The passive usage of ICT by Japanese undergraduate students

Mayumi Kubota
Kansai University
mkubota@res.kutc.kansai-u.ac.jp

Abstract: The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the features of the Japanese undergraduate
students’ attitude towards a variety of information communication technology (ICT) in order to construct the effective
learning environment at a Japanese university. To pursue this purpose, a survey questionnaire was administered at
the beginning of the first semester in 2011 at 6 different universities in Japan. The total of 862 data was collected. The
basic descriptive data analysis shows that the usage of ICT by the freshmen is passive rather than active such as
watching YouTube instead of watching TV and reading someone’s blog instead of commenting due to the short lengthof the possession of own computer etc. Therefore, in this study, the interrelationships among the findings areinvestigated. Regarding the usage of the network in relation to their study, six factors were extracted and the t-tests
revealed that the usage of ICT by female students are more careful than male students. In addition, confirmatory
factor analysis was conducted and found that the frequent use of ‘SNS’ is not strongly affected by ‘convenience.’
Based on these finding, two approaches are suggested for freshmen to utilize ICT for academic learning.

Key words: ICT, SNS, freshmen, learning, questionnaire1. Background of the Study and the Purpose
The primary purpose of this study is to investigate the features of the Japanese undergraduate
students’ attitude towards a variety of information communication technology (ICT). In Japan, taking
the subject called “information” is mandatory at the upper secondary schools. Thus the high school
students have a basic knowledge about the system of computer mediated communication, however theemphasis is on the acquisitions of the certain skills such as using power point for presentation anddeveloping web page for self introduction rather than on the development of social usages of ICT.
Therefore, the transition from the upper secondary schools to the higher education program is the key
element to develop the effective learning environment by utilizing a variety of ICT. However there are notmany studies that specifically focus on the current freshmen’s attitude towards the usage of ICT.
Thus, in order to investigate the Japanese undergraduate students’ attitude towards the usage of
ICT, a survey questionnaire was administered at the beginning of the first semester in 2011 at 6 different
universities in Japan. The total of 863 data was collected and the basic findings were already presented in
the book (Kubota, 2013). Therefore, in this paper, as the further study, I will investigate the interrelations
among the findings in order to propose the future direction for the freshmen to utilize ICT for their active
learning. Especially, I will focus on the SNS users and try to find out the relationships between SNS
users and their usage of the network for academic learning.
First, I will present the basic findings that are relevant to this purpose from the previous study,
and secondly, I will present the results of the analyses that were conducted specifically for the present
study,

and finally, I will propose several suggestions for the future direction about utilizing ICT forlearning.

2. Research Methods
1. Questionnaire
The administered survey questionnaire consists of the following 5 sections. Of a total of 70
question items, 68 items were closed-ended multiple choice questions and two were open-ended questions.
Among the multiple choice questions, a 4-point Likert-type scale with response options ranging fromstrongly agree to strongly disagree was used for Section 3. The bold words in the question items used in
section 3 indicate the names of the variables appeared in the following analysis.

Sections:
1. Survey participants profiles (k=13)
2. Information used for selecting a university to enter (k=15)
3. Usage of the network in relation to their study (k=20)
1)

An internet search engine is convenient.

2) A dictionary on the internet is useful.

3) Wikipedia is convenient.
4) Q & A sites( Yahoo Chiebukuro etc) is convenient.
5) Using Internet is good for research.
6)

I compare the data from more than two sites when I write a report.

7) I will first ask my friend whenever I have a problem with my report.
8) I will first search in Internet whenever I have a problem with my report.
9) I care for copyright.
10) I care for quotation and try not to make any mistakes.
11) The digital information is valuable because it is easy to modify and process.
12) Using Internet is indispensable.
13) I often use the public sites such as Ministry of Education, Science and Culture.
14) I often use the white paper on the Internet.
15) I often use the news sites of Newspaper companies.
16) At the library, I use Internet search engine rather than going to the bookshelves.
17)

It is cumbersome to search the information because of too many choices.

18) It is not easy to use the information because a source is ambiguous.
19) It is fine to get online help when I need to solve the assigned problem.
20) It is inconvenient to use Internet when I study.

4. Usage of the web community site ( k=10)
1. blog, 2. micro blog, 3. Prof,

4. Q & A sites,

6. movie sites, 7. live broadcasting,

8. SNS,(1) almost every day.

5. anonymous bulletin board,
9. online game,(2) 3~4 times a week,(4) less than onece a month(5) never used

10.imaginatibe space.

(3) 1~2 times a week(6) only watching/ reading

5. Expected communication behaviors in 6 scenarios ( k=12)

2

Research methods
A factor analysis on their ratings on questions in section 3 was conducted to elucidate thefactors that show the characteristics of ICT usage by the freshmen for their leaning. Secondly, t-tests on
the factor scores were conducted in order to see the gender differences. Thirdly, confirmatory factor
analysis was conducted to find the interrelationships between SNS users and their usage of the network in
relation to their learning.

3. Results and Discussion

1.

