18 Availability, Accessibility And Competency Of The Students In The Use Of Internet Services; A Case Study Of Educational Technology Unit, Department Of Curriculum And Instructions, Federal College Of Education, Obudu, Cross River State, Nigeria.

Abstract 

The study examined Availability, Accessibility and Competency of students in the use of Internet Services; A case study of the Educational Technology Unit, Department of Curriculum and Instructions, Federal College of Education, Obudu, Cross River State, Nigeria. To guide the study, two research questions and two hypotheses were formulated. The study adopted descriptive survey design. A questionnaire titled, Availability, Accessibility and Competency Questionnaire (AACQ), Focused Group Discussion (FGD) and Guided Observation Schedule (GOS) were used for data collection. The population of the study consisted of the seventy five (75) students of Educational Technology in the Department of Curriculum and Instructions in the College. Findings revealed that, internet services were available and students were competent in the use of the internet services, but were not easily accessible to the students due to the malfunctioning of some facilities, irregular power supply and the College authority’s negligence in subscribing to the internet services. It was recommended among others, that the College should provide enough internet facilities, subscribe regularly to this services and also endeavour to maintain the facilities to enable the students have full and regular access to these facilities. This will ultimately enhance the students’ academic performances.

Keywords:  Availability, Accessibility, Competency, internet services.

Introduction

The innovations in the teaching learning in the school system today, through the functionalities of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), such as the internet has given today’s generation, the 21st century the confidence that the future of the education system is hopeful.

The use of internet services in the school system today is gathering much momentum and is spreading like wild-fire. The word “internet” is an abbreviation of results from a collection of computer networks that connects computers around the world (Madu and Adeniran, 2005:35). This network consists of computers of various sizes, make and number. Internet results from the efforts of J. C.R Licklidern of MIT, who first proposed the idea of a global network of computers in 1962 and worked to develop the idea for the United States Department of Defence. Leonard Kleinrock, also of MIT, created the idea of packet sharing, on which the idea of internet connections was based. Since then various experts have advanced different approaches in the use of internet in sharing information (Howe, 2010). These computers in different countries, regions and institutions revolve around connectivity, interactivity or communication compatibility among the systems of the network system (Agbaje, 2002: 29). According to Ayo (2001) internet is “a prowling collection of computer networks that span the globe, connecting government, military, educational and commercial institutions as well as private citizens to a wide range of computer services, resources and information, thus reducing the whole world to a global village”. The use of internet is numerous, ranging from academic research, access to global information, linkage to individuals groups and other institutions of the world. It bridges communication gap between individuals, institutions, countries of the world and also helps students in their academic activities. Fortunately, the Nigerian government, through its National Policy on Education (2013) recognizes the prominent roles of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), internet in this context, in the modern world, hence the integration of ICT in education in Nigeria,  (Adomi and Kpangban 2010). According to the authors, to actualize this goal, the government promised to provide basic infrastructure and training at the primary school. At the junior secondary school level, computer education is made a pre-vocational elective and a vocational elective at the senior secondary school. The federal ministry of education launched an ICT driven project known as school net which is intended to equip all schools in Nigeria with computers and communication techniques. To adequately provide ICT facilities to secondary schools, the federal government commissioned a Mobile Internet Unit (MIU) which is operated by the Nigerian National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA). The MIU is a locally made bus that has been converted into a mobile training and cyber centre with ten workstations, all networked and connected to the internet. It is also equipped with printers, photocopiers and number of the multimedia facilities. In recent times, the federal ministry of education, through the TETFUND tertiary intervention projects, has constructed and equipped micro-teaching laboratories with computers, multimedia, internet facilities etc, to colleges of education in Nigeria. The question is, to what extent are these efforts by the federal government yield the desired goals, in terms of availability, and accessibility by the end users for teaching and learning? Oso and Adesua, (2017) on the availability and utilization of internet facilities among undergraduate students of colleges of education in Nigeria revealed that, the facilities were not adequately available, hence the low utilization.

