Accessibility and Usability of Internet among University Students in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan

This study aims to investigate the internet accessibility and usability among the graduate students in the Public Sector Universities of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan. The study adopts a descriptive survey design. The data was collected by administering a structured questionnaire as data collection tool from 1001 graduate students, selected through proportionate sampling technique from the five purposefully selected Public Sector Universities in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. The results revealed that, majority of the students have their own PCs/Lap-tops and accessed internet at homes followed by university libraries and computer labs mostly for: entertainment, academics, communication and keeping themselves up-to-date. However, majority of the students used to spend maximum time on internet for entertainment purposes rather than educational purpose. It was also revealed that they were less satisfied with some of the important academic online resources like: free books, free online databases, free electronic reference material, indexes and abstracts, and thesis and dissertations and that is why these resources received the lowest ranks in effectiveness and a very low rank in the use frequency. The problems which hindered the effective use of internet among students were: inadequate knowledge of online e-resources, slow speed of internet, electricity shortage problems, the negative attitude of society towards the internet usage, and students having less encouragement from parents to use internet due to the availability of immoral sites on the internet. Thus, overcoming these problems will definitely enhance the effective use of the internet. Suggestions and recommendations are proffered based on the findings of this study