Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Telematics and Informatics

journal homepage: www.elsevier .com/locate / te le

Comparison of the internet usage levels amongst final year studentsof faculty of medicine and health colleges in Turkey: According to thegender variable

Aysun Gürol *

Fırat University, Faculty of Education, 23119 Elazıg, Turkey

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history:Received 12 January 2010Received in revised form 25 March 2010Accepted 3 April 2010

Keywords:Distance learningHealth educationHybrid educationInternet

0736-5853/$ - see front matter � 2010 Elsevier Ltddoi:10.1016/j.tele.2010.04.001

* Tel.: +90 5384371213.E-mail address: aysungurol@gmail.com

The use of internet is becoming widespread all over the world including the health sector.Internet has been increasing its importance for individuals in the health sector for purposesof increasing speed and efficiency of surgeries, sharing patients’ data, storing informationin the database. The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between a group ofmedicine faculty and health college students’ level of internet use and their views aboutthe internet with regard to their gender. The final year students of the faculty of medicineand health college at Fırat University constituted the sample of the research. Of 219 finalyear students, 155 students who were present when the research was conducted consti-tuted the sample of this study. A Likert type questionnaire was used to determine students’level of internet use. The questionnaire was developed previously by the researcher and thetest of its reliability and validity was performed. The study reveals that 14.8% of the stu-dents use internet for 2 h or more in a week and 72.9% of students do not use internetin weekdays at all. The findings also showed that 76.1% of the students know the conceptof ‘internet’ for more than four years, and 61.9% of the students access to internet from theinternet cafes, 48.4% of the students use internet for academic purposes and 63.9% of thestudents want to set up their web pages on the internet. In the light of research findings,it is thought that internet-based and interactive lesson applications are inevitable educa-tion tools for education faculties of medicine and health colleges in the future. Accordingto the findings, female students seem to log into internet less but stay connected more,and students mostly prefer to use internet cafes for internet access. In these cafes, internetis used mainly for academic purposes. It is expected that this study will provide some edu-cational implications that enable effective use of internet in health education and a coop-erative learning environment that would allow male and female students to studycollaboratively.

� 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction

Today, internet is used in many areas ranging from e-trade to e-learning. The internet finds a usage area in almost everyfield as Information Communication Technology (ICT) based. In recent years, the internet has developed significantly andmany countries in the world have made efforts to improve their internet services. Due to the demand, the number of internetusers increases globally every day. The use of internet and web technologies is important and is becoming a direct educationtool for improving the effectiveness of learning (Khemthong and Roberts, 2006). The concept of internet has, therefore,

. All rights reserved.

Fig. 1. The population of the internet users.

434 A. Gürol / Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440

become a great service tool for human beings in every field. While the infrastructure of the internet lays the groundwork forrapid developments in every field, it has, also, become a significant tool for education and surgical operations in the healthsector. The effect of the Internet on healthcare professions continues to grow as professionals within the medical communitycome to recognize it as a tool that will enable them to remain informed and up-to-date on recent advances in their respectivespecialties (Jacko et al., 2001).

As related to all those concepts mentioned, internet has taken its place in the health sector as a distance education plat-form. Today, distance learning is used in different ways for the health education. Those are as follows: web-based educationand hybrid education or smart classroom applications. Types of distance education used for the purpose of training are alsoused for surgical operations similarly. Use of distance education models in health education provide students to participateacademically in cooperative learning.

As internet-based applications are being used in health education, supportive technological devices have gained greatimportance, too. These technologies have led to the creation of interactive web-based learning which integrates audio mate-rials, graphics, animation and texts that can enhance the educational interactivity for course delivery and facilitate learningfor students who are separated from their teachers in time and space (Atan et al., 2002).

The most important reasons in the use of internet technologies in the institutions providing health education are as fol-lows; their efficiency in education and their ability to provide productive learning environments and student-instructormotivation. The rise in the number of internet users is also an important reason. There are 1,093,529,692 internet usersin the world. 29% of those users (312,722,892 individuals) lives in Europe. In Europe, Turkey has a 5.1% user rate. Thereare 16,000,000 internet users in Turkey; this number reveals that the number of internet users in Turkey has risen 700%between 2000 and 2007 (Internetworldstats, 2007). Fig. 1 shows the rise in the number of internet users.

2. Literature review

It can be accepted that internet is the most important element that supports life long learning. Many studies have shownthat internet based constitutions supports life long learning. Some significant studies have been examined to configure thepresent study.

