Information seeking behaviour of online learners: a case study at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Shah Alam, Malaysia / Roziana Abdul Rahman

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the information seeking behaviour of the online learners who studied at one of the local universities in Malaysia. It also examined their information sources, library and the Internet usage as well as barriers to their information seeking. The respondents were selected based on non-probability sampling due to their nature and availability while the survey was being conducted. The survey was conducted in two phases on two different batches of online learners who joined the Master Programme in Information Management at Universiti Technologi MARA in the academic year 2003/2004 and 2007/2008. A questionnaire was designed as the instrument for data collection and distributed to 120 students. Responses came from 85 students, 51 from the academic year 2003/04, and 34 from the 2007/08 academic year. Data analysis was done using SPSS version 11.5. The results show that most students used journals and books for assignments and final year projects, and preferred materials of not more than 3 years old. Most of them consulted friends and instructors, and a small number consulted library staff. All students, except one used the Internet to seek information. The majority accessed it from home between 9 pm to midnight daily. Most of them used Google, e-mail, ejournals and online databases to seek information. The majority of them faced problems namely: the slow speed of access, files could not be opened, searching took too much time, information could not be downloaded and print-outs unobtainable. Besides information seeking online, the majority of students also used the university library to obtain information. However more than half of them faced the problem of lacking library skills and needed items were not obtainable.