EXTENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL USE OF E-RESOURCES IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN THE NORTH-CENTRAL STATES OF NIGERIA

ABSTRACT
The study investigated the extent of the Instructional use of e-resources in Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States of Nigeria; made up of Abuja, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau states. It employed a descriptive survey, using 7 research questions, 7 research hypotheses and 30-items research questionnaire instrument. This was validated by experts in the field of Educational Technology, Measurement and Evaluation, Science Education and Curriculum and Instruction, trial tested by administering them to educators in the College of Education Oju and School of Education, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi, which were excluded in the main study. The instruments reliability was determined using Cronbach Alpha, with an established reliability coefficient of 0.81. Six Universities and six Colleges of education were purposefully sampled for use, based on the established level of availability of e-resources. The population of the study was made up of 3,266 lecturers from Colleges of Education and 385 from the Schools or Faculties of Education in the Universities, giving a total of 3651 lecturers. The sample size of 1042 (260 from five Universities, 782 from five Colleges of Education) was proportionately determined using the Krejele and Morgan table of “determining sample size for research activities”. The instruments for data collection were a 30-item structured research questionnaire with sections A to D for Computer Assisted Instruction; Computer Enriched Instruction; instructional use of Internet Resources and Portable e-Resources respectively. A Focused Group Discussion (FGD) instrument was employed on the research outcome, to probe into the respondents’ subconscious feelings and motivations to capture the dynamic emotional process and socially desirable forms of behaviour which could have not been easily reduced to statistical evaluations and reported by items along each research question and hypothesis. It was discovered that CAI, CEI, Internet Resources and Portable e-Resources are moderately used in the area of study. And that status rank, gender and age have no influence on the e-resources use. Recommendations were made, including that; Government should (1) make policy that will direct the integration of e-resources in the learning process; (2) Provide adequate course wares or contract for their production in subject areas; (3) Review curriculum to integrate e-learning in the learning process; (4) Provide Internet RAIN at reduced cost, increased accessibility, larger bandwidth for instruction use; (5) set relevant committee to assess the extent of the negative effects Nigeria as a country stands to face for not fully embracing e-resources use in her educational system and recommend emergency measures to redeem the situation; (6) make ICT a line budget in all her yearly budget allocations; (7) Host e-learning Africa and other conferences to increase educators participation; Curriculum and Educational Technology specialist should develop appropriate format for e-learning andragogy and pedagogy.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page
Table of Contents
List of Tables
Abstract

Chapter One: Introduction
Background to the Study
Statement of the Problem
Purpose of the Study
Significance of the Study
Scope of the Study
Research Questions
Research Hypotheses

Chapter Two: Literature Review
Conceptual Literature Review
Instruction
E-resources in education
Nigeria Information Technology Policy and Education
Teacher
Teacher Education
Theoretical Framework
Related Empirical Studies
Summary of Related Literature Review

Chapter Three: Research Methods
Research Design
Area of Study
Population of Study
Sample Size
Instrument for Data Collection
Validation of the Instrument
Reliability of the Instruments
Method of Data Collection
Method of Data Analysis

Chapter Four: Results
Demographic Information
Answers to Research Questions
Test of Hypotheses
Summary of Findings

Chapter Five: Discussion of Findings, Educational Implications of the Findings of the Study, Conclusion, Recommendations, Summary of the Study and Suggestions for Further Study
Discussion of Findings
Educational Implications of the Findings of the Study
Conclusion
Recommendations
Suggestions for Further Study
Summary of the Study
References
Appendixes