The study conducted by Awoloye shows that the students in higher education in Nigeria use internet for one hour in aweek, however; in developed countries like England the students use internet for 7.9 h in a week. From the view of gendervariable, it is seen that boys use internet for daily routines more often than girls at a higher level in Pearson correlation 2-tailed test. Moreover, in this study, a faculty that gives health education, medicine, and pharmacy have more internet uselevel than the others. Seventy percent of the students use the internet for e-mail, 65% to search for information and 20%to chat (Awoleye and Siyanbola, 2006).

According to the results of Jagboro’ s study, the purposes of internet use are e-mail having the highest score (69.86%),research materials (53.42%), course materials (39.73%) and online courses with an abysmal score of 2.74%. Though this find-ing is very much in line with the trend in other developing countries, it is, nevertheless, contrary to the emerging profile ofuse in developed countries. The findings of Jagboro’s study have clearly demonstrated that postgraduate students at ObafemiAwolowo University use internet at a low level for purposes of academic researches. This low level may be attributed to twofactors: the low level of connectivity, and the high cost of cybercafé facilities. In view of the huge academic resources avail-able on the Internet and its usefulness to learning, teaching and research, Jagboro points out that it would be necessary forlibraries of Higher Institutions in Nigeria to provide guaranteed access to the Internet as a way of enhancing their books andjournals collections (Jagboro, 2003).

Palvia et al. (1995) have examined Internet awareness and usage at the local universities. Findings of another local studyconducted by the Survey Research of Singapore showed that an overwhelming 82% of internet users believe that the internetwill become a necessity in the future (Teo and Lim, 2000).

Scientific data about level of using internet at the faculties of Medicine and Health colleges in Turkey is based on percent-age of students accessing internet. However, importance of the internet for the future is presented in the suggestions section.At this point, according to the study conducted in Hacettepe University, education given at the faculties of medicine focuseson how to attain information rather than to give information or to make the students memorize. Students’ accessing to

A. Gürol / Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440 435

information is possible with students’ making laboratory applications and simulations of computers and interactive learningand laboratory applications (Hacettepe Üniversitesi, 2004). This condition is, also valid for Health colleges giving health edu-cation in Turkey. In a study that was held in Marmara University, it is seen that 88% of the students have the opportunity ofinternet access whereas 12% do not. In the study, female students constitute the 44% of the sample and male students 56%.Moreover, it is seen that the gender variable is influential on their internet use skills. In the study carried out on the studentsat the faculty of Medicine at Akdeniz University by Zayim et al., it is seen that 38% of the students can take and send mail, 64%do not know how to attach files to e-mail (Zayim et al., 2002). It is clear that results obtained from only three differentregions are not sufficient. A study was therefore held in a different region as a fourth one (Eastern Anotilan Region). Ourresearch is the first to reveal about for how long medicine faculty and health college students have known the conceptof the internet and how or whether they use internet for academic purposes. This research will be valuable since it willbe the first to determine the profile of internet use of the future doctors, nurses, midwives and health officers from theperspective of the fact they will share the same work environment. At this point, students’ attitudes towards basic conceptsof the internet in terms of gender variable and the features of the internet related to education have been investigated. Thestudy has therefore shed light on an important dimension.

2.1. Significance of research

What is already known about the topic?

� Previous researches generally focused on internet use levels and gender differences of final year health college stu-dents. But in the extent of internet use, only their mail sending and taking, their membership of message groups andtheir internet browsing levels were investigated.

� In previous researches, it was only focused on medicine faculty students’ weekly internet use levels, their levels ofconnection from home, use levels of internet café and school internet laboratories.

What this paper adds?

� In this paper, ‘‘internet use levels of final year male and female students of faculty of medicine and health colleges”are investigated. Medical staff candidates’ levels of internet use in the aspect of gender variable, their levels of rec-ognizing internet tools and their opinions on distant education are firstly studied in this paper.

� In the aspect of gender variable, this study tries to determine how much opportunities final year students (of med-icine and health colleges) have to connect internet, how often they use internet, which internet tools are often used ineducation, for which aims internet is used, and as medical staff candidates, on which internet tools these studentswant to specialize.

3. Research methodology

This study was conducted with the final year students at the faculty of medicine and health college in Fırat University. Aquestionnaire, previously tested for its validity and reliability by the author (Gürol and Sevindik, 2001) was administrated tothe students to determine their level of internet use.

