in the questionnaire. The entire questions are filled by respondents. Table 2.2 shows the frequency of each of the items which include number of valid and missing values.
3.3 Data Collection Method
The method chosen to collect data must be determined from an extensive literature search to determine what tools are available that will get at the question asked. There have two types of data collection methods which are qualitative and quantitative. Data collection methods used in this research study is quantitative in which we use the surveys method - questionnaires to collect the data. Questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions and other prompts for the purpose of gathering information from respondents.
Sir Francis Galton, has invented he questionnaire was invented. Questionnaires are cheap and do not require as much effort from the as verbal or telephone surveys. In order to conduct the research in this chapter, questionnaires will be distributed to students from different faculty at University of Malaya with different races, age and level of study.
There have two types of data sources which consist from primary and secondary. Primary data is when individuals, groups, and panel of respondent set up by researcher to seek their opinion in a period of time. While for secondary data it may come from company records, internet, government publications, and so on.
Primarily sourcesare used for our data analyzing in our research study because every respondent is a benefactor or resource of individual information.
3.4 Questionnaire Development
We attempt to compile the data which can be obtained by using various techniques from a group of data resources through the applied research. There are 2 sections in our questionnaire. Section 1 is demographic part regarding to the respondent's background such as occupation, education level, and salary. Meanwhile, the section 2 is regarding to our research structures that included student attitude, usage of E-learning, gender and importance of internet services, which examine factors that affecting the usage of internet by students from University of Malaya. A five-point Likert-type response format ranging from “Strongly agree” to “Strongly disagree” was used for all indicators in an effort to maximize respondent specificity.#p#分页标题#e#
The reliability of a measure indicates the extent to which measure is without bias (error free). In validity we concerned the cause and effect relationships (internal validity) and their generalize ability to the external environment (external validity).
3.5 Conceptual Framework.
3.6 Theorectical Framework
Usage of internet is the dependent variable in our study, the variance in which it is to be explained by four independent variables, that are students attitude, usage of E-learning, gender and importance of internet services. Students who have the positive attitude might often use the internet for their academic purposes and so on. Furthermore, if students who have the negative attitude are seldom use the internet. Usage of E-learning might also affect the usage of internet by students. When the students are using the E-learning for their academic purpose, they are in using the internet to log in to the E-learning, and they might also use the internet to search for others useful information for their courses. If the usage of E-learning by students are increasing, the usage of internet will also follow to increase and vice versa. Next, the gender difference may affect the usage of internet. Female and male have different perspective towards the use of internet. Female recently are spending not much time towards the internet compare to male, that is always spending their time to use the internet. Students may use the internet if they founded the importance of internet services. Email, online discussion, forum and others that are some of the internet services. If those internet services are important for them, they might use it for their academic purpose and hence, the usage of internet by students may increase.3.7 Research Hypothesis
From the literature review above, the research was about the factors that affecting the usage of internet by students from University of Malaya such students attitude, usage of E-Learning, gender and importance of internet services. Based on the theoretical framework that has been conducted, there are 4 hypotheses can be constructed:
p.Students Attitude
H0, There is no relationship between student attitude and the usage of internet
p, There is a relationship between student attitude and the usage of internet
H2.Usage of E-Learning
H0, There is no relationship between usage of E-Learning and the usage of Internet.
p, There is a relationship between usage of E-Learning and the usage of Internet.
H3.Gender
H0, There is no relationship between gender and the usage of internet.
p, There is a relationship between gender and the usage of internet.
H4. Importance of internet services.
H0, There is no relationship between the importance of internet services and the usage of internet.
p, There is a relationship between the importance of internet services and the usage of internet.#p#分页标题#e#
4.2 Normality
Data screening is important to analyze data. During data screening, we will check the normality of the data collected. It is important to test the normality before proceeding to another step. Normality can also be shown by comparing the mean, standard deviation, skewness, and kurtosis level and kolmogorov smirnov test. Skewness and kurtosis refer to the shape of the distribution and are used with interval and ration level data. For data to be normal the skewness must between -2 to 2 and kurtosis level must between -3 to 3.