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Education has the capacity and vital role to play in providing man with what it takes to survive on his planet. It is instrumental to Nations of the world in achieving their development. According to Okarfor in Okoyeocha (2010) Education is for life, for living and for what makes a man to live and function. For these reasons, there is a growing need for providing quality educators through better curricula for improved educational practice that will produce learners with potentials and abilities to connect with one another and the rest of the world for their development, survival and proper functioning in the society in which they live. According to Okojie, (2009:99) “Education systems of the world are being redesigned to rely more on electronics delivery methods” commonly referred to as the e-resources.
E-resources are the technological gadgets of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), which are used in all facets of human endeavour for generating, handling and transmitting information. They are electronics resources built of components that are made of electronics semiconductor elements like the silicon, germanium, phosphorus, and arsenic, (Rashid, 2007). The e-resources include radio, television, computer and its assorted course wares on removable resources, Internet facilities, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) projector, ipad, iPod, laptops, assorted forms of cameras, Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), Visual Compact Disc (VCD) or Digital Visual Display (DVD) players and other assorted hand-held devices, which can be used for collecting, processing, sorting, storing, retrieving, transmitting and receiving information for education purposes.
The use of these resources for education purposes has become the global trend in the third millennium. Under the third millennium globalization dispensation, e-resources are part of the rapid communication technological advancement, which utilizes the e-resources for e-learning in the education system; this forms the current paradigm in education emphasizing the use of e-resources to provide e-learning in the learning process. All the education systems of the world are being redesigned to provide for the e-learning format to equip their citizenry with the skills, abilities and enthusiasm to utilize the e-resources in everyday life. The countries that have provided e-resources and particularly platform for it use in education are referred to as being on the positive side of the international digital divide, and those that have not provided the platform as being on the negative side, (Ikyumen, 2011).
The rapid communication technological advancement prompts for more effective training strategies in e-resources use, which has become the main tool for information dissemination in education enterprise (Okejie, 2009). Prospective workers, particularly prospective teachers will need to be educated using instructional process that utilizes e-resources so that they can cope with the demand in the contemporary workplace and a paradigm shift. The current paradigm shift focuses on the student learning outcome more than teacher or educator activities; so that it can be usefully asked, “as you have taught well, have they learnt?” The educators require complex thinking skills that are offered by contents distributed on the various e-resources which can be accessed by those who posse e-literacy to keep pace with ever increasing development. This will afford individuals to engage in a broader horizon that offers meta-cognitive functioning abilities (abilities to use reasoning to produce reasoning or thinking about thinking) so as to establish effective cognitive partnership amongst collaborative work group. To Monereo, Fuentes, and Sanchez, (2000), lack of ability in e-resources use in learning process (e-learning) that provides e-literacy defines a new type of illiteracy and alienation from the modern society.
According to Downes, Fluck, Gibbons, Leonard, Matthews, Oliver, Vickers & Williams, (2001); the importance of e-literacy in the education system is accepted worldwide, and the various independent and government school systems have developed policies and programs intended to promote e-resources use in school administration as well as in teaching-learning process (e-education). This calls for training and retraining of educators on e-resources use in the teaching and learning, employing concepts and theories that govern both human thinking, reasoning and learning process, (Smith and Ragan, 1999).

For the educators to be effective facilitators of knowledge in the learning process in this e-learning era, they need to be equipped with the theories of learning as well as the skills in applying them appropriately in the various learning tasks, (Ortese, Yawe and Akume, 2006). This is important as they will need to use their knowledge of the theories of the process-ideas about how and why change occurs in learning process. This will equip them to plan, design, produce, select, use and evaluate learning with e-resources based on the process of building schemas, images, imagery, larger mental pictures and concepts that cumulatively constitute learning in education. The acquisition of these knowhow for the prospective teachers takes place in the Colleges of Education and in the faculties of Education of the Nigerian Universities that train the prospective teachers.

Universities and Colleges of Education are dedicated to providing education to prospective teachers. There are also National Teachers Institutes (NTI; by distance) and Polytechnics with NCE programmes as Osokoya, (2010), asserted that statutory responsibility for teacher education in Nigeria is vested on Colleges of Education (COEs), Polytechnics, National...

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Item Type: Ph.D Material  |  Attribute: 136 pages  |  Chapters: 1-5
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