Usage of Internet among Science Faculty Members of Karnataka State Universities: An Exploration

Abstract

This study explore the Internet usage by the science faculty members of Karnataka State Universities in India. A total of 556 faculty members are selected from 11 Universities in Karnataka State. A structured questionnaire used as a tool to collect the primary data. The results indicated that all most all science faculty members used the Internet for various academic works. The study also revealed that (97.48%) of respondents use the Internet every day. Most of the Science faculty members (92.63%) accessed Internet in their respective departments, followed by home (75.18%). Majority of the faculty members (81.83%) used the Internet for academic purpose and 80.40% of respondents used the Internet for research, while 72.12% used it for publishing research articles. 53.4.2% of respondents uses Internet from 11-20 years, while 39.21% of respondents used Internet from 1-10 years. Only 7.37% of respondents used Internet from 20-30 years. The study made it clear that the usage of Internet meets the saturation point among science faculty members, irrespective of their age and designation in the various universities Karnataka state. But the study found that low Internet speed is the major problem faced by the users. To enhance Internet speed to meet the user’s satisfaction, the study recommends that there is a need to enhance ICT infrastructure in universities with latest developments. In order to overcome the low Internet speed, increase the Internet network bandwidth in the universities.