Skewness is based on the third standardized moment that measures the degree of symmetry of a probability distribution. Positive values for skewness indicate a positive skew and negative for value of skewness indicate a negative skew. If skewness is greater than 0, the distribution is skewed to the right and having more observations on the left.
Kurtosis is based on the fourth central moment that measures the thinness of tails or “peakedness” of a probability distribution. If kurtosis of a random variable is less than three (or if kurtosis-3 is less than zero), the distribution has thicker tails and a lower peak compared to a normal distribution. Negative values for kurtosis indicate a distribution that is flatter (platykurtic).
Besides, to test normality, we also can use histogram, scatterplot, boxplot, and linearity lines.
From the table, we can see that the skewness value of 4 independent variables is fall in the range from -2 to 2 while the kurtosis of 4 independent variables is fall in the range from -3 to 3. Kurtosis is measure of the “peaked ness” of the probability distribution. A positive value, 0.088 mean that the distribution is too peaked. Therefore we can say that the data collected are normal.
For the table below, we also tested the normality by using one sample Kolmogorov -Smirov test. To show that the variables are normally distributed, the significance level must more than 0.05. Based on the result given, the significance level for student attitude, which is 0.063 that greater than 0.05, significance level for usage of E-Learning is 0.055 that greater than 0.05, significance level for gender is 0.098 and importance of internet services is 0.079. Thus, all the variables are normally distributed.
Histogram
A frequency distribution provides evidences of the shape of the distribution for the variable. A histogram can be constructed from the information in the frequency distribution, and the shape of the actual data as presented in the histogram can be compared to the expected shape (a normal distributed curve).#p#分页标题#e#
Normal Probability Plot of Regression Standardized Residuals
It can compare the observed standardized residuals against the expected standardized residuals from a normal distribution. If the observed residuals are normally distributed, they will be close to 45o line shown on the plot.
Student Attitude
Usage of E-Learning
Gender
Importance of Internet services
From the histograms, normal probability plot of regression standardized residuals, and scatterplots above, we can see that all of independent variables (student's attitude, usage of E-learning, gender and importance of internet services) are normally distributed. The shapes of the data presented in the histograms look similar to a normal distributed curve. All the observed residuals close to 45o line shown on the plot and all the scatterplot of residuals shows no large differences in the spread of the residuals and most of the points are within -2 or 2 range, this shows that the findings are in linear relationship. Based on each variable for their probability plot of regression, they are unbiasness and robustness.
4.3 Reliability Analysis
Internal reliability can be tested by using Cronbach's Alpha which is based on the average correlation of items within a test if the items are standardized. Cronbach's Alpha ranges in the value of 0 to 1. This is because Cronbach's Alpha can be interpreted as a correlation coefficient. Normally, the variables are internally reliable if the Cronbach's Alpha is greater than 0.6.
Independent variables
a)Students Attitude
The factor of cost efficiency consists of motivated to get information from the internet, need an experienced person to guide when using the internet, feel uncomfortable because not a good internet user and so on. Below is the output of reliability analysis for students attitude.
According to Nunnally (1978), he claimed and suggest that the minimum requirement of cronbach alpha is 0.6 sufficed for early stage of research.
From the reliability test, we can find that the Cronbach's Alpha is 0.735, which is greater that 0.600. This also shows that all respondents have the same or similar opinion towards the items in quality.
b)Usage of E-Learning
The items in the usage of E-Learning factor include of E-learning at plays an important role in studies, E-learning has the potential/ability to enhance students learning experience, E- learning should has interesting features/functions, and etc.
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From the reliability test, we can find that the Cronbach's Alpha is 0.729, which is greater that 0.600. This also shows that all respondents have the same or similar opinion towards the items in usage of E-learning.
c)Gender
The items in the gender consist of E-mail to friends/family, getting information in general, downloading free software, accessing online newspaper or others media and others.
From the reliability test, we can find that the Cronbach's Alpha is 0.512, which is lower that 0.600. This also shows that all respondents have the same or similar opinion towards the items in usage of E-learning. To make the Cronbach's Alpha greater than 0.600, our group has decide to delete one item.
