International Journal of Education & Management © 2017 Indian Association of Health, Research and Welfare

Studies, 2017, 7(4), 515-517 ISSN-p-2231-5632-e-2321-3671

http://www.iahrw.com/index.php/home/journal_detail/21#list UGC Journal No 47250, NAAS Rating 4.79

Impact of internet use and academic performance

Vishakha Bodhi and Jagpreet Kaur
Department of Education & Community Service, Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab

Internet is being extensively used all around the world. The number of users is increasing day by day. Computers and
the Internet have become an essential part of our lives today, especially among the adolescent and youth. The
Internet is a priceless source of information for students and a tool to enhance their productivity. It helps students to
broaden their academic knowledge by accessing to the information world and also by easy communicating to their
academic community. In term of education, researchers have evaluated the impact of internet usage on university
students' academic performance. The present study aimed to find out association between internet use and academic
performance among university students. A descriptive study design with quantitative approach was used to collect
data from 200 postgraduate university students belonging to social-science stream. Data was collected using the
self-constructed tool on Internet usage and a designed questionnaire to elicit demographic data of the respondents
for academic performance. The data was analyzed using correlation analysis to study the relationship of internet use
with academic performance. The results revealed a significant and positive relationship of internet use with
academic performance. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Keywords: internet use, academic performance, university students

Internet today is widely recognized not only as a means of
communication but also as a powerful tool. It is seen as the most
influential and the most important technology in this sense
(Lievrouw, 2001; Dickson, 2000). The use of the Internet has
become a central part of the developed and developing societies
around the world. The Internet have the influence on the social life of
individuals, leisure, consumer, community well-being and
economic (Chairncross, 1997; Israel, 2000; & DiMaggio et al.,
2001). The Internet facility is easy for use and prepares many
benefits for person in daily life (e.g., social life, work life, leisure life
& education life). Some authors proposed that the Internet has direct
influence on Academic Achievement with using of educational
software, and the provision of essential information (Jegede, 1990;
Jackson, 2006).
In education, the internet assumes a crucial role in the areas of
language study, research, resource center and retrieval and sharing of
information (Manoj & Jacob, 2008; Zickuhr, 2014). The Internet
plays a profound role in the field of education. The academic
community has undergone profound transformation during these
years, assuming new dimensions influenced by technology-driven
applications. The Internet is a priceless source of information for
students and a tool to enhance their productivity (Jones, 2002;
Metzger et al., 2003; Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). It helps students
to broaden their academic knowledge by accessing to the
information world and also by easy communicating to their
academic community (Tella, 2007). This has made students to be
heavy users of the Internet compared to the general public (Ni et al.,
2009).
In term of education, researchers have evaluated the impact of
internet usage on university students' academic performance. A vast
majority of people agreed internet improves their grades of academic
Correspondence should be sent to Vishakha Bodhi
Senior Research Fellow
Department of Education & Community Service
Punjabi University, Patiala, Punjab
E-mail: vishakhabodhi@gmail.com
performance (Jones, 2002). Suhail and Bargees (2006) revealed that
the internet usage impacts education in a positive way by increasing
communication with classmates and professors, increasing access to
libraries and educational databases, and improving study hours and
study habits. Studies done by (Carvin, 2006; Ogedebe, 2012)
noted that the use of the internet enhances high academic
performance.
Though there are many benefits linked with internet use, there has
been a growing concern regarding the risk associated with internet
overuse. There are many ongoing researches that showed that
students become addicted to the internet (Young & Rodgers, 1998;
Nalwa & Anand, 2003; Thomas & Martin, 2010) and caused
academic failure (Young, 1998; Subrahmanyam et al., 2001).
Internet has a significant decrement onto students' performance
(Robert, 2001) and (Jeong, 2005; Lipsmoin, 2007). Revealed that
internet addictions have negatively influenced the student's
academic performance. Hamilton (2009) revealed that the use of
internet has both positive and negative impacts on academic
performance of students. These researches show the relationship
between internet use and academic performance. This study also
intends to realize the student's perceptions how internet usage affects
academic performance.
Objectives of the study
● To study the extent and type of internet usage among university
students.
● To study the impact of internet usage on academic performance of
university students.
Hypotheses of the study
There is no significant relationship of internet usage with academic
performance of university students.
Method and procedure
The study was conducted through quantitative descriptive design to
study the relationship between academic performance and internet
usage among university students.
 BODHI AND KAUR/ IMPACT OF INTERNET USE AND ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE 516

