Students Access to E-learning Resources and Their Academic Performance in College of Education

Chapter One Of Students Access to E-learning Resources and Their Academic Performance in College of Education

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Education is evolving. The method of teaching and information systems are becoming more and more convulsions of mediums of learning and research. Beginning from the tertiary levels down to the elementary levels, the curricular have shown a paradigmatic shift in learning methods and a broadening of resources.

With the advancement of information technology, education has become fast paced as there are lots of literature and resources available to both the teacher and student. The implication is that expectations become higher. The high paced expectations then requires a proportional engagement with the materials and a provision of resources to both teachers and students especially the latter. However, the state of the country make this almost impossible for students to lay their hands on these e-learning resources and in the event that these are available, the technological know-how impedes their optimum use. With most universities especially the private and federal ones installing the wireless internet connection for their staff and students and making laptops compulsory and affordably available to their students, the polytechnics and colleges of educations are left with little or no e-learning resources save the under equipped internet cafés in order to scrounge up little information.

Statement of the Problem

The level of input in students always show a direct correlation with their academic performances and in our present age we find that the quality and variety of this input is also of great significance. In this case it is important to look at the level of access of students to e-learning resources and how they reflect in their academic performance and if the research effort put into this research is anything to go by, this has not been studied before to show the impact of e-learning resources on the academic performance of students of colleges of education in Nigeria.

Research Questions

1.3.1      what are the very much needed e-learning resources in the average Nigerian college of education.

1.3.2      How does their availability or the lack of it bear upon their academic performance

1.3.3      How can the college authorities fund the provision of these needed e-learning resources.

Objectives of the Study

The purpose of this research work is to study and discuss how access to e-learning resources bear upon the academic performances of students of college of education in Nigeria. In order to conduct a full study of the above, the present study aims at:

• Describing what various course requirements of students of college of educations, their partial fulfilments and the degree of access they have to resources that can provide for the proportion of those requirements
• Enumerating the degree of academic performance of students of colleges of education and measuring it with those of their counterparts in the universities with a relative higher access to e-learning resources with similar course outlines like the General Studies

Significance of the Study

The research work will significantly enlighten managements of colleges of education in Nigeria on the importance of e-learning resources in the overall performance of their students so that emphasis will be made to the effect of their funding facilities for it. It will help make them realize that class lectures only contribute to only a small percentage of the possibilities of learning while e-learning materials help in internalizing what has been taught and further research on the object of learning.

Research Hypothesis

The assumption guiding this research work is one that sees a correlation between the students access to e-learning resources and the students’ academic performance.

Scope of the Study

The study is based on the research problem as it pertains to students of colleges of education. The e-learning resources considered here include the ones that are presently popular in Nigeria like the wireless internet network, laptops, language labs, etc.

Limitations of the Study

The broad nature of this research problem includes a wide range of schools to study. With the time frame and limited resources to carry out such a wide research, the present researcher was not able to do a detailed report as he would have desired to.

Definition of Terms

E-learning Resources

This refers to all materials of learning that aren’t the hard print materials.