So,we decide to choose to delete “online shopping” to make the Cronbach's Alpha greater than 0.600.
d)Importance of internet services
The items in the gender consist of E-mail helps you in understanding the course, University/Faculty helps you in finishing your assignment, Online forum helps you in lecturer guidance if facing academic problems and others.
From the reliability test, we can find that the Cronbach's Alpha is 0.512, which is lower that 0.600. This also shows that all respondents have the same or similar opinion towards the items in usage of E-learning. To make the Cronbach's Alpha greater than 0.600, our group has decide to delete one item.
4.4 Regressions/ Coefficients
To explore the predictive ability of an independent or a set of independent variables on one dependent variable, regression is used. It is a more sophisticated extension of correlation. It not only tells us about the relationship and the significance of the independent and dependent variables, it also predicts the outcome from predictors and it also tell us how much does the independent variable affected the dependent variable.
Regression uses least square method, which is a simple mathematical method of ensuring the straight line that runs through the points on the scatter diagram is positioned so as to be the best possible. The regression coefficient tells us how much of the variance in the dependent variable is explained by the independent variable.
To examine the hypothesis are accepted or rejected, coefficients is used. For a hypothesis to be accepted, the significant level must less (<) than 0.05. On the other hand, the hypotheses that have the significant level greater (>) than 0.05, it should be rejected.#p#分页标题#e#
a) Independent variables: Student Attitude
(a) Predictors: (constant), students attitude
From the table above, we can find that the R= 0.652. This means that the there is a positive relationship between independent variables and dependent variables and the relationship are quite strong. The R square value, 0.426 means that all items in students attitude explain 42.6% of the factors increase the usage of internet. . For the standardized coefficient, if the student attitude towards usage of internet by one unit, the usage of internet will increase by 0.489 unit. For a hypothesis to be accepted, the significant level must less (<) than 0.05. The significant level of student attitude variable is 0.000, which is less than 0.05 and thus, the alternative hypothesis, there is a relationship between student attitude and the usage of internet are accepted.
b) Independent variables: Usage of E-Learning
(b) Predictors: (constant), students attitude
Coefficients (a)
From the table above, we can find that the R= 0.609. This means that the there is a positive relationship between independent variables and dependent variables and the relationship are quite strong. The R square value, 0.493 means that all items in usage of E-Learning explain 49.3% of the factors increase the usage of internet. For the standardized coefficient, if the usage of E-Learning increases by one unit, the usage of internet will increase by 0.553 units. For an alternative hypothesis to be accepted, the significant level must less (<) than 0.05. The significant level of usage of E-Learning variable is 0.000, which is less than 0.05 thus the alternative hypothesis, there is a relationship between usage of E-Learning and the usage of Internet are accepted.
b) Independent variables: Gender
To test the relationship between gender and the usage of internet, we use the independent sample t-test for this section. We use gender(general question) as the grouping variable and the gender(independent variable) as tested variable.
Table 1
Table 2
From the table 1 above, t, We found that the mean for the "male" group is higher than that of the "female" group. That is, male on average are more frequently using of the internet compare to female. There is a significant difference between the two groups because the significance level are less than 0.05.Therefore, we can say that there is a significant difference between the female and the usage of internet. Thus, male had significantly frequent in using the internet compare to female.#p#分页标题#e#
Independent variables: Importance of Internet Services
(c) Predictors: (constant), Importance of Internet services
Coefficients (a)
From the table above, we can find that the R= 0.524. This means that the there is a positive relationship between independent variables and dependent variables and the relationship are quite strong. The R square value, 0.403 means that all items in gender explain 40.3% of the factors increase the usage of internet. For the standardized coefficient, if the importance of internet services towards usage of internet increase by one unit, the usage of internet will increase by 0.557 units.
For a alternative hypothesis to be accepted, the significant level must less (<) than 0.05. The significant level of usage of E-Learning variable is 0.000, which is less than 0.05 and thus the alternative hypothesis, there is a relationship between the importance of internet services and the usage of internet are accepted.