Table 1 shows that 46 final year students of Faculty of medicine (male 24 and female 22) and 109 students of Nurserytraining, midwifery training and health officer training programs at the health college (male 38 and female 71) constitutesthe sample of the study. The study was conducted in Firat University during the fall semester of 2005–2006 academic year. Intotal, 219 students were studying in the final year program of the Medicine Faculty and programs of health education col-lege: 87 at faculty of medicine: 45 at midwifery training, 45 at Nursery training and 42 at health officer training. However,when the study was conducted only 155 of these students were available and these students were taken as the sample of thestudy. Required permissions to conduct the study were taken from the ethical boards of the colleges.

3.1. Data collection

The questionnaire used for the study was administrated to the students. It took students 20–30 min complete the ques-tionnaire. Computer-based statistics program was used for the analysis of the data which includes percentage-frequency,

Table 1Sampling of the research.

Gender Faculty of Medicine Health college Total

Numeral data about the samplingMale 24 38 62Female 22 71 93Total 46 109 155

436 A. Gürol / Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440

t-test, chi-square. Students not filled all the items on the questionnaire were excluded from the study. Completion rate of thequestionnaire was 70.7%.

4. Findings

In this section, results obtained from the students are presented in three parts: (i) results about the students’ internet useand gender variable, (ii) results about the general use of internet and gender variable, and (iii) results about the use of inter-net in education and gender variable.

4.1. Results about the students’ internet use and gender variable

Does gender difference affect the frequency of the students’ weekly use of internet? Table 2 below shows the results ofchi-square to answer this question.

In Table 2, frequency of students’ weekly use of internet at school has been compared in terms of the gender variable. Chi-square test shows significant difference (x2: 0.007) between females and males. The results show that 81.7% of the femaleand 59.7% of male students do not access to internet at all. This situation shows that female students at the faculties of med-icine and health colleges do not access internet as much as males for academical purposes. These results also suggest that asthe students do not access internet to search databases which might be benefited by the students academically availablethrough internet. Although internet infrastructure is good in the campus, students tend to use internet outside the campusdue to the inaccurate physical facilities and lackness in the number of computers. However, connecting to internet frominternet cafes is becoming more common among students due to the high cost of internet connection from the houses inTurkey.

Table 3 demonstrates a significant difference (x2: 0.414) with regard to the duration of time/year that male and femalestudents have known the concept of internet. The most important result in Table 3, however, is that the students knowthe concept of internet for 4 years and above (male: 80.6%, female: 73.1%).

Table 2Comparing the frequency of students’ weekly use of internet at school from the perspective of the gender variable.

Gender I never use For 1 h For 2 h and above Asymp. Sig. and value

f % f % f % x2 p

What is your frequency of using internet weekly at school? (How often do you use internet in a week?)Male 37 59.7 10 16.1 15 24.2 0.007 9.837Female 76 81.7 9 9.7 8 8.6Total 113 72.9 19 12.3 23 14.8

Table 3Comparison of how long the students know the concept of internet from the perspective of gender variable.

Gender 2 years and below 3 years 4 years and above x2 p

f % f % f %

For how many years do you know the concept of internet?Male 6 9.7 6 9.7 50 80.6 0.414 1.762Female 9 9.7 16 17.2 68 73.1Total 15 9.7 22 14.2 118 76.1

Sd: 2, x2: 0.414.

Table 4Comparison of the places where the students mostly access to internet from the perspective of gender variable.

Gender The school The house Cafes The others Significance

f % f % f % f % x2 p

From where do you connect to internet mostly?Male 7 11.3 6 9.7 42 67.7 7 11.3 0.358 3.226Female 20 21.5 11 11.8 54 58.1 8 8.6Total 27 17.4 17 11 96 61.9 15 9.7

Sd: 3, x2: 0.358.

A. Gürol / Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440 437

As can be seen in Table 4, the gender variable is not effective on internet access (x2: .358). In accordance with theseresults, it is seen that male students connect to internet from the school less often. However, male students stay connectedto internet more in every session. But, while female students connect to the internet at school more often, a comparison ofTables 3 and 4 shows they stay connected to internet less. The most significant result in Table 4 is that the students (67.7% ofmale and 58.1% of female) prefer internet cafes the most.

