ASSESSMENT OF LECTURERS’ ICTCOMPETENCIESIN THE USE OFELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES FOR TEACHING AND RESEARCH IN UNIVERSITIES IN BENUE STATE, NIGERIA

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Date
2020-01
Authors
TOR, Shiekuma Felix
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Abstract
This research was carried out to assess Lecturers‟ ICT Competencies in the Use of Electronic Information Resources for Teaching and Research in the Universities in Benue State. The study was guided by five research objectives: to identify types of electronic information resources available in the universities, find out means through which lecturers acquire ICT competencies,determine the level of ICT competencies of lecturers, ascertain the extent to which lecturers apply ICT competencies, and identify challenges faced by the lecturers in applying ICT competencies for using Electronic Information Resources for teaching and research in the Universities in Benue State. The quantitative research method was preferred for the study while a cross-sectional survey research design was adopted. The targeted population was lecturers in the three full-time universities in Benue State; namely, University of Agriculture, Makurdi; Benue State University, Makurdi; and University of Mkar, Mkar, with a total of 1, 537 lecturers. Out of this population, 306 lecturers were drawn as sample for the study. Cluster and simple random sampling were preferred for sample selection. Questionnaire was used as the instrument for data collection. In order to establish the validity of the instrument, the questionnaire was presented to experts for face and content validity, and the reliability of the instrument was obtained through the pilot study conducted in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria. A reliability level of 0.98 was obtained. The data collected from the respondents was sorted, organized, presented and analyzed using descriptive statistics for the research questions while inferential statistics in form ofOneway Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was maximized in testing the two null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance, with the aid of SPSS. The study revealed that electronic journals, online databases, e-books and e-reference sources areavailable in the universities in Benue State; friends/family/colleagues, private computer training, computer-assisted instructions, Internet/distance learning, and Workshops/Seminars/Conferences are the means through which lecturers in the universities in Benue State acquire ICT competencies; the lecturers in the universities in Benue State possessed basic and intermediate levels of ICT competenciessuch as wordprocessing, presentation (PowerPoint), spreadsheet (excel), Internet surfing and database searching; the extent to which lecturers in universities in Benue State apply ICT competencies in using electronic information resources stand at average. The challenges that confront lecturers in applying ICT competencies for electronic information resources usage are unstable power supply, inadequate ICT facilities, poor Internet connectivity, lack of ICT training and funds. The first null hypothesis was rejected since it revealed that there is a statistically significant difference (p =.013) in the level of ICT competencies of lecturers in the federal, state and private universities in Benue State. The second null hypothesis was retained since it uncovered that there is no statistically significant difference (p =.123) in the extent of applying ICT competencies by lecturers in the federal, state and private universities in Benue State. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the management of respective university libraries in Benue State should work toward developing Digital Institutional Repositories (DIR) for their institutions. This would provide sustainable access to relevant scholarly outputs in addition to the available ones.Professional librarians who are ICT inclined should offer more personalized support services to lecturers that need training in ICT to be able to use electronic information resources for quality teaching and research. Government at both federal and state levels should show more commitment to the development of ICT competencies of lecturers by making available ICT grants to the universities and lecturers on annual basis.
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A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE SCHOOL OF POSTGRADUATE STUDIES AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF MASTER OF LIBRARY SCIENCE (MLS) DEPARTMENT OF LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE, FACULTY OF EDUCATION, AHMADU BELLO UNIVERSITY, ZARIA, NIGERIA
Keywords
ASSESSMENT,, LECTURERS’ ICTCOMPETENCIES,, ELECTRONIC INFORMATION RESOURCES,, TEACHING,, RESEARCH,, UNIVERSITIES,, BENUE STATE,, NIGERIA.
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