EXTENT OF INSTRUCTIONAL USE OF E-RESOURCES IN UNIVERSITIES AND COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN THE NORTH-CENTRAL STATES OF NIGERIA

Abstract

The  study  investigated   the  extent   of  the  Instructional   use  of  e-resources   in Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States of Nigeria; made up of Abuja, Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau states. It employed a descriptive  survey, using 7 research questions, 7 research  hypotheses  and 30-items research  questionnaire  instrument.  This  was  validated  by experts  in  the  field  of Educational  Technology,   Measurement   and   Evaluation,   Science  Education  and Curriculum  and Instruction,  trial tested by  administering  them to educators  in the College of Education Oju and School of Education, Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi,  which were excluded  in  the main study. The instruments  reliability was determined using Cronbach Alpha, with an established reliability coefficient of 0.81. Six Universities  and six  Colleges of education were purposefully sampled  for use, based on the  established  level of availability of e-resources.  The population of the study was made up of 3,266 lecturers from Colleges of Education and 385 from the Schools or Faculties of Education in the Universities, giving a total of 3651 lecturers. The sample  size of 1042  (260  from  five  Universities,  782 from  five  Colleges  of Education)  was proportionately determined  using the Krejele and  Morgan table of “determining sample size for research activities”. The instruments for data collection were a 30-item structured research questionnaire with sections A to D for Computer Assisted  Instruction;  Computer  Enriched  Instruction;  instructional  use  of  Internet Resources  and  Portable  e-Resources  respectively.  A  Focused  Group  Discussion (FGD)  instrument  was  employed   on  the  research  outcome,  to  probe  into  the respondents’ subconscious feelings and motivations to capture the dynamic emotional process and socially desirable forms of behaviour which could have not been easily reduced to statistical evaluations and reported by items along each research question and hypothesis. It was discovered that CAI, CEI, Internet Resources and Portable e- Resources are moderately used in the area of study. And that status rank, gender and age  have  no  influence  on  the  e-resources  use.  Recommendations   were  made, including that; Government should (1) make policy that will direct the integration of e-resources in the learning process; (2) Provide adequate course wares or contract for their production in subject areas; (3) Review curriculum to integrate e-learning in the learning process; (4) Provide Internet RAIN at reduced  cost, increased accessibility, larger bandwidth for instruction use; (5) set relevant committee to assess the extent of the negative effects Nigeria as a country stands  to face for not fully embracing e- resources  use  in  her  educational  system  and  recommend  emergency  measures  to redeem the situation; (6) make ICT a line budget in all her yearly budget allocations; (7) Host e-learning Africa and other conferences to increase educators participation; Curriculum and Educational Technology specialist should develop appropriate format for e-learning andragogy and pedagogy.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background to the Study

Education  has the capacity and vital role to play in providing man with what it takes  to survive  on  his  planet.  It  is  instrumental  to  Nations  of  the  world  in  achieving  their development. According to Okarfor in Okoyeocha (2010) Education is for life, for living and for what makes a man to live and function. For these reasons, there is a  growing need for providing quality educators through better curricula for improved  educational practice that will produce learners with potentials and abilities to connect with one another and the rest of the world for their development, survival and proper functioning in the society in which they live. According to Okojie, (2009:99) “Education systems of the world are being redesigned to rely more on electronics delivery methods” commonly referred to as the e-resources.

E-resources  are the technological  gadgets of Information  and Communication  Technology (ICT),  which  are  used  in  all  facets  of  human  endeavour  for  generating,  handling  and transmitting information. They are electronics resources built of components that are made of electronics  semiconductor  elements  like the silicon,  germanium,  phosphorus,  and arsenic, (Rashid, 2007). The e-resources include radio,  television, computer and its assorted course wares on removable resources, Internet  facilities, Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) projector, ipad, iPod, laptops,  assorted  forms  of cameras,  Personal  Digital Assistant  (PDA),  Visual Compact Disc (VCD) or Digital Visual Display (DVD) players and other assorted hand-held

devices, which can be used for collecting, processing, sorting, storing, retrieving, transmitting and receiving information for education purposes.

