THE NET AS RESEARCH TOOL - AN ANALYSIS OF THE INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES USE: IMPLICATIONS FOR INFORMATION LITERACY IN PRIVATE HIGHER EDUCATION

Abstract

This study reports the use of Internet search engines as an information and research tools among business undergraduates at a private university in Malaysia. It attempts to investigate students web searching behavior in using the Internet as an information seeking and searching tools via the commercial search engine in academic learning. The study compares the statistical differences on years of computer technology experiences, levels of study and gender with the types of Internet search engines. A total of 361 respondents from 3 levels of study; year 1, 2 and 3 consisting of undergraduate students from three business courses participated in this research. The extent and pattern of Internet search engines use in searching information for research were examined on the relationships between the following independent variables: years of computer technology experiences, levels of study and gender with the dependent variables of three Internet search engines, namely Google, Yahoo and MSN, as research tools. Hypotheses tests were conducted to examine if mean scores were significant using one-way ANOVA and independent sample t-test. Differences were observed in the case of gender with all the three search engines. As for years of computer technology experiences, significant difference was observed only for Goggle. The post hoc test conducted shows a significant difference in the search engines use between respondents reported with less than 2 years of computer technology experience and those who have more that two years of technology experience. The mean score results suggested that those who have more experience using computer technology tend to use Google more often as a research tool compared to students who have less than 2 years of computer experience. In the case of levels of study, no significant differences were observed among the three types of search engines. The results provide insight into business students use of the Internet search engines in information seeking for research activities in their undergraduates course studies. The findings of this study have its implications for information literacy initiatives in higher education in Malaysia. The importance of disseminating information skills to students through various concerted efforts and approaches between the management, information professionals and the faculty to inculcate the ability to recognize, find, and discerning the quality of information retrieved from the Internet are discussed.