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IMPLICATIONS FOR QUALITY IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN AFRICA

UNIVERSITY UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ INFORMATION SEEKING BEHAVIOR
 Dr. Josiah O. AJIBOYE, University of Botswana
Adeyinka TELLA, University of Botswana!
Botswana University
  The major purpose of the study was to examine the information seeking behavior of undergraduate students in the University of Botswana. Specifically, the study made effort to determine the sources consulted and the general pattern of information gathering system by the students: the impact of students’ gender, level of study and course of study on the students’ information seeking behavior. The study adopted a descriptive survey design and data was collected using a questionnaire administered to two thousand respondents randomly selected from six faculties in the University of Botswana, Gaborone, Botswana. Major findings from the study include are: first, academic information was rated as the predominant information required by the students, while the Internet was rated the most crucial source of most of the academic information required. It was also found that gender, level of study and course of study significantly influence students’ information seeking behavior  (F = 511.8, level of signification is.05). 
However, among the factors, the students’ level of study contributed more to the observed variation in information seeking pattern, followed by course of study, while gender had the least influence. The sample was taken in two departments from each of the faculty in the University. This is a typical representation of the population of the undergraduate students of the University of Botswana hence; the findings could be generalized for the whole undergraduate students of the University. The paper is a product of recent survey carried out by the authors; hence the findings reported here are original and reflect the current views and practices of information seeking behaviour of University of Botswana Undergraduates.
INTRODUCTION

The higher education constituency is growing at a tremendous pace, both within Africa and from outside the continent’s borders (Griffin, 2004). Higher education institutions are today recognised by national governments and donors as key agents for social and economic development in view of their inherent capacity to foster knowledge creation, processing and dissemination. According to Ekhaguere (2004), in a study supported by the Ford foundation, countries whose higher education sector is weak and inactive will be continually marginalized in a world whose economy is increasingly globalize and knowledge-driven. Hence, each country tries to improve in the quality of the higher education programmes. However, the developing countries are faced with more challenges in providing quality higher education programme than their counterparts in the developed region.

Many a times when the issue of quality in education, more specifically, quality in higher education is being discussed in Africa, focus have always been on the improvement of resources and facilities and quality of teaching and research. In most of the previous studies on quality in higher education, little or no attention has been paid to the way students in higher institutions organise their learning and its implications for quality. One major organisation that has done a lot of work in Africa is the World Bank. Famous among such interventions of the World Bank is the Nigeria Universities Strategic Improvement Project (NUSIP), other interventions of the Bank in Kenya, Namibia and Zimbabwe, to mention but a few. In all these interventions, focus has been on infrastructural improvements and at best capacity building for staff. In none of these interventions was the students’ learning behaviour examined. What all these interventions assumed was that improvement in facilities and teacher quality will automatically result into improved academic achievement of the students.

However, this assumption may seem too simplistic because it is also plausible to argue that even when there are good facilities and quality teachers, students’ achievement may still be hampered due to some students factors, principal among which is the way they seek and organise academic information. Hence
the way students organise their learning and search for academic information could be considered very crucial to their overall performance at the end of the day. This situation gets more chaotic, especially when students are given assignments and presentations to make. They need to search for information on their own, consequently it is expected that they consult appropriate sources for academic information.

Inspite of the fact that institutions of higher learning in Africa are generally aware of the impact, if not indispensability of ICT on teaching, learning and research, ICT is still rarely utilized to enrich teaching and learning activities in many universities because of the absence of connectivity in the institutions. According to Ekhaguere (2004) this situation adversely affects the pursuit of higher education studies in these institutions. In another dimension, even when the connectivity is available, the level of accessibility and utilization is still poorly low. In some institutions, students’ access is still generally poor, while only the teachers and support staff use the ICT facilities....
The Problem

This study examined the information seeking behaviour of undergraduate students in the University of Botswana. Precisely, the focus was on obtaining information on the nature of academic information needed by the students, the sources consulted and the general pattern of information gathering system by the students. Furthermore, the study examined the influence of students’ gender, level of study and course of study on the pattern of information seeking by the students.

Specifically, the following research questions were addressed in the study:

1.    What is the predominant information required by the students?
2.    What are the major sources of obtaining academic information in the University?
3.    Which are the predominant sources consulted by the students?
4.    Will students’ gender, course of study, and level of study have any influence on their information seeking behaviour?
5.    Do students’ get all the information required from the identified sources?
6.    How will students rate the general availability and access to information in the University?

LITERATURE REVIEW

Some conceptual framework and the review of several variables that previous researchers have done relevant to undergraduate students information seeking behaviour and review of some model form the theoretical foundation of this study.

