Impact of the internet on academic performance of students in tertiary institutions in Nigeria

This research work investigates the impact of the internet on the academic performance of students in some selected tertiary institutions in Nigeria. A survey research design was adopted in conducting this research. Questionnaire was the instrument employed for data collection. Frequency count and simple percentage was used to analysis the data. The study population comprises of six thousand (6000) students, drawn from the University of Benin, Benin City, Delta State University, Abraka, Western Delta University, Oghara and the Delta State polytechnic, Otefe. The study found that majority of the respondents were computer literate and that they make use of the internet, it was discovered that the students frequently access the internet from Cyber Cafe, and that they consult the internet in order to retrieve relevant academic materials, majority of the students rated the internet for academic pursuit to be on the average, Ejournals and E-books were among the resources the students mostly used on the internet. They also indicated that with the help of the internet, they are better prepared for their examinations. It was also revealed that Power outage, slow internet speed, lack of computer terminals, too many hits or information overload, Insufficient computer were some of the problems militating against effective internet access in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. Necessary recommendations were made. Keywords: internet, academic performance, internet resources, computer terminals, academic pursuit