Access and use of electronic resources by academics and postgraduate students at the University of Venda, South Africa

Electronic resources (e-resources) have brought many benefits and challenges in the way people access, retrieve and store information. At the University of Venda (UNIVEN), e-resources are there to be accessed and used by the whole university community which is composed of undergraduate and postgraduate students, academics (lecturers) and support staff. In order to provide relevant services to academics and students, academic libraries need to know the extent of e-resources usage, preferences, attitudes, perceptions, usage patterns and challenges faced by their communities in using e-resources. These aspects have not been systematically investigated at UNIVEN. Furthermore, it was not clear whether the available e-resources at UNIVEN were utilised effectively and whether UNIVEN has prerequisite infrastructure and technology required to access e-resources. This study investigates the use of e-resources by academics and postgraduate students at the University of Venda (UNIVEN), South Africa. The specific objectives of this study were to determine the purpose of using e-resources by academics and postgraduate students at UNIVEN; to establish perceptions of academics and postgraduate students towards access and use of e-resources; and to identify challenges faced by academics and postgraduate students in accessing and using e-resources at UNIVEN. This quantitative study used survey research design to investigate access and use of e-resources by academics and postgraduate students at UNIVEN. A stratified sampling was used to select 45 academics and 150 postgraduate students. Questionnaires were used to collect data from the respondents. The collected data were analysed using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (SPSS). The findings of this study revealed that both academics and postgraduate students accessed and used the available e-resources. The findings showed that age and gender had no significant relationship with access and use of e-resources. The academics and postgraduate students used e-resources for academic purposes and they all had positive perceptions towards e-resources. Accessing and using e-resources while off-campus was a major challenge faced by academics and students. The study recommends that UNIVEN should provide additional computers for accessing internet by students and increase its internet bandwidth. The university library should ensure that librarians responsible for training on the use of e-resources have adequate skills and should raise awareness of the available e-resources training programmes. In addition, the study recommends that UNIVEN library should modernise its Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) and provide a single-point of search which will allow simultaneous searching of multiple resources including print and e-resources to eliminate the need for searching the various databases separately.Information ScienceM.A. (Information Science

Achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals through LIS Education in Africa

The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations can be achieved through teaching, research and innovation. The Sustainable Development Goals advocate that all learners will have the knowledge and skills needed to promote sustainable development. The use of scholarly e-resources offers quality academic resources which contribute greatly to teaching, research and innovation. Thus, purpose of the study was to examine the awareness, perception and use of scholarly e-resources by Library and Information Science (LIS) students in Africa. The paper is based on research paper related to the topic of the article. The study revealed that despite efforts by academic institutions to make scholarly electronic resources available, these resources seem to be underutilized by students. Also, there is paucity of literature on the use of scholarly e-resources in order to promote quality education through teaching, research and innovation, especially by LIS students or professionals who are being trained to assist other people in information retrieval in the digital age. The research brings to fore the importance of the awareness and use of scholarly e-resources to enhance research and innovation in order to achieve sustainable development through quality education. The study recommends more practical training for LIS students in order to familiarize them with several scholarly e-resources and their functionality. This will help the students, stakeholders and policy makers understand how to harness human capital for sustainable development by ensuring quality education through the maximum utilization of scholarly e-resources for teaching, research and innovation

The awareness of copyright laws at the University of Venda library: Student’s perspectives.

This article is based on a Master\u27s study, which investigated the awareness of copyright laws of law students at the University of Venda (UNIVEN) library. The study adopted a quantitative research approach with a few open-ended questions and used the inferential type of quantitative research method. A stratified random sampling method (also called proportional or quota sampling) was used to determine the number of students in the study, which provided a final sample size of 132 final-year and postgraduate law students. This study used questionnaires to collect data from law students. Results of the study show that law students are reasonably familiar with basic copyright matters such as policies, copyright protection, public domain, copyright limitation, and fair use. However, it can be concluded that further training is warranted to improve the copyright knowledge of law students

IMPACT OF ICT KNOWLEDGE, LIBRARY INFRASTRUCTURE FACILITIES ON STUDENTS’ USAGE OF E-RESOURCES - AN EMPIRICAL STUDY

E-resources play a major role in current educational scenario. Most of the institutions have been shifting their all type of resources / data into e resources. Reason of technological up-gradation the students’ community is having facilities to access e resources in any time at any places. Researcher focuses on the usage of e-resources by students of central university of Tamil Nadu. It is one of the leading universities in Tamil Nadu which has successfully maintained e-resources in their campus in order to benefit their students. The main objective of the paper is to analysis the impact of ICT knowledge, Library Infrastructure facilities and Motivational factors on Students’ usage of E-resources. For this purpose, researcher has collected 110 questionnaires from the students. The data was collected using systematic random sampling method. Tool is validated through Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) is used to analysis the data. The major findings are ICT knowledge of student is the main source to increase the usage of e-resources and professors & Library staff members are the major motivator to boost the usage of e-resources of student. So, library members and Professors may conduct various seminars and workshops in order to enhance the ICT knowledge of students

Sexual harassment and victimization of students: a case study of a higher education institution in South Africa

