An analysis of factors affecting sustainability of internet usage among university students

An analysis of factors affecting sustainability of internet usage among university students

Abstract

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting to the sustainability of internet usage among the university students.

Methodology - The study was done obtaining data from the students from University of Sri Jayewardenepura using a properly structured questionnaire. The questionnaire was designed in order to collect the information regarding the sustainability of internet usage and the factors affecting to the sustainability of internet usage. The data was analyzed using statistical methods like Descriptive Statistics, Hypothesis Testing and Regression Analysis.

Findings – Research has identified that interpersonal and social networks and perceived and realized benefits have significant positive impact on sustainability of internet usage among university students and security  issues and interruptions shows a negative impact towards the sustainability of internet usage. Factors like cost of internet browsing and cost of hardware and maintenance and innovations do not show a significant impact towards the sustainability of internet usage among University of Sri Jayewardenepura students.

Practical implications – The sustainability of internet usage provides practical implications for innovations and benefits provided to the users.

Key words – Internet, University students, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, internet usage

1. Introduction

1.1 Background of the study

Internet plays a vital role within the globalized world. The world is known to be a global village with great help of the internet facility. The word internet provides an idea of combination of networks. It can be publicly or privately accessible as the communication channel for all. The definition for the word “Internet” provided by the dictionary explains that internet is a vast computer network linking smaller computer networks worldwide (usually preceded by the). The Internet includes commercial, educational, governmental, and other networks, all of which use the same set of communications protocols.

Today internet has become a self-supportive, publicly available and cooperative channel for the millions of users within the world. Internet has replaced the traditional postal system and communication methods while providing the facilities of email, viber, whatsapp and the social media like face book, Skype and twitter etc. The facilities provided by the internet have made the life easy and the individuals, corporations enjoy the benefits provided by the internet throughout their personal life as well as the business life. Internet has become a primary infrastructure for the people’s day today life while providing the supportive services like communication facilities, real time updates, education services, financial transaction facilities, online shopping, leisure and entertainment and opportunities to explore the world etc. Internet has made a revolution among the people. Internet will change how people live, work, play and learn (John Chambers, 1998).

The university student is so keen on the new knowledge and information for his or her academic purposes, the extraordinary facilities provided by the internet is very supportive for the university student. The research done by the Manish Kumar Mishra for the “Use and importance of the internet at the University of Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria” says that the internet provides many opportunities for the university students and the demand for the internet shows a rapid increase among the university students. Internet has become the biggest source for the university students in all aspects. Internet covers the most of the areas within the world. It is updated with current issues and developments in the world. Students can get much information with the one click to the internet. The students are well updated with the current information and the new knowledge with the help of the internet.  It is more effective when compared to the books and magazines as it provides instant information to the reader. As well as the information provided by the internet has covered a wide area of the relevant field. Even though the internet is largely used by the university students, there are some identified disparities for the usage of the internet among university students. That is, even though internet provides reliable sources academic studies, the students do not have access to those trustworthy sites from their homes. According to the case study done on “The use of Internet Resources by University Students their Course projects elicitation”, it is suggested that students should be given access to the trustworthy sites at their homes. So that they can collect more trustworthy information for their study purposes.

The sustainability of the internet usage concerns on the going concern of the internet usage over the time period. According to the Rogers (2003) it is defined as the degree to which an innovation is continued over the time. That means when the innovation has done for the internet how long that innovation is continued. Internet is continuing while adding new things to the existing nature of the internet. That is defined as the Reinvention. The sustainability is measured according to the continuation of the innovations and the reinvention for the internet facility.

The sustainability can be looked from various aspects. It can be looked from the aspects like indispensability of the internet gives the idea of essentiality of the internet for the users. As per the research it is concerned on the essentiality of the internet for the university students. Another aspect is that the relevance of the internet. It is considered about how the internet is relevant for the university student for his activities. The gratification provided by the internet is another aspect of internet sustainability. It can be measured by the level of satisfaction of internet users. And the benefits provided for the internet users is another factor that could be considered as the measure of usage of internet sustainability. And the study will report the factors that are affecting to the sustainability of the internet usage among the university students. The independent variables like perceived benefits, interpersonal and social network, cost of internet usage, security and interruptions and the innovations are considered as the factors affecting to the internet usage among the university students. The study is conducted to identify the relationship between the above independent variables and the dependent variable sustainability.