Availability, according to Hornby (2006) refers to the capability of something being at one’s disposal, something being obtainable within one’s reach; something being free and not otherwise occupied. That is, the probability that the system is operating properly when it is requested for use. According to the author availability is always associated with time and has to do with accessibility of a system resource in a timely manner.  Accessibility implies that a material is available for use. It means for any “material” to be utilized, such must be accessible and devoid of any socio-economic and environment impediments. It is therefore, only when available resources are easily accessible that utilization can be possible vis-à-vis the competency of users.

Having access to the internet allows students to keep up with information that might not make it into textbooks or that might become outdated by the time it is published in a traditional format. Having access to this information empowers students to take charge of their education, and the research backs that up (Brouwer 2018). At the “door post” of availability and accessibility comes the challenge of competency. Competency contextually refers to the ability of the students to operate the internet facilities and access the needed material and information for their studies. It implies the user’s ability to apply different kinds of intellectual and technical skills in the use of internet services to obtain relevant materials for their learning needs.

Statement of the Problem

Internet services are very important in improving teaching and learning in the school system. The internet has multiple access points to aid students improve their academic performance; through exchange of ideas, knowledge transfer, interactivity, connectivity and also obtain data for their academic activities. Inspite of the numerous benefits of the internet services in the teaching and learning, very negligible studies so far have been done on the availability, accessibility, utilization etc but none has been done to the best knowledge of the researchers on the competency of the students in the use of internet in the colleges of education in Nigeria. It is on this bases, that the study was carried out on the availability, accessibility and competency of students in the use of internet services by the Educational Technology students in the Federal College of Education Obudu Cross River State, Nigeria. This is aimed at establishing the facts and also profer solutions to improve teaching and learning of subject areas in the tertiary institutions in Nigeria, through the use of internet services.

Purpose of the Study

The Federal Government of Nigeria through the Federal Ministry of Education, various arms of the ministry of education, interventionist projects, such as TETFUND, and importantly, the National Policy on Education, has demonstrated in practical terms, its willingness to improve education sub-sector and to key into the universal best practices in education, via Information and Communication Technology ICT. This study therefore aimed at determining the availability of internet services in the Federal College of Education Obudu, Cross River State, Nigeria.

• To identify problems associated with the, accessibility and Competency of students in the use of the internet services.

Research Questions

The following research questions guided the study.

1. To what extent are internet services available in the college?
2. How does the problemassociated with the, accessibility and competency of students influence the use of internet services?

Research Hypotheses

1. Availability of internet services will not influence the students significantly in the use of internet services.
2. Accessibility and Competency of students have no significant influence on the use of internet services.

Methodology

Descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. The population of the study comprised of all the seventy five (75) degree students in the educational Technology unit of the Department of Curriculum and Instructions in the Federal College of Education Obudu, Cross River State, Nigeria. This 75 students were made up of students from the five subject combinations; physic, biology, chemistry, geography and mathematics/ EducationalTechnology, from 100 to 400 class levels in the department of curriculum and instructions. Three instruments were used to obtain data for the study. The first was researchers developed questionnaire; Accessibility Availability and Competency (AACQ) which seek, to know the respondents views on the availability and accessibility of the internet services. The second was the Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and the third, Guided Observation Schedule (GOS) which also seek to know the indepth understanding and competency of students in the use of internet services

The instruments were validated by experts in the field of Educational Technology in the Department of Arts Education, University of Nigeria, Nsukka and also from the Centre for Educational Technology (CET), Federal College of Education, Obudu Cross River State, Nigeria, as well as some lecturers in the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Federal College of Education, Obudu Cross River State, Nigeria. They went through all the items and matched them with the variables in the hypotheses to ensure that they were relevant. Corrections were made where necessary.

Presentation and Analysis of Data

In this chapter, the data collected were collated and analysed. The research questions were tested from the responses obtained.

The simple percentage was used for the Focus Group Discussion (FGD), and Guided Observation Schedule (GOS), while the grand mean was used for the questionnaire items with a bench mark of 2.5.