Participants The table 1 indicates that the mean value of internet usage among
university students came out to be 111.88 with SD value of 30.36. It
The study was conducted on a representative sample of 200 post-
shows that there are 28.5% university students who scored up to 95
graduate university students of social science stream on the basis of
and 27.5% students scored up to 96 and 116 in the mean interval. The
randomized technique of sampling from Punjabi university, Patiala.
median and mode of internet usage among university students came
Instrument out to be 111.53 and 110.84 respectively. Further, it shows that
28.5% have below average level of internet usage among university
Internet Usage Scale: For the conduct of the present study, Internet
students and 27.5% students possess average level of internet use.
Usage Scale was constructed by the investigator herself. The items in
Only 43.5% of university students possess an above average level of
scale were divided into two parts purpose of internet usage and time
internet use. In general, it can be concluded that most of the
spent on internet usage including the thrust area i.e. educational,
university students have an above average level of internet usage.
entertainment and social internet usage. It consisted of 52 items in
two parts. First part was related to purpose of internet usage Internet usage in relation to academic performance of
consisted 26 items deals with the educational, entertainment and university students
social purpose of internet use, constructed on a 5-point likert scale
ranging from never to daily scored 0 to 5. The second part was related The coefficients of correlation between internet usage and academic
to time spent on internet usage also consisted of 26 items deals with performance scores of university students are given in the table 2.
the time spent on educational, entertainment and social purpose of Table 2: Internet usage among university students in relation to
internet, constructed on 5-point likert scale ranging from never to 3 academic performance (n=200)
hours or more scored from 0 to 5. The scale had a total score ranging
Internet usage Academic performance
from 26-104 on each part reflecting the various purposes of internet
usage and time spent on internet. The reliability of the scale was Internet usage for educational purpose -.285**
determined through the use of test re-test method at an interval of Internet usage for entertainment purpose -.018
three weeks and a reliability index of 0.89 was obtained using Internet usage for social purpose -.060
Pearson Product Moment Correlation. Factorial criterion validation Sum of internet usage for educational, -.088
of the internet usage scale was done. Therefore, the questionnaire is entertainment and social purpose
statistically said to be reliable for the study. Time spent on internet for educational purpose -.049
Researchers' designed questionnaire to elicit demographic data of Time spent on internet for entertainment purpose -.010
the respondents. It was used to extract information on the influence Time spent on internet for social purpose -.175*
of internet usage on academic performance of university students. It Sum of time spent on internet for educational, -.044
refers to the percentage of marks obtained in graduation by post- entertainment and social purpose
graduate university students. Internet usage -.022
**p≤0.01
Results
The table 2 shows that the value of correlation co-efficient
In order to meet the objectives of the study, descriptive statistics
between internet usage for educational purpose and academic
namely mean, median, mode and standard deviation was used to
achievement came out to be .285 which is significant at 0.01 level. It
study the extent and type of internet usage among university
indicates that there is significant and positive relationship of internet
students. The use of t-test was made to study the gender differences
usage for educational purpose with academic performance of
in internet usage among university students. Correlation was used to
university students. The table 2 further reveals that the value of
study the relationship of internet usage with academic performance.
correlation co-efficient between time spent on internet for social
Internet usage among university students: A description purpose and academic performance among university students came
The table 1 shows the frequency distribution of scores of internet out to be -.175 which is significant at 0.05 level. This indicates that
usage among university students. there is significant and negative relationship between time spent on
internet for social purpose and academic performance among
Table 1: Distribution of university students on the basis of internet
university students. The table indicates that there is no significant
usage (n=200)
relationship of other dimensions of internet usage with academic
Class interval Frequency Percentage Cumulative percentage performance of university students.
180-200 1 0.5 100.0 The value of correlation co-efficient of internet usage and
159-179 12 6.0 99.5 academic performance among university students is .022, which is
138-158 30 15.0 93.5 not significant even at 0.05 level. This indicates that there is no
117-137 44 22.0 78.5 significant relationship of internet usage with academic
96-116 55 27.5 56.5 achievement of university students.
75-95 37 18.5 29.0
Discussion
54-74 13 6.5 10.5
33-53 7 3.5 4.0 The aim of the present study was to investigate the association of
12-32 1 0.5 0.5 internet use with academic performance among university students.
Mean= 111.88; Median= 111.53; Mode= 110.84; SD= 30.36; Skewness=
The findings have demonstrated that there is significant relationship
0.03; Kurtosis=0.50 among these variables.
517 International Journal of Education & Management Studies, 2017, 7(4), 515-517
The demographic information gathered from the respondents, the
internet appears to be an integral part of their lives. Perhaps similar to
the other studies mentioned, respondents use the internet as a tool of
entertainment, to connect socially and above all to gather
information. The results of the present study may be seen in the light
of some related research evidence. In the present study, it was found
that 43.5% of university students possess an above average level of
internet usage. Kaushik and Singh (2007) depicts 96.5% internet
usage by research scholars and faculty in science. Chhachhar et al.
(2013) a survey research revealed that, 68% students' spent time on
internet for various purposes. Singh and Bala (2014) conducted
survey reported that most of the students (40%) used the internet.
The present study found that the internet usage for educational
purpose is positively and significantly related to academic
performance of university students. The study undertaken by (Jones
2002); Metzger et al. (2003); Suhail and Bargees (2006); Carvin
(2006); Tella (2007); Kirschner and Karpinski (2010); and Ogedebe
(2012) noted that the use of the internet enhances high academic
performance.
Further, the findings of the present study depicts that the internet
usage for social purpose is negatively and significantly related with
academic performance among university students. Robert (2001);
Jeong (2005); and Lipsmoin (2007) revealed that the internet use has
a significant decrement onto students' performance). Many
researches revealed that the use of internet has both positive and
negative impacts on academic performance of students. So, the
current findings increase our understanding of the relationships
between internet usage and academic performance.
Implications of the study
Internet use among students has positive influence on their academic
performance. Students who use the internet for study purposes are
likely to have higher academic performance. However, through
internet heavy usage negatively affects academic achievement. So it
is necessary to develop strategies by institutional administrators,
teacher and parents for the promoting healthy and safe use of the
internet. On the basis of the results of the present study, following
educational implications may be laid down:
● Educational planners, school administrators, teachers and parent
teacher associations should be educate about the impact of time use
on academic success to parents and students. Students should be
encouraged to monitor individual time use and daily progress
regarding completion of study assignments and identify time use
decisions that are facilitating good academic progress.
● Counselors in the institutions should organize enlightenment
programmers for students on how to use the internet to improve
academic performance. The school counselor can provide proper
guidance on how student can use internet. Counseling programs
can be organized for students having challenges in their
academics.
● University administration should develop internet usage
guidelines for students to use the internet in harmony with the aim
and objectives of their study to attain better academic performance.
Through this students will avoid obsessive passionate use of the
internet, which is strongly correlated with academic achievement
degradation.
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