Table 5 shows no significant differences between the male and female students in terms of their proposes for usinginternet. The differences have occurred just about students’ using internet to follow the news. Male students use internetfor the purposes of training (38.7%), following the news (24.2%) and e-mail applications and chat-games. On the otherhand, female students use internet for purposes of training (54.8%), games and entertainment 19.4%. As is clear fromthe table, the most important difference in terms of gender variable is that female students use internet for training morethan male students. Another important difference is that the male students use internet to follow the news more thanthe female students. These results show that female students remain in the internet environment less when compared tothe male students. Male students spare more time to follow the news and other activities besides for the purpose oftraining.

Table 6 shows the students’ areas of interest (Browser, Network Protocol, Web Design and E-Trade). According to Table 6,no significant difference was found in terms of gender variable (x2: 0.681). However, it has been determined that 63.9% of thestudents are interested in web design.

4.2. Results about the general use of internet and gender variable

With regard to items presented in column B, I present those which shows significant differences. The arithmeticaverages of the 11 items presented in column B shows that students know these general concepts about the internet

Table 5Chi-square test results exposing which purposes the students use internet mostly in terms of gender variable.

Gender Chat Games and entertainment To follow news E-mail Training Total

f % f % f % f % f % x2 p

For which purposes do you use internet mostly?Male 7 11.3 7 11.3 15 24.2 9 14.5 24 38.7 0.007 13.95Female 6 6.5 13 14.9 5 5.4 18 19.4 51 54.8Total 13 8.4 20 12.9 20 12.9 27 17.4 75 48.4

Sd: 4, x2: 0.007, P < 0.05.

Table 6Chi-square test to determine what the students want to know in the environment of the internet in terms of gender variable.

Gender Browser Network protocol Web design E-trade Total

f % f % f % f % x2 p

The concept that the students want to know in internet environmentMale 6 9.7 8 12.9 39 62.9 9 14.5 0.681 1.504Female 10 10.8 15 16.1 60 64.5 8 8.6Total 16 10.3 23 14.8 99 63.9 17 11

Sd: 3, x2: 0.681.

Table 7Using search engines in internet (B3).

Gender N x Sd Df t P

Male 62 3.4677 1.44537 153 3968 0.000Female 93 2.5591 1.36304

Table 8Programmes of file transfer (B4).

Gender N x Sd Df t P

Male 62 3.6935 1.36212 153 3.292 0.001Female 93 2.9570 1.36664

Table 10Searching academic databases over internet (B7).

Gender N x Sd Df t P

Male 62 3.5323 1.21085 153 4.594 0.000Female 93 2.6667 1.10663

Table 9Preparing a web page as a Dabbler in it (B5).

Gender N x Sd Df t P

Male 62 3.0161 1.36095 153 4.613 0.000Female 93 2.0538 1.21015

Table 11Using distance education applications (B9).

Gender N x Sd Df t P

Male 62 3.0968 1.38741 153 2.991 0.003Female 93 2.4946 1.10948

438 A. Gürol / Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440

(X: 3.46). However, significant difference has been observed in only 3rd, 4th, 5th, 7th, 9th questions in the column B(P < 0.05). Firstly, Table 7 shows that there is a significant difference (P: 0.00) between male and female students withregard to their use of search engines on the internet. It has been observed that the male students know search enginesand use them effectively (X: 3.56), whereas female students have partly knowledge to use the search engines (X: 3.19).Those results reveal that male students access to information more quickly and more consciously while they aremaking research about academic studies. Table 8 demonstrates a significant difference between the two genders regard-ing their use of file transfer programs. Male students know downloading and uploading processes by using FTP (FileTransfer Protocol), Cuseme or protocols of file transfer over web (X: 3.69), while female students use protocols of filetransfer partly (X: 2.95). This suggests that the female students are hesitant about things like data sharing, participatingin cooperative platforms actively.

In Table 9, the relationship between preparing a web page as a dabbler and gender variable was determined with t-test.According to the results of t-test, a significant difference was found between the two genders. As can be seen from the arith-metic averages of the male and female students in Table 9, while male students (X: 3.01) partly had an attempt to prepare anamateur web page, the female students (X: 2.05) had information from their friends regarding preparing a web page atamateur level, but had never had such an attempt. Under this condition, it has been determined that the male students havethe ability to find a place in virtual environment, to broadcast data about their backgrounds and personal characteristicsbefore entering their working life.

