ICT Skills of Academic Community in Postgraduate Colleges in Kerala

This paper examines the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) skills of teachers and students of post-graduate colleges affiliated to the University of Kerala. This questionnaire survey included 879 respondents from 40 post-graduate colleges. The ICT skills were measured using a five point scale. The study focused on the assessment of overall ICT levels and the association of ICT skills with independent variables such as gender, age, academic status, possession of computers and the preference given to Internet for academic information retrieval. The study found lower levels of ICT skills among majority of the respondents and among them males scored better than their female counterparts. In comparison with students, higher levels of skills were noticed among faculty members. Better ICT skills were observed among respondents having personal computers. In the light of findings, the authors put forth some viable alternatives to improve ICT skills of academia of post-graduate collegiate setting in Kerala.