Demographic information
Out of 873 students, 758 are freshmen and 112 are sophomore or above in addition to 3 missing

values. The total numbers of freshmen 758 are used to analyze in this paper. Among 758, male are 274(36.3%) and female 480 (63.7%) and 72.2% are from public high schools and 26.3% are from private
high school, while 0.5% are from the international schools. Regarding the possession of the personal
computers (PC), 95.3% of the freshmen have PC and out of them, 66.9% posses their own PC while
33.1% possess the shared one. Although 66.9% of the freshmen possess their own PC, 68.3% of them has
just bought it one month ago. The ratio of the possessing PC for a half year, one year, two year, three
years, more than three years are 9.1%, 3.6%, 3.0%, 4.6%, 11.3% respectively (exclude 56 missing values).
Regarding the possession of mobile phone, all of them except three persons have the mobile phone, but,only 21.1% (n=159) use Smartphone at the time of collecting data in April, 2011.
In summary, the characteristics of this demographic data are, 1) it consists more female thanmale, 2) 68.3% (n=338) freshmen just bought their own computers one month ago, 3) Although the
freshmen have mobile phone, only 21.1% use Smartphone in April, 2011.

2

Usage of the web community site
In the previous study, the usage of the web community site by freshmen was investigated byusing the data from section 4, and found that even highest usage of SNS is used by only 57.7% of the
freshmen at the time of 2011. The next highest usage is movie site (41.2%) and followed by blog (41.1%).
It means that the ratio of “only watching/ reading” and “never used” are very high in this data. For
example, the percentage of only watching/reading movie site, Q & A sites and blog are 53.4%, 49.9%
and 42.5% respectively.

Therefore it was summarized that the usage of ICT by the

freshmen is passive rather than active such as watching YouTube instead of watching
TV and reading someone’s blog instead of commenting due to the short length of thepossession of own computer etc. Based on these findings, it was decided to pick up SNS users only
to investigate the interrelationships with the attitude of using network for academic learning.

3

The results of factor analysis and t-tests
In this study, a factor analysis was conducted in order to find the latent variables for using

network in relation to the academic study. Table 1 shows the factor loading following varimax rotation.
After the rotation, six factors were extracted. The cumulative contribution ratio of six factors is 39.13 %of the variance.
The first factor consists of four items such as white paper, public sites, news sites and net
than bookshelf. Thus, the first factor was labeled as “primary sources (primsources).” The second
factor consists of three items such as copyright, quotation and two sites. Thus, the second factor waslabeled as “consideration.” The third factor consists of three items such as Wikipedia, Q & A anddictionary. Thus, the third factor was labeled as “dictionaries.” The forth factor consists of three items
such as many choices, ambiguous sources and inconvenient. Thus the forth factor was labeled as“negative sense of use.” The fifth factor consists of three items such as first net, indispensable, digital
information and get online help. Thus, the fifth factor was labeled as “convenience.” The sixth factor
consists of three items such as search engine, good for research and first ask friend.” Thus the sixth
factor was labeled as “utilization.”

Table 1 Factor analysis of the questions in section 3

white paper
public sites
news sites
net than book
copyright
quotation
two sites
Wikipedia
Q & A sites
Dictionary
too many choices
ambiguous sourcesinconvenient
use net firstindispensable
digital info
get online help
search engine
good for research
ask friend first

Factor contribution

1

2

3

4

5

6

Commonality

0 .8 5 7
0 .7 2 5
0 .5 2 8
0 .2 9 3
0.168
0.154
0.122
-0.041-0.003
0.059
0.067
0.160
0.187
0.108
0.155
0.155
0.255
-0.031-0.017-0.007
1.89

0.106
0.194
0.160
0.182
0 .7 7 4
0 .6 9 8
0 .4 2 3
0.027-0.034
0.093
0.071
0.329
-0.069
0.051
0.003
0.182
-0.1460.081
0.010-0.0051.57

0.071-0.1070.058-0.0400.040
0.080-0.0190 .6 8 4
0 .5 7 0
0 .4 8 3-0.036-0.082-0.018
0.175
0.162
0.248
0.206
0.295
0.361
0.056
1.45

0.126
0.129
0.065
0.104
0.103
0.075
-0.059-0.0270.062-0.1530 .7 2 7
0 .5 3 6
0 .4 7 6-0.104
0.017
0.021
0.211
-0.183-0.132
0.174
1.28

0.065
0.104
0.162
0.222
-0.014-0.024
0.265
0.110
0.090
0.209
0.036
0.099
-0.2080 .5 2 0
0 .5 0 1
0 .3 1 4
0 .2 8 5
0.290
0.330
-0.122
1.19

0.021
0.047
-0.067-0.014-0.0450.008
0.116-0.009
0.102
0.150
0.065
-0.0220.002
0.013-0.011
0.002-0.085
0 .4 0 8
0 .3 6 8
0 .3 0 5
0.46

0.770
0.610
0.340
0.180
0.640
0.520
0.280
0.480
0.350
0.340
0.550
0.440
0.310
0.330
0.300
0.220
0.260
0.380
0.390
0.140
7.84

