Abstract:

In most developed countries, young people (around 17-20 years old) are arriving at universities having grown up in a world surrounded by a range of digital and networked technologies that are integral to the way they live, think, communicate, and the way they work. The internet and digital technologies have become an indispensable part of student life and have had an impact on many areas of higher education, for example, on teaching processes as well as learning processes. Most higher education institutions have successfully introduced media and new digital technology for university teaching staff’ everyday practices. However, the same cannot be said for many developing countries where access to digital technologies is much more limited. The aim of this paper was to study the communication habits and preferences of first year university students and how digital technologies are used to support these activities in a developing country context.

A quantitative, descriptive study was conducted to describe and interpret the behavior of specific subjects without influencing it in any way. The research was conducted at the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano Puno (UNAP), a public university located in the southern region of Peru. The survey instrument employed was a 69 item online questionnaire adapted from the Survey of Student Communication & Study Habits that was originally developed by Bullen, Morgan, Belfer and Qayyum. The questionnaire was translated to Spanish by experts from the Open University of Catalonia (UOC). The reliability of all items used was checked and the analysis yielded a Cronbach’s alpha of .910.

Study participants were all first-year students of the School of Anthropology (12%), School of Administration (50%), School of Accountancy (24.1%), School of Physical Education (10.1%) and School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences (3.8%). The majority were between the ages of 18-19 (57.6%) and 54.4% were females.

Results show that students prefer WhatsApp as a main tool for communication over all other methods, followed by social networks and face-to-face discussions. In regard to face-to-face discussions, prior research in Spain (with the same survey instrument as applied in this study) has found that students still prefer face-to-face conversation with both professors and peers above any other form of communication. Despite the fact that e-mail is the most traditional way of electronic communication, inexpensive, effective and an accepted means of communication between university students and their professors, students do not prefer either institutional or personal email to communicate with peers and professors. Regarding study habits, students prefer clear instructions before trying something new and to study at home. According to their responses, students are comfortable being engaged in several tasks simultaneously (multitasking).

The results of this study highlight differences between Peruvian university students in our sample (Puno) and students from developed universities. The data obtained in this study was a first attempt to understand how Peruvian university learners use digital technologies and what are the implications of their use for Higher Education. A vast amount of research remains to be done in this area. In addition, future researchers should investigate these study findings across a broader population of students with more diverse backgrounds.

Keywords:

Innovation, technology, research projects, developing countries, Peru.