TABLE OF CONTENTS
Pages
Title Page – – – – – – – – – –
Approval Page – – – – – – – – –
Certification Page – – – – – – – –
Acknowledgement Page – – – – – – –
Table of Contents – – – – – – – – –
List of Tables – – – – – – – – –
Abstract – – – – – – – – –
CHAPTER ONE:
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study – – – – – – – –
Statement of Problem – – – – – – – –
Purpose of the Study – – – – – – – – –
Research Questions – – – – – – – – –
Significance of the Study – – – – – – – –
Scope of the Study – – – – – – – – –
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW
OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Framework- – – – – – – –
Internet Resources: An Overview- – – – – –
Potentials of Internet Literacy
Skills to the Academic
Staff of the Universities- – – – – – –
Method of Internet Literacy Skills
Acquisition – – –
Internet Connectivity in Nigerian
Universities – – – –
Factors Inhibiting Internet
Connectivity in Nigerian Universities – –
Review of Empirical Studies – – – – – – –
Summary of the Literature Review – – – – –
CHAPTER THREE:
RESEARCH METHODS
Research Design – – – – – – – – –
Area of the Study – – – – – – – – –
Population of the Study – – – – – – – –
Sample and Sampling Technique – – – – – – –
Instrument for Data Collection – – – – – – –
Validation of the Instrument – – – – – – – –
Method of Data Collection – – – – – – – –
Method of Data Analysis – – – – – – – –
CHAPTER FOUR:
PRESENTATION OF DATA – – –
CHAPTER FIVE:
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
Discussion of Findings – – – – – – –
Implication of the Study – – – – – – –
Recommendations – – – – – – – –
Suggestions for further Research – – – – – –
Limitations – – – – – – – – –
Conclusion – – – – – – – – –
References
Appendices
List of Tables
Table 1: Distribution of Academic Staff by Faculty, Department and Grade level – – – – – –
Table 2: Distribution and return rate of the questionnaire – –
Table 3: Academic staff response on available e-resources for teaching and research – – – – – –
Table 4: Academic staff response on Level of Internet literacy skills – – – – – – – –
Table 5: Academic staff response on Method of Internet literacy skills acquisition – – – – –
Table 6: Academic staff response on Frequency of Internet usage – – – – – – –
Table 7: Academic staff response on the Perceived benefits of Internet literacy skills – – – – –
Table 8: Academic staff response on problems that hinder the acquisition of Internet literacy skills – – –
Table 9: Academic staff response on Strategies for enhancing the acquisition of Internet literacy skills – – –
Abstract
This study assessed internet
literacy skills of academic staff in two faculties, in the University of
Nigeria, Nsukka. It sought to find out the available e-resources, level of
internet literacy skills, methods of internet literacy skills acquisition, frequency
of internet usage, perceived benefits of internet literacy skills, problems and
strategies for enhancing acquisition of internet literacy skills of the
academic staff. A descriptive survey design was used for the study with a
population of 354 academic staff. Sample size of 212 (60%) of the population
was used for the study. The instrument for data collection was structured
questionnaires with 57 question items which were appropriately validated by
three persons. These include the supervisor and two other lecturers in the
department of library and information science.
Percentages, mean scores and frequency tables were used in analyzing the
data to answer the seven research questions mapped out for the study. The
findings revealed that CD-ROM databases, On-line catalogue, E-journal,
Internet/web, E-mail, E-books, On-line databases, E-thesis, and Digital
archives are available e-resources for teaching and research. It also
discovered that the academic staff of the faculties under study have internet literacy
skills on booting of the computer, logging in and logging out of the internet,
using www to find out information for academic purposes, saving files from a
web page, use of various search engines in sourcing for academic materials,
connecting to the internet, sending and receiving e-mail messages, downloading
files from the internet and sending attachments with e-mail messages but are
found to be illiterate in such areas like
use of e-resources in teaching and research, uploading file on the internet,
use of web 2.0 tools in teaching and research and taking part on on-line
discussion and chat with colleagues. It also revealed that guidance by friends
and colleagues and institutional training are the major methods they acquired
these skills and majority make use of the internet in weekly and monthly bases.