9.44

17.27

24.49

30.87

36.81

39.13

Accumulation
contribution ratio

Table 2

Gender Differences
Male

Femalet-value

Factor 1

primary source.0810 (.9409)-.0460(.8732)

1.854

Factor 2

consideration-.1240.0704 (.8271)-2.883*

Factor 3

Dictionaries.1547 (.7973)-.0878(.7993)3.979***

Factor 4

negative sense of use-.1308 (.8616).0742 (.7854)-3.301***

Factor 5

convenience.0409 (.8198)-.0232(.6935)

1.082

Factor 6

utilization-.0859.0487 (.5807)-2.912***P<0.05, ** p<0.01, *** P<0.001,(.9143)(.6478)( ) a standard deviation

Table 2 shows the results of t-tests by gender about 6 factors elucidated from factor analysis on Question
3 ( male=269, female=474).
According to the results of t-tests, the female t-value of “consideration,” “negative sense ofuse” and “utilization” are significantly higher than male while the male t-value of “ dictionaries” ishigher than female. Based on these results, it is summarized that the usage of ICT by female students are
more careful than male students, because female students use ICT more than male students for theirresearch and believe that the search engine is convenient, however at the same time they also ask theirfriend first whenever they have a problem with their reports instead of using Internet first. Since thefemale students use ICT actively for their research, they also concern about the copyright and quotation.
Because of these behaviors, they have negative sense of use such as too many choices, ambiguous
sources on the Internet. On the other hand, male students believe that dictionaries such as Wikipedia areconvenient.

4

A path analysis
A path analysis based on covariance structure analysis (AMOS) was conducted to better

understand the interrelationships among the six factors and SNS users. It was hypothesized that SNS is
used because of convenience and convenience is explained by several features such as dictionaries,
primary sources and utilization. Figure 1 shows the final results of the path analysis. There were no
statistically significant differences between male and female students for this model. All of therelationships among 14 observed variables and 4 construct variables are statistically significant, at thelevel of 0.1%. The hypothesized model showed a good fit with the given data: GFI (Goodness of Fit
Index) =0.961, AGFI (Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index) =0.939, CFI (Comparative Fit Index)=0.925 and
RMSEA (Root mean Square Error of Approximation) =0.057 (Toyota, 2007). According to Toyota (2007),
if RMSEA is less than 0.05, then the model is good fit, while if it is more than 0.1, then it is not good.
Between 0.05 and 0.1 is called “gray zone” and it is necessary to interpret carefully. Therefore, it can besaid that the model goodness of fit in this study results quite satisfactory although the carefulinterpretations are needed. Latent variables, ‘convenience’ strongly correlates with ‘utilization’ (0.73)
and ‘utilization’ also has a strong correlation with ‘dictionaries’ (0.72), while ‘convenience’ has amoderate correlation with ‘dictionaries’ (0.52). On the other hand, latent variables ‘convenience’ has alittle effects on observed variable, ‘SNS’ (0.29) and ‘primesources (Prime Sources )’ (0.22).
The model shows that freshmen believe that ICT is convenient because they believe ICT isgood for research (0.60) and dictionaries such as Wikipedia (0.68) are convenient to use. By the way,
‘Convenience’ has an effect to the attitude such as ‘use net first’ (0.49), ‘indispensable’ (0.55) and‘digital infor’ (0.51). However, ‘SNS’ is not strongly affected by ‘convenience’ (0.29). It means thatSNS users are using SNS not because of just convenience but because of other reasons like “neo digital
native” people show. According to Hashimoto (2011), “neo digital native” has four characteristics, 1)using movie sites in order to communicate with friends, 2) on-time orientation, 3) emotional connection
with friends, 4) mobile orientation. Therefore, it might to be useful to consider these characteristics inorder to use SNS for academic learning. In addition, although there are convenient prime sources suchas ‘white paper’, ‘public sites’, and ‘news sites’ on the Internet the freshmen do not use much for theirstudy as compared with dictionaries.
Figure 1 The final results of the path analysis

4. Conclusion
It was proved that convenience of using network for study strongly related to utilization andfeatures of dictionaries. However, although prime sources such as white papers are valuable sources foracademic study, the freshmen do not have the positive attitude towards the usage. In addition,
convenience does not explain the frequent use of SNS. Based on these findings, I will suggest two
approaches for academic use of ICT as follows. 1) It is necessary to teach intentionally where to find theprime sources and how to use them for academic study. 2) The word “convenience” is not the key word
any more to explain the frequent use of SNS. Therefore academic use of SNS should be advanced byemphasizing on making a network with friends, collaborate working, and sharing movie sites
References
Hashimoto, Y. (2011). Japanese Information Activities 2010. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press.
Kubota, M. (2013). The Usage of ICT by Freshmen. In K. Kubota (Ed.), Tsunagari/ Kyodosuru Gakushu Kankyo
Dezain. Kyoto: Koyo Shobo.
Toyota, H. (2007). Kyobunsan Kozo Bunseki, Tokyo: Tokyo Tosho.