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Abstract

At the information age, Internet looks as one of the most important tools for access to information. Internet has expanded throughout the world and has many uses in various aspects. Application of Internet in educational and research institutions has increased the level of knowledge of students and staff by instant access to information and scientific sources. Presently Internet is used in various forms (e-mail, course-related home pages, scientific paper interchange, link to web-sites, e-learning...). Use of this technology at the academic centers could ease access to information and improve the level of knowledge as well as learning proccess of students. The purpose of this study was to determine a model for Internet use by graduate students of four selected agricultural faculties in Iran. The design for the study was a descriptive and correlational one with data collected through using questionnaires. The sample consisted of 305 graduate students of four agricltural faculties of: Isfahan University of Technology, Shiraz, Tarbiat Modarress, and Tehran University who were studying during the spring semester of 2001. Relaibility and validity of instrument was determined through opinions of 20 specialists and application of Cronbach’s Alpha. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data while using SPSS software, version 10. The findings show that the extent of Internet use is very low among students. There is a significant correlation between internet use and: language skills, number of daily hours of using computer, scientific writings, research activities, college of study, job status, study level, place of birth, and owning a pe. In addition, regression analysis shows that about 53 percent of variations in the extent of using Internet could be perdicted by independent variables.

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