Short-Term Information Technology Training Impact on Research Self-Efficacy of Undergraduate Students at Provincial Cambodian Universities

Abstract

This paper aims to assess the effectiveness of research self-efficacy short-term information technology (IT) skills training intervention administered to 3^rd year and 4^th year undergraduate students at three provincial Cambodian universities. The training intervention was conducted at the universities' computer centers where the internet could be accessed. The training lasted three weeks for 60 hours in total and covered topics such as using statistical analysis software, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), and referencing software. The participants were 461 undergraduate students at universities during the 2018 academic year. The survey method used for this study was based on the “Research Self-Efficacy Scale” by Phillips and Russell (1994), which was administered before and after the training. The research used descriptive statistics and paired sample t-test for data analysis. The findings of the study revealed that the participants’ research self-efficacy perceptions increased after conducting the intervention. The results showed that there was a significant increase in mean score after intervention based upon a 5-point scale from 2.10 (SD = 0.68) before the intervention to 3.57 (SD = 0.54) afterward. These findings suggest that IT training intervention is beneficial for undergraduate students at provincial universities in Cambodia resulting in an improvement in research self-efficacy.