The use of these resources for education purposes has become the global trend in the third millennium. Under the third millennium globalization dispensation, e-resources are  part of the rapid communication  technological advancement,  which utilizes the  e-resources for e- learning in the education system; this forms the current paradigm in education emphasizing the use of e-resources to provide e-learning in the learning process. All the education systems of the world are being redesigned to provide for the e-learning format to equip their citizenry with  the  skills,  abilities  and  enthusiasm  to  utilize  the  e-resources  in everyday  life.  The countries that have provided e-resources and particularly platform for it use in education are referred to as being on the positive side of the international digital divide, and those that have not provided the platform as being on the negative side, (Ikyumen, 2011).

The rapid  communication  technological  advancement  prompts for more effective  training strategies in e-resources use, which has become the main tool for information dissemination in education enterprise (Okejie, 2009). Prospective workers, particularly prospective teachers will need to be educated using instructional process that utilizes e-resources so that they can cope with the demand  in the contemporary workplace  and  a paradigm  shift. The current paradigm  shift  focuses  on  the  student  learning  outcome  more  than  teacher  or  educator activities; so that it can be usefully asked, “as you have taught well, have they learnt?” The educators  require  complex  thinking  skills  that  are offered  by contents  distributed  on the various e-resources which can be accessed by those who posse e-literacy to keep pace with ever increasing development. This will afford individuals to engage in a broader horizon that offers meta-cognitive functioning abilities (abilities to use reasoning to produce reasoning or thinking  about   thinking)   so  as  to  establish   effective   cognitive   partnership   amongst

collaborative work group. To Monereo, Fuentes, and Sanchez, (2000), lack of ability in e- resources use in learning process (e-learning) that provides e-literacy defines a new type of illiteracy and alienation from the modern society.

According  to Downes,  Fluck, Gibbons,  Leonard,  Matthews,  Oliver, Vickers  &  Williams, (2001); the importance of e-literacy in the education system is accepted worldwide, and the various independent and government school systems have developed policies and programs intended to promote e-resources use in school administration as well as in teaching-learning process (e-education). This calls for training and retraining of educators on e-resources use in the teaching and learning, employing concepts and theories that govern both human thinking, reasoning and learning process, (Smith and Ragan, 1999).

For the educators to be effective facilitators of knowledge in the learning process in this e- learning era, they need to be equipped with the theories of learning as well as the skills in applying them appropriately in the various learning tasks, (Ortese, Yawe and Akume, 2006). This is important as they will need to use their knowledge of the theories of the process-ideas about how and why change occurs in learning process. This will equip them to plan, design, produce, select, use and evaluate learning with e-resources based on the process of building schemas, images, imagery, larger mental pictures and  concepts that cumulatively constitute learning in education. The acquisition of these knowhow for the prospective teachers takes place  in  the  Colleges  of  Education  and  in  the  faculties  of  Education  of  the  Nigerian Universities that train the prospective teachers.

Universities and Colleges of Education are dedicated to providing education to prospective teachers.  There are also National Teachers Institutes  (NTI; by distance)  and Polytechnics with NCE programmes as Osokoya, (2010), asserted that statutory responsibility for teacher education  in Nigeria  is vested  on Colleges  of Education  (COEs),  Polytechnics,  National

Teachers   Institutes   and  faculties   of  Education  of  Universities.   This  work   considers

Universities and Colleges of Education for being predominant in playing this role.

According  to  the  Federal  Government  of Nigeria’s  (FGN,  2009)  Joint  Admissions  and Matriculation Board Brochure, we have 31 teacher education institutions in the North Central States of Nigeria: 16 universities with faculties of education, and 15 colleges of educations offering NCE certificates. These serve as the education institutions that offer education to the prospective  educators  at  various  certificate  levels  (National  Certificate  in  Education  or Degree) in their respective institutions.

