Institutions of higher learning in Ukraine and abroad have recently ended their academic years, and we asked students to tell us how they use the Internet in their study. Turning primarily to Kiev-Mohyla Academy National University students, we asked them about the possibilities the Internet offers them and how they use it. Some carry on correspondence by e-mail with their academic cohorts in the West, while others scan it for information or even ready-made term papers.
To be able to use the Internet, a student must first find a computer connected to the Web and available for use. According to most students interviewed at the Mohyla Academy, this can be difficult. The number of computers is limited. During the day, or peak time as one student called it, finding a free computer is almost impossible. On rare occasions, a friend could be using a computer and let you on to find some necessary information, allowing you jump ahead of the line. However, most have to wait their turn. According to the students, an ideal time to use the net at the Mohyla Academy is during the evening, with more computers available and connection speeds faster.
Once we solve the problem of how to get onto a computer with Web access, it is time to answer the questions on how the students use the WWW for their studies and all kinds of problems that they encounter.
It is important to find information for students on the web for background reading, for adding quotes or for finding additional information for their works. Search engines tend to be the most popular. Ukrainian or Russian scholars often use www.yandex.ru, www.infosite.com, www.looksmart.com, and similar sites. A student may also look to find a particular site related to their subject.
For example, a student called Yuliya Sidorenko, from Mohyla Academy, stated that she studies politics and therefore she often needs to browse the Web sites of the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada and the United nations.
Students in the West also tend to search for information in a similar way. English language websites like www. altavista.com, www.aol.com, www.lycos.com, and www. copernic.com are widely used for finding information. An economics student stated that when specificly studying corporations, he would open up the French websites www.societe.com or www.infogreffe. com, as specific information can be found here for his assignments on enterprises, commercial figures and locations of these large corporations throughout the world. When asking the students if they personally wrote to these websites for additional information, the majority stated that the idea did not cross their mind and no student was able to provide details of a specific time when they had written to a website in such instances.
Students often encounter problems while trying to use the net. At times Web sites will not open or take a long time to open. In such cases, students both in Ukraine and abroad tend to seek technical help from staff available onsite, or to simply look for another site with similar information.
It is also important to know how instructors react to use of the Internet. According to most students at Mohyla Academy, there are usually no problems in using the Internet for research. Our fellow students in West found this to be more of a problem. When the problems do arise, they are usually the following. Firstly, a website where the information is taken from may cease to exist or may not open at a time when a lecturer is attempting to open the site to check a quote, for example. These are the arguments by some conservative lecturers, who do not take kindly to the new means of the world wide electronic library, if I can call it this, in relation to research. Secondly, more inventive students can simply invent a website address and then claim that the site has ceased to exist, so there is no way to prove where this student got his citations from. Other arguments exist that many Web sites contain information, where many grammatical and language errors exist in script. After all, many academics, mainly in the West, write books themselves and make money from it. Surely many of them would not want to see a free worldwide electronic library halting their progress or decreasing their profit margins on books sold, from which students often quote.
One of our final questions, perhaps the most difficult for the students, was about ready made term papers and other works already available on the Internet. All the students at Mohyla Academy admitted to knowing that some students use them. However, each student distanced himself from such activities and statted that they had never copied any works from the Internet. Yet, some of the students interviewed even knew websites where you can find ready works. One female student admitted that she had browsed through such works, but said they are of poor quality. Personal work done by a student is of much higher quality, but if a student were to cheat, then they should at least rewrite the work that has been downloaded. According to another student, lecturers know about these sites, and they can also check out the available works.
The explosion of the World Wide Web onto the scene is growing. The information resources available on the web are vast, and this is very useful for students doing research. However it is clear, as with anything in life, that with the appearance of this new medium of information, new problems have arisen. Students are known to find new ways to cheat and sometimes lectures state that the information is not good enough. Every individual holds their own opinion about the web, but nobody can deny that this is a tremendous source of invaluable information at our fingertips. Welcome to the World Wide Web.
I would like to thank all the students at the Mohyla academy who helped with information to compile this article.