In Table 10, the relationship between searching academic databases over the internet and the gender variable was deter-mined with t-test. Depending on the t-test, a significant difference (at a level of (P: <0.005) was determined. Looking at thearithmetic averages, it is seen that the male students (X: 3.53) use searching databases for academic purpose or training overthe internet effectively. The male students stated that they have knowledge about searching academic databases on theinternet. On the other hand, the female students (X: 2.66) stated that they do not search academic databases so effectivelylike the males.

In Table 11, with regard to the use of distance education applications by the males and females, significant difference (at alevel of P: <0.005) has occurred between the two gender. This difference suggests that the male students know distance edu-cation applications (X: 3.09) more than female students (X: 2.49).

4.3. Results about use of internet in education and the gender variable

In column C, Likert type questionnaire including 10 questions is used (see Appendix 1). In this section, when the viewsabout use of internet in education have been taken into account in terms of gender variable, no significant difference werefound in any of the items. On the contrary, male and female students showed similar preferences. As can be seen from thegeneral arithmetic averages, it has been determined that all of the students (X: 2.56) have heard about the concepts relatedto the use of the internet. However, the students did not take any courses in distance education in the internet environment.

A. Gürol / Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440 439

As a result, it has been determined that the students have no ideas about web based, hybrid or smart classroom environ-ments, which exist in the internet environment.

5. Conclusions and discussions

The findings reveal that 72.9% of the students do not connect to the internet at school at all, and 61.9% prefer theinternet cafes. This result suggests that there is a need to have internet centres in different parts of the campus area.Although 76.1% of the students state that they have known internet for more than 4 years, they resist adapting it intotheir daily lives. The underlying reasons for this finding may be students’ financial situation and their negative viewsabout the importance of internet for their needs. Despite these reasons, students use of internet for academic (training)purposes (48.4%) and students’ wishes to make web pages (63.9%) are important findings of the study. Students’ wishesto prepare a web page at a level of an amateur show that educational institutions should organize courses on thistopic.

In terms of gender variable, it has been determined that students know the concepts about the general use of the internet(X: 3.46). However, it was found that the male students are more effective at using search engines when compared to fe-males. Moreover, findings show that male students use file transfer programs effectively (X: 3.69), whereas female studentshave only a limited knowledge about this topic (X: 2.95). In the subject of web design as a dabbler, male students have ade-quate knowledge whereas female students have no knowledge about making web design as a dabbler. While male studentshave enough knowledge about searching academic databases over the internet, female students lack of this skill (X: 2.66).Moreover, while the male students know distance education concept partly (X: 3.09), the female students stated that theydo not have necessary knowledge about distance education.

According to Table 4, it can be agreed the limited access to laboratories and the feeling of unrest by the students whileconnecting internet from school internet rooms are among the reasons why students do not prefer internet access at school(17%).

Use of internet concept in the educational environments does not show any difference in terms of gender variable(X: 2.56). The most important reasons are limited knowledge of students about this topic, students’ having not participatedin any distance education applications, and students not having any experience about distance education. All these resultsreveal that internet should be used firstly for academic purposes at the faculties of medicine and health colleges.

In conclusion, previous studies studied separately or independently students’ weekly internet use-duration, level ofe-mail use, percentages of chatting, using it as an instructional material, male and female students’ level of internet use,students’ opportunities to access to the internet, and their skills to use the internet. In our research, however, the issues thathave been examined independently or separately in the previous studies were examined as a whole.

In this paper, ‘‘internet use levels of final year male and female students of faculty of medicine and health colleges” areinvestigated. Medical staff candidates’ levels of internet use in terms of gender variable, their levels of recognizing internettools and their opinions on distant education are firstly studied in this paper.

In terms of gender variable, this study tries to determine the opportunities of final year students (of medicine and healthcolleges) to connect internet, the frequency of their internet use, the tools often used in education, aim of internet use, and asmedical staff candidates, internet tools these students want to specialize.

In the light of our research results, it is recommended that higher education in the health sector increase the access tointernet. Moreover, students in the field of health sector should be given awareness for using internet for the benefit of theireducation since they mostly use internet on subjects including chat and games different from their field. For this purpose,students’ awareness should be raised on subjects such as techniques of file transferring and basic web design applications,effective use of search engines for academic purposes.