The study also discovered that provision of current information, ability to
access global information, collaboration amongst colleagues, avenue for
researchers’ exposure among others are some of the perceived benefits of internet
literacy skills. It was found that lack of governmental and institutional
support for training, unstable power supply, unstable internet connectivity, and
system breakdown are some of the problems affecting the acquisition of internet
literacy skills. The study recommends that adequate governmental and
institutional funding for training and ICT facilities, stable internet
connectivity, provision of stable power supply, use of train-the-trainers
techniques and training and re-training
of academic staff on internet usage for easy and effective utilization of the
internet services are some of the strategies for enhancing the acquisition of
internet literacy skills.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Information
and Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes all
technologies for the manipulation and communication of information. It
encompasses any medium to record information (magnetic disk, tape, optical
disks (DVD/CD), flash and paper record), technologies for broadcasting
information (radio, television, cinema), technologies for communicating through
voice and sound or images (microphone, camera, loudspeaker, telephone to
cellular phones) and wide varieties of computing hard wares (Desktop computers,
laptops, servers, mainframes, networked storage (Wikipedia, 2009). Along with
this rapid technological advancement entered the “internet”, which has today
created a borderless surge for information.
The
internet is a complex network of networked computers that can convey all kinds
of messages – including sounds, images and data. Within the global
communication networks provided by the Internet, the World Wide Web provides a
flexible network of networks ‘where institutions, businesses, associations and
individuals create their own “sites” on the basis of which everybody with
access can produce their own “home page” made of a variable collage of text and
images’ (Castells, 1996). The internet has revolutionized how information is
being disseminated holistically and the universities are not exception. Within
universities in Nigeria,
there is evidence of changes brought by internet which has become a point of
first resort for information on practically anything and has implication far
beyond teaching learning and research. With the use of the internet,
information could be accessed in any subject field of interest through the help
of the World Wide Web, electronic mails, news groups, electronic journals,
electronic databases, video conferences and lately Web 2.0, thereby bridging
the communication lacuna and global divide. ICT has an impact on the day-to-day
life of education planners, yet knowing how to look for information, how to
analyze it, how to represent it, how to evaluate it, and how to use it will
certainly be competencies necessary for anybody who wants to compete in the new
knowledge economy.
By Academics, we are specifically referring to
the chosen group of men and women who are gifted either by nature or nurture to
devote their lives to the business of unraveling society (Echezona and Ogwu,
2010). Academics are assigned certain basic functions in the Universities.
These are:
- To promote inquiry and advance the sum of human
knowledge,
- To provide general instructions and guidance to students
for further readings
- To live and interact with colleagues and others
in academic community
- To make direct contribution towards providing
solutions to various practical national problems and
- To develop experts for various branches of the
public services (Akrami ,2001) .
In a nutshell, these
men are required to encourage the advancement and pursuit of learning in all
its branches through study, teaching, research and community services.
As people who carry out research and
communicate research reports, they need information in varying degrees to
satisfy their information needs. The use of internet by the Academic Staff in
Nigerian Universities should ordinarily be limitless as it has reduced to the
barest minimum the stress and strain they pass through in their bid to source
for and retrieve information to meet the challenges of teaching, research and
community service. Internet has brought transformation into many aspects of
life and has also been one of the biggest contributors in making the world a
global village. Hossein (2000) states that internet access has assisted in
facilitating education at length and that the use of the internet not only
facilitates research and data management, but also helps in monitoring of
achievement through learning outcome. She goes further to say that the internet
disseminates information twenty-four hours in a day on current works on world
events, discoveries and developments in all areas of knowledge. Internet has really helped in conducting a
good research and easy dissemination of information in the 21st
century and has opened up numerous possibilities for doing resource sharing at
local and global levels and information on latest journals, books and
discussion can be exchanged directly through the internet. There is no doubt
that knowledge is a common good and ICT supported education contribute to
making information more available to the people. Therefore the internet must be
acquired in other to have access to avalanche information on the web.
Assessment
of the academic staff internet literacy skills is very crucial in order to
determine their state in this globalized era. Skill is the learned capacity to
carry out pre-determined results often with the minimum outlay of time, energy
or both. Baron (2008) postulates that skill is a measure of a worker’s
expertise, specialization and supervisory capacity. He further explained that
it is the capacity to do something well; technique, ability which are usually
acquired or learned, as opposed to abilities which are often thought of as
innate. Generally skill refers to a person’s ability to perform various types
of cognitive or behavioural activity effectively. To assess is to evaluate,
measure, estimate or classify someone or something with respect to its worth,
nature, quality, ability, extent or significance (Adam and Wood, 1999). It is
the process of determining, usually in measurable terms, knowledge, skills,
attitudes and beliefs possessed by someone.
Assessing internet literacy skills, Bacon
(1995) identified seven dimensio
