Understanding Post-Graduate Students’ Online Academic Help-Seeking Behaviours in India

Abstract

In the post-COVID-19 era, the internet has become an integral tool for academia, encompassing teachers, educational researchers, educationists, students, and parents. It is widely utilised to solve various problems, learn innovative concepts in different subjects, and expand knowledge in areas of interest. Specifically, students at different educational levels frequently turn to the internet for assistance in understanding and improving their academic work. This behaviour aligns with the concept of online academic help-seeking, which is often described as a “self-regulating learning strategy” (Newman, 1994). To investigate the online academic help-seeking behaviours of postgraduate students of central universities in India, this study aimed to understand how students seek online academic help to meet their academic needs, which online channels they use, how they utilise these channels to accomplish academic tasks, and whether any external factors influence their online academic help-seeking behaviours. Adopting a qualitativeexploratory design, the study engaged 38 postgraduate students from diverse academic disciplines, selected through purposive sampling. Data were collected via an online questionnaire comprising both closed- and open-ended questions, and analysed using thematic analysis. The findings highlight that online academic help-seeking is a crucial learning strategy, enabling students to address academic challenges and enhance their subject understanding through varied online platforms, depending on their level of internet self-efficacy. However, external factors such as socioeconomic status and language barriers significantly impact students’ ability to seek online academic help. The study emphasises the need for educational institutions to address these challenges, ensuring equitable access to online academic resources and preventing any student from being excluded from the benefits of digital learning.