"Surfin" with a purpose: Examining how spending time online is related to student engagement

Abstract

Considerable efforts have been made to get students to use information technology for educational purposes. This study uses data from the 2003 administration of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to investigate the relationships between the proportion of time students spend online for academic purposes and several forms of student engagement. The results suggest that students who devote most of their online time to academics are more likely to engage in other effective education practices.