Trends in Students Media Usage

TL;DR

This study surveys students at Western University to analyze how their media usage evolves from first to fourth year, revealing increasing use of digital resources and growing awareness of information quality.

Contribution

It provides empirical data on media usage trends among students over their academic years, highlighting shifts towards digital and online academic resources.

Findings

Media usage increases from first to fourth year.

Significant rise in students accessing online journals.

Fourth-year students are more conscious of information quality.

Abstract

Trends in media usage by students can affect the way they learn. Students demand the use of technology, thus institutions and instructors should meet students requests. This paper describes the results of a survey where drivers in the use of media show continuously increasing or decreasing values from the first to the fourth year of study experience at the Western University, Canada, highlighting trends in the usage of new and traditional media in higher education by students. The survey was used to gather data on students media usage habits and user satisfaction from first to fourth year of study and found that media usage increases over the years from first to fourth. The presentation of data using bar charts reveals a slight increase over the years in students owning notebooks or laptops off-campus and a significant increase from first to fourth year of students accessing online academic periodicals and journals. Another noteworthy finding relates to fourth year students being more conscious of the quality of information that they read on the Internet in comparison to students in first year, even though this is a slight year on year increase.