The hypotheses were tested using the t-test of two dependent means and the chi-square (X2) ‘of goodness of fit’ at 0.05 level of significance respectively.

Research question 1:

To what extent are internet services available in the College?

Table 4.1A: Summary of Focus Group Discussion

From the table above, it is evident that the focus group discussion attest to the fact that internet facilities are available with 47.8%. Though this percent is at average, but it is reasonable. Thus the report of the group is a pass mark for the availability of internet facilities in the College.

Table 4.1B: Questionnaire

From the analysis above, it is evident that the students recognise the availability of the internet facilities in their department with a high mean of 3.36 far from the bench mark of 2.5. Thus there is high availability of internet facility in the College.

Research question II:

How does the problems associated with the accessibility and competency of students influence the use of internet services?.

Table 4.2A: Observation Schedule

From the Guided Observation Schedule,the result show a positive view about the students’ ability to use the internet facilities at least a bit more than an average with 58.1% perfection. The 18.4% of the students that did badly may be due to poor exposure and lack of frequent use of the internet facilities.

Table 4.2b: Questionnaire

The grand mean (3.12) above shows a reflexion of the society at large in which almost every student is an ICT literate. This result shows that the students are not dependent on the departmental internet facilities to use the internet. Thus, poor access to the internet facilities does not really influence the students’ use of the internet.

Hypothesis I.

Availability of internet services will not influence the students significantly in the use of internet services.

Table 4.3: Showing the t-value calculated between availability and the use of internet services.

The t-value above shows that even though the means were from two different tests, but there is actually no statistical significant difference between them. Thus the availability of the internet services will not influence the students significantly in the use of internet services.

Hypothesis II: Accessibility and competency of students have no significant influence on the use of internet services.

Table 4.4: Showing the chi-square calculated from table 4.2b.

From the analysis on table 4.4, the chi-square calculated 26.087 is far greater than the table value of 9.488. This indicates a great significant difference in the variables or choices of the students. Clearly, the difference in the observed frequencies on the table above is not a mere chance, but statistically, significant. Thus, based on the items, and the responses, it is evident that accessibility and competence of students have no significant influence on the use of internet services.

Discussion of findings 

Research question I:

This research tries to find out the extent of availability of the internet services in the college. The results from the analysis show that a greater percentage of the students do not recognise the availability of internet services in the department (52.2%). This may be as a result of poor management of the resources or facilities, or it could also be due to poor accessibility.

However the percentage of students in the College that recognise the availability is 47.8%. So we can conclude that the discussion groups opinion was a matter of 50, 50. With this we can say there was a stalemate approximately.

But from the questionnaire items given to the students above, the grand mean of 3.36 shows a higher level of acceptance, that there are available internet facilities. This is because the value 3.36 is far above the mean bench mark of 2.5 for acceptance. Therefore, with these variations, it is evident that the responses of the students to the items were based on personal views (subjective and not objective) of the college management system of these facilities.

Thus this should serve as an eye opener to the students, management, college authorities and the government at large that; most student’s idea about availability is in the accessibility and functionality.

Research Question II

This question seeks to find out how the problems associated with the accessibility and competency of the students influence the use of the internet services.

From the Guided Observation Schedule (GOS), where students were made to practically use the internet facilities,the result shows that almost 81.6% of the students (58.1% + 23.5%) could carry out the task comfortably. The other 18% failures may be due to the digital divide being experienced in the society at large.

Again from the responses in the questionnaire, strength is given to the (GOS) report showing that the students are resilient against all odds in the usage of the internet facilities. The grand mean of 3.12 shows a high level of acceptance from the bench mark of 2.5.

This result is significantly showing a gradual drift from the analogue to the digital system of operation. Thus libraries and record keeping may soon be faced out as student are mostly now interested in browsing information from the net than going to spend much time seeking for materials in the library catalogues.

Research Hypothesis I

This hypothesis intends to find out if the availability of internet services will not influence the students significantly in the use of internet services.

