Abstract:
This study was conducted to identify the uses of the Internet by Saudi graduate students in the U.S., to determine the value of the Internet to Saudi scholars, and to determine whether the Internet should be adopted in Saudi higher educational institutions. Data were collected through the use of a Questionnaire and semi-structured interviews. The total number of students included in the study was 571, of which sixteen students were interviewed. Chi-square statistics and content analysis techniques were used to analyze the data of the study. In general, the results suggested that Saudi graduate students are clearly motivated to use the Internet by belief that it offers many academic benefits to their graduate studies. The Internet, the study suggested, enables graduate students to: obtain and have instant and easy access to a variety of information resources; do more, fast, and easy academic communication; and keep updated with the latest information resources. Because of its benefits, the Internet enabled Saudi graduate students to do their graduate works better than before using the Internet. As a result, the study suggested that the Internet be adopted in the institutions of higher education in Saudi Arabia for it will enhance the quality of teaching, learning, communication, and research. Potential academic benefits of the Internet for these institutions include: easing and speeding the process of obtaining international and national resources; keeping students and faculty up-to-date with new literature in their fields of study; enabling Saudi higher educational institutions to establish online databases, journals, research, and projects; enabling easy and wide communication with scientists around the world; enabling communication and collaboration between Saudi universities themselves and between them and the international universities; keeping students who graduated from the U.S. in communication and collaboration with their advisors, professors, and colleagues; enabling the internationalization of Saudi universities and make them widely recognized; and easing the process of conducting research and collecting data. For the Internet to enable Saudi higher educational institutions to do things they could not do before or to do it better than before, the study recommends proper training for faculty and students in using the computer and the Internet.