INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOUR OF UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS IN THE INTERNET AGE

It is without contest that the Internet has become an integral part of academic activities, providing access to innumerable sources for information gathering and learning. It was, therefore, hypothesized that because the internet affords a convenient and easy opportunity for learning and information gathering, students, especially at the undergraduate level, will be much inclined to using same for accessing information. It is in light of the above observation that, this study sought to understand how the advent and huge patronage of internet shapes information seeking behaviour of undergraduate students. To this end, the study investigated the information seeking behaviour of students, drawn from two colleges of the African University College of Communications: the Business school and the Communication School. To add to the paucity of academic studies, especially in the Ghanaian context, on the subject of how the internet shapes information seeking behaviour of undergraduates, related and extant literature on the topic were reviewed. Questionnaire, the principal instrument for this study, was designed and randomly distributed among100 students of the school. In designing the questionnaire, which featured questions ranging from the frequency at which students visited the library, purpose of information gathering, problems associated with information gathering, and others, the researcher was very much alive to the tenets of reliability and validity. From the results obtained from analysing 93 returned questionnaires, it was concluded that because most students are not adept at using online academic databases for the purposes of learning, print materials are still highly patronised among undergraduate students. It was also established that the myriad of information on the internet and the lack of skills in sifting out the most credibility ones for the academic purposes posed a challenge to the information gathering and learning activities of students. It was, among others, recommended that Information literacy programmes be intensified and included in the curriculum of undergraduate study.