Introduction: Sexual harassment has been identified as a major public health problem that is hidden in most institutions/orga- nizations.Objective: This study assessed sexual harassment and victimization of students in a higher institution in South Africa.Methods: A quantitative, cross-sectional descriptive design was used in this study. The target population was registered stu- dents of the higher education institution and the sample size was 342. Questionnaire was used for data collection and data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 23.0 program. The basic principles of ethics were duly observed and the ethical clearance certificate was obtained prior to data collection.Results: The findings revealed that 27 (17.3%) of the male and 47 (25.5%) of the female respondents (P = 0.047) had personally experienced unwanted touching. Two (1.3%) male and 5 (2.7%) female students admitted that they have been raped. Seventeen (10.8%) of the males and 19 (10.2%) of the females had been coerced to comply with a sexual relationship on campus.Conclusion:  This study shows that both male and female students on campus are experiencing different forms of sexual ha- rassment.Keywords: Students, sexual harassment, higher education institution

Perceptions of Undergraduates on E-Books in Comparison to Print and their E-Book Expectations: A Case of Public Universities in Kenya.

This study was set to investigate the use of E-Books by undergraduate students in public universities in Kenya. It was based on two objectives namely: to establish the perception of undergraduate students on E-Books in comparison to print books; and to establish the expectations of undergraduate students on E-Books in public universities in Kenya. The aim was to identify effective interventions on perception and expectations through which the use of E-Books could be enhanced. The perceptions and expectations of undergraduate students on E-Books in comparison to print were viewed as strong determinants on how they used E-Books in the library. Data was collected through mixed methods using both quantitative and qualitative instruments namely survey questionnaires and focus group discussions. Four of the older university libraries in Kenya were purposively identified and sampled out of 31 public universities. 300 third year undergraduate students were randomly surveyed from the four universities, 75 respondents from each university. One focus group discussion of eight (8) to ten (10) third year undergraduate students in each of the four universities was also administered. Quantitative data was analysed using SPSS while open ended questions and focus group findings were analysed descriptively. It was found that undergraduate students who preferred the use of both E-Books and print books were more than those who preferred either E-Books or print books. Where both print and E-Books were available at the same time, E-Books were preferred. Undergraduate students expected awareness creation and the packaging of E-Books into formats that they could easily identify with. The findings of the study are important in drawing appropriate response that would lead to enhanced use of E-Books. Recommendations made include enhanced internet connectivity as well as repackaging of E-Books per academic programs

Towards a sustainable anti-xenophobic rural-based university campus in South Africa

In an effort to build a deep understanding of the nature, character and extent of ‘xenophobia’ at the University of Venda, South Africa, a multidisciplinary team carried out a study. A mixed approach was used taking into account critical discourse analysis and infusing elements of participant observation. Ethical consideration and approval was received considering the sensitive nature of this study. A semi-structured interview guide was used during five focus group discussions held to collect data from 28 members of the university community. Three groups were made of non-South Africans, while two consisted of South African citizens. Both local and international focus groups (71.4%) confirmed that separate social and academic groups existed on campus. Thus, introduction of an anti-xenophobia programme was necessary because it was likely to positively contribute to the university’s efforts geared towards creating an enabling working and learning environment

An Assessment of the Impact of the Mentoring Programme on Student Performance

The University of Venda introduced an academic mentoring programme in 2012. The introduction of the programme was in response to the results of a national study that was conducted by Scott, Yeld and Hendry (2007). The study was replicated at institutional level by the then University of Venda Deputy Vice-Principal Academic and the then acting Director of the Centre for Higher Education Teaching and Learning and it yielded similar results that indicated that at least 30% of undergraduate students drop out at the end of their first year. Using Margaret Archer’s morphogenetic framework, this paper seeks to assess the impact of the programme on students’ performance. The key question asked in this study is: ‘What impact has the mentoring programme made on the academic performance of students in the Department of Communication and Applied Language Studies?’ This department formed part of this study because the module lecturer was among the first few who exercised her agency by consciously volunteering to join the programme with the hope that it would improve pass rate. The pass rate improved from 80% to 92% the first time the programme was implemented and it has been high ever since, while the students in that department have continued to embrace the programme. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were adopted for this study. Qualitative data consisted of an open-ended questionnaire which was used to collect data from forty-five mentees. Interviews were also conducted with ten mentees, three student mentors, the Media Studies (MST 1541) lecturer and the educational development practitioner (EDP). From the forty-five questionnaire respondents, only ten mentees were also interviewed to confirm responses that were given in questionnaires before the researcher had reached saturation point. Quantitative data were collected through a comparison of module results for 2012 and 2013. The MST 1541 classes in 2012 and 2013 were taught by the same lecturer, who confirmed minimal changes in terms of content and teaching methods which could have influenced the improved pass rate in 2013. The study concludes that the mentoring programme contributed to improving student success. However, the study only focused on one causal mechanism, namely mentoring. It is therefore recommended that a broader study be conducted to evaluate the impact of additional causal mechanisms. Furthermore, the researchers recommend improved monitoring and evaluation mechanisms to curb the inconsistencies and irregularities reported by the mentors, mentees, lecturer and educational development practitioner