THE INTERRELATIONSHIP AMONG THE COMPONENTS OF STUDENTS’ INTERNET INSIGHT AS AN ACADEMIC RESOURCE TOOL IN KENYAN UNIVERSITIES

Purpose: The aim of this paper was to determine the interrelationship among the components of students’ internet insight as an academic resource tool in universities based in Kenya. Methodology: The study was conducted in Moi University and Daystar University. The study was based on the Social learning theory by Bandura focusing on internet self-efficacy and supplemented by Technology acceptance model by Davies. Quantitative research approach was undertaken. An ex post facto research survey design was adopted. The researcher used a representative sample of 435 (Moi University) and 175 (Daystar University)adding up to 610 Third year student teachers of the academic year 2015/2016 drawn from School of Education in the two universities. Stratified sampling was used to categorize students by gender from each stratum; participants were chosen randomly. Questionnaires were used as instruments of data collection. Content validity was established by use of expert judgment in the school of education. Test re-test method was applied to check if the instruments that collected data were reliable. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied to analyze data. In descriptive statistics data frequencies, percentages and mean was used. Analysis of variance (ANOVA), Chi square and Post hoc tests were used to test the hypotheses. Results: The findings indicated that more participants concurred with almost all accounts on internet knowledge, self-efficacy, perceived internet usefulness and perceived internet ease of use. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The results of the paper are useful in designing educational programs in Kenyan institutions of higher learning and also, present a platform to close the gap of knowledge in digital divide field which is used later in technology acceptance studies.