ICT Usage and Attitudes Among EAC Undergraduate Students—A Case Study

• Main Authors: Jean-Pierre Niyigena, Qingshan Jiang, A S M Touhidul Hasan, Djemel Ziou, Hui Chen, Peiguang Wang
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 2018-01-01
• Series: IEEE Access
• Subjects: Computer attitudes scale; prediction model; regression analysis; East Africa; ICT
• Online Access: https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8410511/

Information and communication technology (ICT) has reshaped the traditional education system into a flexible and efficient e-learning context. However, computer usage, attitudes, and some other critical factors are the primary concern to implement e-learning in developing countries. This paper applies computer attitude scale and proposes a prediction model based on multiple linear regression to discover the key factors affecting computer attitudes for the implementation of the ICT-based learning environment. To identify the principal factors, we collect the data sets by the active participation of more than 900 undergraduate students from three different universities of East African Community countries in one year period. The experimental results reveal that the students are using technology in their daily lives, however, they are not using it to support their daily study. Qualitative evidence indicates that the university has lower requirements for using computers, and the restrictive rules to use technologies. In addition, the universities are in a shortage of necessary computer hardware and software. Besides, the factors which are affecting the attitudes toward computers are the urban or rural origin of the student, English language level, and parental encouragement.