ABSTRACT

1. ASSESSMENT OF FORMS OF TECHNOLOGY ENHANCED LEARNING (TEL) USAGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION IN DELTA AND EDO STATES OF NIGERIA. J.I. IRORITERAYE-ADJEKPOVU, (Ph.D)   PHONE NO.: 08037580882 e-mail: abekejanic@yahoo.com DEPARTMENT OF CURRICULUM AND INTEGRATED SCIENCE EDUCATION. DELTA STATE UNIVERSITY P.M.B. 1 ABRAKA, NIGERIA.

2. ABSTRACT The study focused on the assessment of forms of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) usage in higher education in Delta and Edo states of Nigeria. The study was a descriptive survey design. The population comprised of computer science education students of Delta State University (DELSU) and University of Benin (UNIBEN). Samples of 200 students were drawn from the population for the study. Three hypotheses were formulated to guard the study. A 29 items 5 point Liket type of scale of strongly agreed, agreed, neutral, strongly disagreed and disagreed was used as the instrument for data collection. The data were analyzed using t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The major findings indicate that the facilities and equipments available for (TEL) are the cybercafés and the computer hardware’s installed in them. Asynchronous forms of (TEL) was the most commonest form of usage in both institutions of learning. The study concludes that both asynchronous and synchronous forms of (TEL) should be implemented in higher education. The government should provide adequate financial support to the institution of higher learning to enable National University Commission (NUC) to enforce the implementation of (TEL) in higher education. Keywords: Assessment, technology enhanced learning and Higher education. .

3. INTRODUCTION Higher education is the educational level that follows the completion of a secondary school. Its goals among others in Nigeria are: 1. To contribute to national development through high level relevant manpower training. 2. To acquire both physical and intellectual skills that will enable individuals to be self-reliant and useful members of the society (National policy, 2004). The above goals of higher education highlighted it as a significant industry in its own right and a source of training the right calliber of manpower for the rest of the economy. This significance can only be meaningful to this fast changing technological knowledge-based economy of the 21st century if the outputs of higher education have the digital literacy skills required in their discipline, profession or career. We are in a century in which new competencies are required of our higher education outputs. It is in the light of the above that Nigeria for the past three decades has made numerous efforts among others to be an associate members of the African virtual university (AVU) with a learning centre at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife (Ogunsote, Omofaye & Pruenal-Ogunsote, 2006). As part of Nigeria efforts to develop the digital literacy in the outputs of higher education, the National University Commission (NUC) embarked on technology enhanced project.

4. INTRODUCTION CONT. Concept of technology enhanced learning Technology enhanced learning is the combination of two methods of course delivery. The face to face instruction supplemented with synchronous and asynchronous learning. Forms of technology enhanced learning Synchronous learning and Asynchronous learning, Synchronous learning This form of learning resembles the traditional classroom teaching methods. Irrespective of the location of the participants, time table is the requirement for them to be organized. Technology that facilitates this type of learning includes web conferencing, video conferencing, educational television, direct broadcast satellite (DBS), internet radio, live streaming, telephone and web-based. Asynchronous learning This form of learning requires the participant to access course materials at their own scheduled. Students are not required to be together at the same time. Technology in use includes mail correspondence, e-mail, message board forums, instant messages, video and audio recording, print materials, voice mail and fax.

5. INTRODUCTION CONT Beldarrain (2006) affirms that the use of these forms of technology enhanced learning in education can “accommodate the needs of the 21st century learner by including activities that allow students to contribute to the learning process at anytime from anywhere” in the same vain Bates (2009) opines that a major argument for the use of technology enhanced learning is that “it enables students to develop essential skills for knowledge-based workers” In developing countries like Nigeria the implementation of technology enhanced learning is not without challenges. In cases where technology enhanced is implemented. It is … implemented as components for example e-mail. (Asuuka 2008). In the same vain students reported distress with Technology Enhanced Learning, attributable mostly to inappropriate implementation practices that led to such unpleasant experiences as communication breakdowns and technical difficulties (Hara & Kling, 2003). It is against this background this study eeks to access forms of technology enhanced learning (TEL) usage in higher education in Delta State University (DELSU) and University of Benin (UNIBEN).