1.2 Problem Statement

How the sustainability of internet usage occurs and what are the factors affecting to the internet usage among the university students.

1.3 Objectives

The study is conducted with the following objectives,

·         To find out the factors affecting sustainability of internet usage among university students. Here the study is conducted to identify the variables that are affecting to the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

·         To find out relationship between the sustainability of internet usage and the factors affecting to internet usage.

1.4 Scope of the study

The scope of the study focuses to the final year undergraduates who are getting the benefits from the internet facility. A sample is taken from the students of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura as the university is near to the Colombo suburb area and the most of the students are getting chance to obtain internet facility. The students from the faculty of Management Studies and Commerce, faculty of Arts and faculty of Science are taken in to the consideration for the study. The research is planned to identify the factors affecting to the sustainability in internet usage among the university students. A well planned questionnaire is used to collect the primary data for the study.

2. Literature Review

A preliminary search of existing material is conducted, for the purpose of organizing valuable ideas and findings, generating research idea and developing critical perspective. The literature review for the study is conducted while performing a search on the existing research articles and other sources which are related to the subject area of internet sustainability and the factors affecting to the internet sustainability.

2.1 Introduction

The internet has nowadays become an important component in academic institutions as it plays a pivotal role in meeting information and communication needs of institutions.  It makes it possible to access a wide range of information such as up to date research reports from anywhere in the world. It also enables scholars and academic institutions to disseminate information to a wider audience around the globe through having web sites and a way of search them and organize the output. (Laumbano, Nawe, 2004)

The revolution in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), and particularly the internet, is exerting profound effects on information-based services. The future of universities greatly hinges on their ability to embrace and leverage the potentials of these emerging technologies at all levels of their business activities and strategies. (Mutula, 2007)

2.2 The dependent variable

“Sustainability of internet usage among university students”

Sustainable usage of an innovation is very crucial as innovations are meant to stay and help in the development of a particular community or people. Falling short of this will amount to waste of resources, which could have been channeled to other areas (Hasim, Salman, 2009)

Sustainability defines as a dynamic process in which IT Professionals, designers, and researchers work with community groups in ways that give them greater control over technology in their organization. Promoting sustainability involve findings ways of encouraging technology learning and planning in community groups.(Merkel,Clitherow,Farooq,Xiao,Ganoe,Carrow,Rosson,2005)

2.3 The independent variables

According to Hasim, Salman, 2009, From the results there is sustainability of internet usage among Malay youth. As far as factors that have positive effects on sustainability of internet usage is concerned, the results of the study showed that interpersonal and social network and perceived and realized benefits have significant positive effects on sustainability of internet usage by Malay youth. The results also showed that issues relating to security concerns and interruptions have significant negative effect on the sustainability of internet usage.

3. Research methodology

3.1. Research approach and data collection method

The deductive approach is used in order to conduct the research which is more suitable for the research topic ‘Factors affecting sustainability of internet usage among university students”. A proper sample is selected for the data collection purpose and develop hypothesis and descriptive statistics and came to a final conclusion for the research problem.

The primary data needed for the study purpose is collected through a questionnaire. The questionnaire consists of two parts and first part consists of multiple choice questions which covers demographic factors affecting to the internet usage and the Likert scale questions ranging from 1-5. 5 refers to strongly agreed situation, 2 refers to moderately agreed situation, 3 refers to neutral situation, 4 refers to moderately disagreed situation  and  1 refers to strongly disagreed situation. (The questionnaire is attached to the annexure)

3.2. Variables and the conceptual framework

3.2.1. Dependent variable

“Sustainability of internet usage among university students”

3.2.2. Independent variables

The factors affecting to the sustainability of internet usage among university students is considered as the independent variables for the research purpose.  There are several factors that are affecting to the sustainability internet usage (Salman, Hasim, 2009) which are,

·         Interpersonal and social network

·         Perceived and realized benefits

·         Security issues and interruptions

·         Cost of internet browsing and hardware and maintenance

·         Innovations

3.2.3 Conceptual Framework

3.3. The list of hypothesis

Five hypotheses have been developed in order to identify the relationship between the sustainability of internet usage and the factors affecting to that.

