THE INFLUENCE OF E LEARNING POSSIBILITIES ON THE ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE OF SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

E-learning is the act of taking a course online using a modem, wireless, or cable connection to access academic course materials from a computer, phone or other devices. Bermejo, 2005 defined E-learning as education that uses computerized communication systems as an environment for communication, the exchange of information and interaction between student and instructors.E-learning centers on the intersection of education, teaching, and learning with ICT (Okoro: 2000).It clearly preceded bytwo other disciplines: educational technology and distance education. These two disciplines have uniquely contributed to the intensive use of ICT for educational purposes. E-learning is also a natural evolution of distance learning, which has taken advantage of the latest tools to emerge in the context of technologies for structuring education. Secondary schools education in Nigeria today is the responsibility of entrepreneurs, agencies or groups such as religious bodies, communities, universities and corporate bodies. Decree No. 9 of 1993 prescribes minimum conditions to allow the establishment of universities under certain guidelines determined by the government. The supervision of these schools is secured by the federal and state ministries of education. In the Nigerian Secondary schools system, which includes private and public secondary schools, course unit system is presently being practiced. In recognition of the need to encourage private participation in the provision of secondary schools education, the Federal Government established a law 1992, allowing private sectors to establish universities following guidelines prescribed by the Government. Under the course unit system, students are required to take specific number of units of courses per week or per semester.

There is flexibility of choosing a preferred elective course under this course unity system and compulsory courses in their various disciplines. The course unit system is particularly interesting in the sense that students have the flexibility of choosing a course of their choice for a particular semester. The courses are designed in a stepwise manner so as to allow graduation from lower level to higher level. The science related courses are designed to allow for laboratory works. Consequently all departments are assumed to consist of academic professionals in deferment areas of interest. Each secondary schools in Nigeria is autonomous in areas of teaching and research. Research articles, field notes, lecture material, monographs, tutorial and other training materials are deposited in their repositories. This study is informed by the deplorable state of educational system in Nigeria due to the inadequate teaching learning facilities and infrastructures. Most libraries in Nigerian higher schools and secondary schools have audio-visual learning materials that are rarely utilized as a result of incessant power outages and sometimes lack of awareness on the part of the students. Hence, traditionally the main learning approach focuses on teachers rather than the students. A teacher determines what to teach, how to teach and thus, less concern about the students that is are at the receiving end. There are various learning approaches being put in place to compensate for the problems occasioned by this traditional learning paradigm. For example online instruction has the potential to provide opportunities for reflective and integrating learning outcomes. This approach provides the students adaptive personalized e-learning because it is a general term used to refer to computer-enhanced learning. It may involves the use of mobile technologies such as personal digital assistants and MP3/MP4 player and includes the use of web-based teaching materials and hypermedia in general, as rooms or web-sites, discussion boards, collaborative software, e-mail, blogs, wikis, text chart, computer aided assistant, educational animation, simulation, games, learning management software et cetera. Therefore, the survival of secondary school students in schools in the 21st century will increasingly rely on various forms of electronic delivery system and communication facilities that are available in markets as requirements for educational flexibility.