The t-value calculated at 0.05 level of significance, with a degree of freedom of 4 shows that there was no significant differencesbetween  the two means (u1=u2 with 0.88< 2.02). However, the results shows the true picture of an ‘ideal’ Nigerian College where students are not dependent on the provisions made by the management for survival.

In some of the items, it was confirmed that most students own internet services privately. Also with the large scale integration of computers with phones and many electronic devices, the internet is just a “finger away”.

Research Hypothesis II

This hypothesis tends to find out if the accessibility and competence of students have no significant influence on the use of the internet.

The chi-square was tested at 0.05 level of significance with degree of freedom = 4,(26.087 > 9.488). This result shows a strong significant difference. The null hypothesis is accepted here because the responses of the students was against the backdrop of poor accessibility and availability of the internet services. Thus, the chi-square result indicates that there is a significant independence of the students on the college provisions ofinternet facilities.

These results could sensitize the college management on how much confidence and reliance the students have lost on them. This idea may also be affecting the students negatively when it comes to examinations, assignments and writing of projects whereby a student tries to help him/herself not minding the consequences.

CONCLUSION 

Internet services makes teaching learning easier, interesting and impactful. The federal government of Nigeria, through its laudable policies and programmes has demonstrated it willingness to key into the global best practices in education. Various educational institutions should also express it willingness to bring to realization these laudable intentions by living up to their expectations, in terms of making the ICT facilities available and accessible for the teachers and learners, through a good maintenance culture, provision of subscription for the internet services. The result of findings of this study, shows that, the federal government of Nigeria, has sufficiently provided ICT (internet services) to the institution but teachers and learneres cannot regularly access the facilities for their teaching and learning process, despite the fact that  greater number of students are competent in the use of the internet facilities. This is due to the college’s negligence in regularly subscribing to the internet services. More so, government has provided a generating set for the centre, but the power supply is not regular and there is no upgrade and maintenance of the available facilities.

Hornby (2006), asserts that accessibility implies the probability of the system to operate properly when it is requested for use. It could be infer here that, it is only when available resources are easily accessible that utilization can be possible, vis-à-vis the competency of users.

RECOMMENDATION    

The college management should make the internet services, accessible to the teachers and learners by;

1. i)  Regularly subscribing to the internet services
2. ii) Demonstrate a good maintenance culture for the facilities at the centre.

iii) Ensure regular power supply to the centre.

References

Agbaje, A.A. (2002). Great expectations; serials management and information technology. In Madu, E.C. and Monica b. dirisu (Eds), Information Science and technology for library Schools in Africa. Ibadan: Evi-Coleman Publications.

Brouwer, B. (2018). Why today’s students must have internet access and how to provide it. Retrieved May 10, 2019. From http/www.assettracking.blog.

Federal republic of Nigeria (2013). National Policy on Education (6th Ed). NERDC Press Lagos Press.

Hornby, A.S. (2006). Oxford Advanced Lerner’s Dictionary of Current English (7th Ed). New York: Oxford university Press, p. 86.

Howe, W. (2010). An aredotal history of the people and communities history of the people and communities that brought about the internet and the web. Walt Howe’s internet learning centre, retrieved. May 10, 2019. From http:www.watthowe.com/navnet/history.thml.

Madu, E.C. and Adenirau, T.N. (2015). Information Technology: uses and preservation of resources in libraries and information centres (2nded). Ibadan. Evi-Coleman.

Oso, S.O. and Adesina, V.O. (2017). Availability and Utilization of internet facilities among undergraduates students of Colleges of education in Nigeria; Crol 5, no. 9, pp 100-107, European Centre for Research, training and Development, U.K.

Correspondence can be directed to:

BASSEY, ARCHIBONG BASSEY

CENTRE FOR EDUCATIONAL TECHNOLOGY

FEDERAL COLLEGE OF EDUCATION,

OBUDU, CROSS RIVER STATE, NIGERIA.

basseyplus@yahoo.com

08035100257