·         Hypothesis 01

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of interpersonal and social network and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of interpersonal and social network and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

·         Hypothesis 02

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of Perceived and realized benefits from internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of Perceived and realized benefits and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

·         Hypothesis 03

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of security issues and interruptions of internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of security issues and interruptions of internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

·         Hypothesis 04

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of cost of internet browsing and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of cost of internet browsing and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

·         Hypothesis 05

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of innovations and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of innovations and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

3.4. Population and sample

3.4.1. Population

Population consists of final year undergraduates of University of Sri Jayewardenepura, who are using internet facility.

3.4.2. Sample

The sampling technique used for the study was convenience sampling. 40 students from the three faculties (faculty of management studies and commerce, faculty of arts and faculty of science) were selected. All the students responded to the questionnaire and no one is refused.

3.5. Data analysis methods

	Data analysis method used in the study	Data analysis method used in the related article
Demographic factors	Descriptive statistics	-
Sustainability	Descriptive statistics- Compare means	Descriptive statistics- Compare means
Hypothesis 01	Regression Analysis	Regression Analysis
Hypothesis 02	Regression Analysis	Regression Analysis
Hypothesis 03	Regression Analysis	Regression Analysis
Hypothesis 04	Regression Analysis	Regression Analysis
Hypothesis 05	Regression Analysis	Regression Analysis

4. Data analysis and discussion

4.1. A descriptive analysis

4.1.1 Faculty of the students

The students from Faculty of Management Studies and Commerce are the major participants to the research of 45%. And the least participants were the students from Faculty of Arts (9%).

Table 01 : Faculty of the students
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Management	18	45.0	45.0	45.0
	Science	13	32.5	32.5	77.5
	Art	9	22.5	22.5	100.0
	Total	40	100.0	100.0

                                                   

                                                                                                                                     

4.1.2 Gender distribution of the Students

Most of the students who have participated to the study were males about 58%.

Table 02 :  Gender distribution of the Students
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Female	17	42.5	42.5	42.5
	"Male"	23	57.5	57.5	100.0
	Total	40	100.0	100.0

    

4.1.3 Satisfaction level of internet usage

Almost all the students are satisfied by using the internet. 90% of students responded that they were enjoying the internet facility.

Table 03 :  Satisfaction level of internet usage
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	No	4	10.0	10.0	10.0
	Yes	36	90.0	90.0	100.0
	Total	40	100.0	100.0

                                                                                                                                     

4.1.4 Time Spent for the internet usage

Most of the students are using internet more than once a day (87.5%). This may due to the development of the mobile applications which will provide instant access to the internet.

Table 04 :Time Spent for the internet usage
		Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	once a day	5	12.5	12.5	12.5
	More than once a day	35	87.5	87.5	100.0
	Total	40	100.0	100.0

4.2 Descriptive analysis for the sustainability of internet usage

The sustainability of internet usage can be looked at from many aspects. They are from the perspective of indispensability, gratification, and relevance and beneficial. The question is developed in order to identify the significance of the above variables in determining the sustainability. Question no 1 and 3 are related to the variable of relevance. The mean of both questions are more than 4. As per the scale 5 stands for strongly agree and 1 stands for strongly disagree. As the question no 1 and 3 provides scale of more than 4, it indicates that the variable relevance is more than 4. It means it provides sustainability of internet usage among university students. The question 2 related to the indispensability variable and it shows 4.28 scales. That shows there is much indispensability of internet usage. So that will create sustainability for internet usage. Question No.4 stand for gratification which means whether the university student is satisfied with the internet usage. It provides 3.68 mean value and indicates that high level of satisfaction is with the university students and create sustainability of internet usage. 5^th question explains the benefits gain by the university students and provides the value of 4, indicating that the university student is highly benefited from the internet. And that makes sustainability of internet usage. Last column shows the total sustainability of internet usage among university students. The scale is 4.25 and it indicates there is sustainability for the internet usage.

