KNOWLEDGE AND UTILIZATION PATTERN OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY SERVICES BY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS IN JUNAGADH AGRICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
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Date
2011-06
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JAU, JUNAGADH
Abstract
Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is global term that incorporates all advancements that provide access to the information through telecommunications. ICT tools and services have been considered as powerful services that enable the educational change and reform. They are being not only used in administrative duties in education but also in the instruction of students. Within the classroom, ICT services are used for creative, communicative, collaborative and task-based activities during instruction and also in evaluating the students. Use of ICT services in education management is becoming compelling necessity throughout the world. Considering this, the present study was taken out for the measure of knowledge and utilization pattern of ICT services including their association with different selected characteristics of the respondents.
The study was conducted in the six different colleges of JAU, Junagadh and JAU, Veraval. A total of 170 postgraduate students studying in Junagadh Agricultural University were selected for the investigation. The data was collected by the personnel interview method through the developed and pre-tested schedule. The data collected was further classified, tabulated, analyzed and interpreted in order to make findings meaningful. Statistical tools such as frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation and correlation co-efficient were used for the study.
The results of the research indicated that 74.12 per cent of the postgraduate students were in the age group of 23 to 24 years, about 56.47 per cent were male respondents, 51.76 per cent had Gujarati as their medium education, 28.24 per cent of the student’s parents had education up to middle school and 38.82 per cent of had 8.1 to 8.5 of OGPA in respect to personnel characteristics. Regarding socio-economic characteristics, 40.59 per cent of the students had low family income, 55.29 per cent had monthly expenditure of ₹ 2501 to ₹ 5000, 79.41 per cent belonged to medium sized family and 50.00 per cent were from rural background. Corresponding to the communicational characteristics, ICT services such as Wikipedia and YouTube were
known to the students by ‘themselves’. While, Email, MOOCs, WhatsApp, Facebook and Janvani FM were known through friends, parents and relatives. Online thesis repositories, CeRA, MS–software, Google, statistical packages, Kiosk and agricultural web portals were known through teaching and learning process. ICT services such as Email, MOOCs, Wikipedia, WhatsApp, Facebook, YouTube, MS–software, Google, Janvani FM, statistical packages and agricultural web portals were accessible through the self owned facility. Online thesis repositories, CeRA and Kiosk were accessible through the facility provided by the departmental or college or university. In relation to psychological characteristics, the preferred job by the students is academic teaching.
The 58.24 per cent of the postgraduate students were found in the category of medium level of knowledge regarding ICT services and 57.06 per cent of them belonged to the category of medium utilization of ICT services.
Out of 12 variables, 7 variables namely age, parent’s education, academic performance, family annual income, monthly expenditure pattern, source of information regarding ICT and accessibility to the selected ICT services had a positive and significant relation with their knowledge level and utilization pattern of ICT services and the rest 5 variables had non-significant relationship.
The major constraints faced by the postgraduate students in utilization of ICT services were limited accessibility and network connection, hardship in finding the relevant content and cannot download full articles in time. The important suggestions offered by the respondents to overcome the constraints were workshops and specialised training on statistical packages should be organised, full length research paper should be made accessible to students and internet facility should be ensured in the hostel (Wi-Fi) with adequate strength.