6. Purpose of the study • Specifically, the study determined • Forms of technology enhanced learning (TEL) usage with students available in DELSU and UNIBEN • Assess the availability of technology enhanced learning (TEL) facilities and equipments for students in DELSU and UNIBEN. • Investigate the challenges affecting the effective implementation of technology enhanced learning (TEL) in DELSU and UNIBEN • Research questions • The research questions answered in this study includes; • What forms of technology enhanced Learning (TEL) usage with students are available in DELSU and UNIBEN? • What are the available technology enhanced learning (TEL) facilities and equipments for students in DELSU and UNIBEN? • What are the challenges affecting the effective implementation of technology enhanced Learning (TEL) in DELSU and UNIBEN.

7. Research hypotheses • There is no significant difference between the available forms of technology enhanced Learning (TEL) usage with students in DELSU and UNIBEN • There is no significant difference between the available facilities for technology enhanced learning (TEL) for students in DELSU and UNIBEN. • There is no significance difference between the challenges affecting the effective implementation of technology enhanced learning (TEL) in DELSU and UNIBEN. • METHODOLOGY • Research design • An ex-post-facto type of descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. • Sample and sampling technique • 200 computer science education students constitute the sample of the study. A purposive sampling technique was used in selecting the sample. This was due to the fact that response to the questionnaire requires understanding of computer and e-learning terminology and knowledge

8. METHODOLOGY CONT. Research instrument A 29 item questionnaire titled assessment of forms of technology enhanced learning usage (AFTELU) was used to gather the data for the study. Reliability of instrument Test-retest method was used to establish the reliability of the instrument. The generated paired scores were tested using Person (r) which gave a correlation coefficient of 0.87. Procedure The researcher with 4 research assistants visited the department of the sampled universities to administer the questionnaire to the students. The exercise lasted for 4 weeks. Method of Data Analysis The information and data generated from the questionnaire were collected and analyzed. The research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation; whereas the three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance using the t-test.

9. Research hypothesis 1 There is no significant difference between the available forms of technology enhanced Learning (TEL) usage with students in DELSU and UNIBEN Table 1: Summaryof t-test analysis on the significant difference between the available forms of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) usage with students in DELSU and UNIBEN. The calculated t-value of 1.73 is less than the critical t-value of 2.101 at 0.05 level of significant; we therefore accept the null hypothesis. Hence, there is no significance difference between the available forms of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) usage with student in DELSU and UNIBEN.

10. Hypothesis 2 There is no significant difference between the available facilities and equipments for Technology Enhanced Learning TEL for students in DELSU and UNIBEN. Table 2: Summary of t-test analysis on the available facilities and equipment for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) for students in DELSU and UNIBEN. The calculated t-value of 1.75 is less than the critical t-value of 2.119 at 0.05 level of significance, we therefore accept the null hypothesis. This implies that there is no significant difference between the available facilities and equipment for Technology Enhanced Learning TEL for students in DELSU and UNIBEN.

11. Hypothesis 3 There is no significant difference between the challenges affecting the effective implementation of Technology Enhanced Learning in DELSU and UNIBEN. Table 3:Summary of t-test analyses on the challenges affecting the effective Implementation of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in DELSU and UNIBEN. The calculated t-value of 1.73 is less than the critical t-value of 2.101 at 0.05 level of significance, we therefore accept the null hypothesis that there is no significant difference between the challenges affecting the effective Implementation of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in DELSU and UNIBEN

12. DISCUSSION The hypotheses analyzed indicated that there is no significant difference between the available form of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) usage with students in DELSU and UNIBEN, the available facilities and equipment for Technology Enhanced Learning TEL for students in DELSU and UNIBEN and the challenges affecting the effective Implementation of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) in DELSU and UNIBEN. The implication is that both institutions share the same challenges.

13. CONCLUSION The study has provided evidence from the literature to show that technology enhanced learning is a viable tool to integrate the use of technology into education to meet the digital literacy needs of higher education students in this 21st century in particular and one of the medium of actualizing some of the goals of higher education in the development of the individual and the development of the relevant manpower for a 21st century society. It concludes that both synchronous and Asynchronous forms of technology enhanced learning should be effectively implemented in higher institutions.

14. RECOMMENDATIONS Government should provide financial support to higher education, to enable National University Commission (NUC) to enforce the full implementation of technology enhanced learning in higher institutions. Higher education institutions should seek and provide alternative means of power supply such as use of solar energies. The National University Commission should develop and pass mandatory policies that higher education institutions should use TEL models and where possible localize them for their own use. Higher education teachers and students should embrace and find fun in using the common electronic gadgets around them in teaching and learning Higher institutions should train the staff through seminars and constant workshops on the availability and use of the latest TEL tools.

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