Table 05 : Statistics
		Communication channel	Make life easy	Go for outside world	Make satisfied	Fully benefited	Total sustainability
N	Valid	40	40	40	40	40	40
	Missing	0	0	0	0	0	0
Mean		4.75	4.28	4.55	3.68	4.00	4.2500
Std. Deviation		.543	.679	.597	1.095	.716	.47231

4.3.Reliability Statistics

Reliability test is done in order to measure the reliability of the scale which is used for the study. Here Cronbach’s Alpha value is used. If the value is greater than 0.69 the data collected is reliable. Here the value is greater than 0.69 it is proved that the data set used for the study is reliable.

Table 06 : Reliability Statistics
Cronbach's Alpha	N of Items
.798	30

4.4. Hypothesis testing

Hypothesis 01

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of interpersonal and social network and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of interpersonal and social network and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Table 07 : Coefficientsa
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	2.383	.662		3.600	.001
	avg_interpersonal	.283	.081	.564	3.513	.001
a. Dependent Variable: avg_sustainability

Here P value = .001 which is less than the .05. Ho is rejected under the significance level of 95%. So there is a relationship between the impact of interpersonal and social network and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

The Beta value is 0.564. It indicates that there is a strong positive relationship between the impact of interpersonal and social network and the sustainability of internet usage among university students. When the facilities for interpersonal and social network increases the sustainability of internet usage will increase. It provides an idea that the university students are more concern on the social relationships. Today, younger generation feels that if they have become a partner of a social media service that will be a great achievement that they have received. The greater interest towards the social and interpersonal networks increases the internet usage among the university students.  The final outcome will be the increase in the sustainability of internet usage among the university students.

Hypothesis 02

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of Perceived and realized benefits from internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of Perceived and realized benefits and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Table 08 : Coefficientsa
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	2.383	.662		3.600	.001
	avg_percieved	.226	.122	.303	1.852	.043
a.Dependent Variable:avg_sustainability

Here P value = .043 which is less than the .05. Ho is rejected under the significance level of 95%. So there is a relationship between the impact of Perceived and realized benefits and the sustainability of internet usage among university students. The rejected null hypothesis suggests that changes within the perceived benefits of internet usage will change the internet usage among the university students.

 The Beta value is 0.303. It indicates that there is a weak positive relationship between the impacts of perceived and realized benefits and the sustainability of internet usage among university students. It indicates that when the perceived and realized benefit increases, sustainability will increase. But the increased amount is less than the amount change in the perceived and realized benefits. This suggests that when the benefits of the users increase, the sustainability will not increase by the same percentage increased amount of benefits.

University students receive various types of benefits from the internet. Internet assists them in their academic requirements while providing necessary information instantly at the time it is required. So when the internet provides them more benefits they are more addicted to the internet. The study shows that even though the university students increase the internet usage when they are receiving high benefits, they do not fully depend on the benefits that they received. So it shows positive weak relationship.

Hypothesis 03

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of security issues and interruptions of internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of security issues and interruptions of internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Table 09 : Coefficientsa
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	2.383	.662		3.600	.001
	avg_security	-.314	.130	-.441	-2.412	.021
a.DependentVariable:avg_sustainability

Here P value = .021 which is less than the 0.05. Ho is rejected under the significance level of 95%. So there is a relationship between the impact of security issues and interruptions of internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

 The Beta value of -.441 indicates that there is a weak negative relationship between the impact of security and interruptions of internet and the sustainability of internet usage among university students. The negative relationship shows that when there are security problems and interruptions occurs; the users are lack of confidence on the service provided by the internet. For an example, when there is a danger of hacking the web sites, the users prevent from using the internet. That will lead to reduction in internet usage of the people. Ultimately that will affect to the sustainability of internet usage of the university students. The university students are on alert on the security of the internet. So that if they feel it is not well secured, they try to reduce the internet usage. As per the study security and interruptions will not totally reduce the internet usage. It is up to a certain extent. 