Appendix 1

The questionnaire items administrated to the student1. What is your gender?() male () female2. What is your frequency of using internet weekly at school?() I never use. () 1 h () 2 h and above3. For how many years do you know the concept of internet?() for 2 years and below () 3 years () 4 years and above4. From where do you connect to the internet mostly?() The school () Home () Internet Cafes () the others5. For which purposes do you use internet mostly?() chat () games and entertainment () to follow news () E-mail () training6. Particularly what do you want to know in the internet environment?() browser () network protocols () web design () e-tradeDirection: 1. I certainly do not know, 2. I have heard before, 3. I know partly, 4. I know, 5. I know very well.

440 A. Gürol / Telematics and Informatics 27 (2010) 433–440

B column is the part that is related to how much you know internet in general

1 2 3 4 5

B1

Netscape Navigator Web interface () () () () () B2 Receiving and sending electronic mail () () () () () B3 Using internet search engines. () () () () () B4 Using file Transfer Programs (FTP, Cuseme and others () () () () () B5 Being able to design a web page at a level of an amateur () () () () () B6 Being able to communicate verbally, and audio-visually over the internet () () () () () B7 Searching an academic publication over the internet () () () () () B8 Internet Explorer Web interface () () () () () B9 Being able to Use distance education applications () () () () () B10 Being able to use internet banking in daily life () () () () () B11 Being able to use Video conference applications () () () () ()

Direction: 1. I do not agree at all, 2. I do not agree, 3.I do not have any idea, 4. I agree, 5. I strongly agree.

C column is the part towards use of internet in education

1 2 3 4 5

C1

Distance education is an ideal tool () () () () () C2 It changes learning habits () () () () () C3 It provides a global discussion environment () () () () () C4 It can be used in the place of a teacher () () () () () C5 It develops students’ research and communication skills () () () () () C6 It develops the students’ critical thinking skills () () () () () C7 It is important from the perspective of project based education () () () () () C8 It provides a virtual classroom environment (discussion groups) () () () () () C9 It provides the opportunity of visual training (by means of animations) () () () () () C10 It is unfavourable to use it in the classroom () () () () ()

Gürol and Sevindik (2001).

References

Atan, H., Sulaiman, F., Rahman, Z.A., Idrus, R.M., 2002. Gender differences in availability, internet access and rate of usage of computers among distanceeducation learners. Education Media International 39 (3 and 4), 208.

Awoleye, O.M., Siyanbola, O.W., 2006. Examining the level of penetration and impact of internet usage amongst Undergraduates in Nigerian Universities – acase study approach. Current Developments in Technology-Assisted Education 2006, Spain.

Gürol, M., Sevindik, T., 2001. Fırat Üniversitesi Ögretim Elemanlarının _Internet Kullanım Düzeyleri Ve Görüs�lerinin Belirlenmesi. http://www.ef.sakarya.edu.tr/sayfa/bildiri/sayi_3/38.doc. Retrieved October 2006.

Hacettepe Üniversitesi, 2004. http://www.medinfo.hacettepe.edu.tr/tebad/fakulteweb/misyon/Farmakoloji.pdf. Retrieved November 2006._Internetworldstats, 2007. Usage and Population Statistics. http://www.internetworldstats.com. Retrieved February 2007.Jacko, C.A., Sears, A., Sorensen, S.J., 2001. Framework for usability: healthcare professionals and the Internet. Ergonomics 44 (11), 990.Jagboro, K.O., 2003. A study of Internet usage in Nigerian universities: a case study of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. First Moday Peer

Reviewed Journal on the Internet, 8(2). http://firstmonday.org/issues/issue8_2/jagboro/index.html.Khemthong, S., Roberts, L.M., 2006. Adoption of Internet and web technology for hotel marketing: a study of hotels in Thailand. Journal of Business Systems,

Governance and Ethics 1 (2), 47.Palvia, S., Lai, L.T., Poh, T.L., Soh, C.E., Wong, P.L., 1995. A study of internet awareness and usage of the two Singapore universities. In: Proceedings of 1995

Pan Pacific Conference on Information Systems, National University of Singapore, Singapore, 29 June to 2 July, pp. 118–120.Teo, S.H., Lim, V.K.G., 2000. Gender differences in internet usage and task preferences. Behaviour & Information Technology 19 (4), 283.Zayim, N., _Is�leyen, F., Gülkesen, K.H., Saka, O., 2002. Tıp Fakültesine Bas�layan Ögrencilerin Bilgisayara Kars�ı Tutumları ve Bilgisayar Becerileri. Inet-tr02.

http://inet-tr.org.tr/inetconf8/bildiri/132.doc. Retrieved November 2006.