The Concept of Information

Uttor .(1999) defined information as data value in planning, decision making and evaluation of any programmed. He goes further to say that it is a data that have been subjected to some processing functions capable of answering user’s query be it recorded, summarized, or simply collected that would help decision making. It is well understood in terms of books, journals, magazines, public and private sector documents of all kinds, whether published for mass circulation or unpublished and restricted or confidential in nature, results of research efforts which are made available to colleagues in form of reports, books articles and non-printed materials. From all these definitions, it is apparent that information is crucial to man’s survival. The researcher concluded that information is required in man’s daily activities be it in school, play, or work situation

In the cognitive viewpoint of information science (Belkin 1977 cited Eskola, 1998) defined information as associated with a text which is the generator’s modified by (purpose, intent, knowledge of recipient’s state of knowledge) conceptual structure which underlines the surface structure (e.g. language) of that text. Ingwersen (1995, 1998) subsequently elaborated by defining information as being the result of transformation of the generator’s cognitive structures (by intentionality, model of the recipients’ state of knowledge, and in the form of signs), and on the other way round information is something , a structure , which when perceived may affect and transform the recipient’s state of knowledge (Eskola, 1998). And to Dervin and Nilan (1986: 16) information is seen as something constructed by human beings. In the context of this study, information will be conceived based on the definition of (Eskola, 1998) as something which students need during their studies when they construct meaning about the subjects in the process of learning.....
Information Behaviour

Various definitions of information behaviour have been given by researchers. Some defined the term based on the general model of information behaviour developed by (Wilson 1997a: 39), where he posited that a general model of information behaviour needs to include at least three elements: (i) an information need and its drives, i.e. the factors that give rise to an individuals perception of need; (ii) the factors that affect the individuals response to the perception of need; and, (iii) the processes or actions involved in that response. To Taylor (1991: 221-222) information is the product of certain element of the information use environment. The element according to him are: the assumptions, formerly learned or not, made by a defined set of people concerning the nature of their work; the kinds and structure of the problems deemed important and typical by this set of people; the constraints and opportunities of typical environments within which any group or sub -group of this set of people operates and work; and the conscious perhaps unconscious, assumptions made as to what constitutes a solution, or better said, a resolution of problems, and what makes information useful and valuable in their contexts. He concluded based on this definition that information behaviour of different groups of people also is different. On his own, (Thorsteinsdottir, 2001) put forward some other related concept to information behaviour. He asserted that information behaviour is intertwined concepts which make the concept information behaviour very complex. The concept he gave are:

Information Needs: This is understand in information science as stemming from a vague awareness of something missing and as culminating in locating information that contributes to understanding and meaning (Kuhlthau, 1993). It is an anomalous state of knowledge (Belkin, Brooks and Oddy, 1982), or a gap in individual’s knowledge in sense making situations (Dervin and Nilan, 1986). For a person to experience an information need, there must be a motive behind it (Wilson, 1997).

Information Seeking: Ikoja-Odongo and Ocholla (2004) described information seeking as a process that requires an information seekers, or what might be called ‘’personal information structures’ ‘such as a person’s cognitive abilities, his or her knowledge, skills in relation to the problem or task domain, knowledge and skills specific to a system and knowledge and skills regarding information seeking. Information is undertaken to identify a message that satisfied a perceived need (Wright and Guy, 1997). This activity may be actively or passively done when taking steps to satisfy a felt need (Ikoja-Odongo, 2002). Andersen (2000) in another dimension noted that research on information seeking has looked at how individuals go about finding the materials they needs.

Information Seeking Behaviour:This can be described as an individual’s way and manner of gathering and sourcing for information for personal use, knowledge updating and development. Faire -Wessels (1990:361 in Kakai et al, 2004) referred to it as the way people search for and utilize information. Kakai et al. (2004) observed that, often students’ information seeking behaviour involves active or purposeful information as a result of the need to complete course assignment, prepare for class discussions seminars, workshops, conferences, or write final year research papers. To (Fister, 1992:168) undergraduate students may be smart people, but they are still finding the process of research intimidating. Fister explained that these students do not learn the basic information skills; they only end up using trial and error methods of research. This limits their capabilities to satisfy their needs. Wilson’s 1996 model noted that in the process of seeking information, problems are encountered. While Taylor (1990) also noted that after interacting with the information sources (e.g. library) what a user actually needs may not eventually tally with what is practically available, due to constraints either within the stock or due to the user own inadequacy. Many problems may serve as hindrances for the undergraduates in the process of their search or using the library. These may include library anxiety as asserted by (Mellon, 1986) and users’ perceptions of library and its program.

Since this study is conducted in a learning context from students’ perspectives, some relevant models are considered:

1.    The Information Search Process Model: Kuhlthau developed this model by using Belkins (1980) anomalous states of knowledge, Kelly’s (1963) phases of construction, and Taylor’s (1968) levels of needs as theoretical bases. She defined the information search process as the user’s constructive
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