Hypothesis 04

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of cost of internet browsing and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of cost of internet browsing and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Table 10 : Coefficientsa
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	t	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	2.383	.662		3.600	.001
	avg_cost	.142	.172	.150	.829	.413
a. Dependent Variable: avg_sustainability

Here P value = .413 which is higher than the 0.05. Ho cannot be rejected under the significance level of 95%. There is no relationship between the impact of cost of internet browsing and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

That means when the cost of internet browsing is increased or decreased, it will not be affected to the internet usage among the university students. The study concerned about the cost hardware and maintenance other than the cost of browsing internet. The negligence of hardware cost and maintenance is due to the popularity of the mobile phones for the internet access.  Most of the university students are getting access to the internet using mobile phones. Low cost mobile phones are also providing internet access. So that cost of hardware and maintenance will not affect for the internet usage of the university students. And also the mobile service prodders are providing internet facility at a lower cost. They have introduced various types of data packages for internet browsing which can be easily affordable by the university students. So that cost of internet browsing and cost of hardware and maintenance will not be affected for the internet usage among the university students. The ultimate result will be that the cost of internet browsing and cost of hard ware and maintenance will not affect to the sustainability in internet usage among university students.

Hypothesis 05

Null hypothesis (Ho)

There is no relationship between the impact of innovations and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Alternative hypothesis (Ha)

There is a relationship between the impact of innovations and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

Table 11 : Coefficientsa
Model		Unstandardized Coefficients		Standardized Coefficients	T	Sig.
		B	Std. Error	Beta
1	(Constant)	2.383	.662		3.600	.001
	avg_innovation	.104	.076	.205	1.359	.183
a.       DependentVariable:avg_sustainabiliy

Here P value = .183 which is higher than the 0.05. Ho is rejected under the significance level of 95%. There is no relationship between the impact of innovations and the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

This suggests that new innovations in internet will not affect to the sustainability of internet usage among university students.

5. Conclusion

As per the findings of the study it is understood that the almost all the university students are enjoying the benefits provided by the internet facility. With the rapid development of mobile Apps, the internet usage among the university students has been increased. Most of the students are able to get access to the internet via the mobile phones and as well as the computer equipment.

The sustainability of internet usage is identified as the going concern of the internet usage.  The sustainability can be measured through several variables. Indispensability of the internet, gratification to the users, relevance and beneficial to the users are the various aspects that can be looked at the sustainability of internet usage. According to the research findings the four variables shows positive results and it indicates that there is a sustainability of internet usage among university students. The idea behind the results is that when an innovation takes place within internet that will be accepted by the university students for long time period.

The study focused on the factors affecting to the sustainability of internet usage among the university students. Perceived and realized benefits, interpersonal and social networks and security issues and interruptions affect to the sustainability of internet usage among university students. The perceived and realized benefits and the interpersonal and social networks show a positive impact towards the sustainability of internet usage. And the security issues and interruptions show a negative impact for the sustainability of internet usage as the university students do not accept the risky browsing facilities. The factors like cost of internet browsing and cost of hardware and maintenance and innovations do not show a relationship with the sustainability of internet usage. Low cost packages of internet browsing and the availability of mobile apps may be the reason for the non-impact towards the sustainability.

The major issue identified through the research findings are that the inability of university students to get access to the trustworthy sites from their homes. The students only can access to trustworthy sites from the university premises but it cannot be done from their homes. If they are able to get access to these sites from their homes, that will be more helpful for their studies and it will increase the sustainability if internet usage among the university students.

Suggestions for improvement

·         It should take necessary actions to increase the sustainability of internet usage while providing more benefits and innovations through the internet.

·         A proper action should be taken in order to give the facility for university students to get access to the trustworthy sites from their homes.