These education institutions employ various instructional delivery systems which can utilize the e-resources in the learning process. The states of arts employed by the educators in these institutions  include  assignment,  demonstration,  lecture,  project,  field  trips  and  discovery methods.  Of all the methods of imparting  knowledge  in the  institutions  of learning,  one method can be used singularly or in conjunction with one or more other methods to present information in a learning process. These methods can be integrated in several formats of e- resources use which include CAI, CEI, Internet  Resources and Portable e-Resources in the process of instruction.

Instruction is the process by which the educators pass information to be learnt to the learner in the learning process. When ‘instructional’ is used it refers to things taught; teaching in a particular  subject  or skill;  the  facts  or  skills  taught,  (Encarta  World  English  Dictionary,

2009). Instructional use of e-resources refers to the art of using e-resources in teaching and learning in a particular subject or skill, which in the new millennium, became the main thrust in experiments in educational technology specializations.

Experiments  carried  out  on  instructional  uses  of  e-resources  in  educational  institutions revealed that, the e-resources have great potentials to enhance classroom instructions in the conventional   schools,   which  includes   learning  efficiency,   time   economy  and  greater retention,   (Gbodi, Oyedum and Gambari, 2004; Adeyemi, 2005; Nwankwo and Idumange,

2005; Ikyumen, 2007a). The researchers used resources ranging from videotaped packages to computer  programs  like  the  Power  Point  presentations,  with  contents  distributed  among various icons (pictures or graphics) and symbols (letters) for representations. The potentials of these various media in the teacher education courses have been recognized and a variety of approaches  have  been  adopted  to  expose  pre-service  teachers  to  the  utilization  of these resources, (Mamer, 2006, and Nwafor, 2007). Research outcomes have suggested that the use of e-resources in various forms is a valuable catalyst for the successful integration of old and New Training Technologies  (ONTTs)  in the teachers’  education,  and subsequently  in the schools of lower learning,  where the teacher education products teach, (Roblyer, Jack, and Havriluk,  1997; Detroit Educational Technology Plan, 2006; and Ikyumen, 2007a & b). It becomes imperative to establish the availability of these e-resources so as to authenticate the possibility of investigating the extent of their use.

To establish the availability of these resources and policy statements directing for their use, a preliminary survey was conducted to find out from the Executive Secretaries of the National Commission  for  Colleges  of  Education  (NCCE)  and  National  Universities  Commission (NUC) their policy Statements and Government Supports on e-resources use (e-learning) in the  Teacher  Educational  Institutions  (TEIs),  which  include  Universities  and  Colleges  of Education.  Their  responses  were  not  too  far  apart.   Both  indicated   that  the  Federal Government   (FG)  provides   leadership   in  the   forms   of  committees,   supports,  policy statements,  e-learning projects, and  regulations on e-resources  use in the TEIs. There are Federal  Government  policy  statements  aimed  at encouraging  usage  among  students  and

lecturers.  The  Federal  Government  makes  provisions  in  the  form  of directives,  capacity building and infrastructure. Major Federal Government sources of funding are also available, which include the Education Trust Fund (ETF), Petroleum Development Fund (PDF), and Oil Companies. Funding supports also come from International Organisations like World Bank, UNESCO and McArthur Foundation ( Appendix 1).

To authenticate  the responses  of the NCCE  and NUC,  a set of questions  were posed  to Registrars in ten Universities and nine Colleges of Education located in the  North-Central States of Nigeria. The gathered information showed that the various  Teacher Educational Institutions have e-learning Internet facilities that can be used in the learning process. The Institutions  have provided  leadership,  supports, policy  statements,  e-learning projects and regulations and the Internet resources, (Appendix 3).

To confirm the availability of other e-resources in the individual Universities and Colleges of Education so as to justify their inclusion in the research, a set of  questions  was posed to resource/media centre technologists in the nineteen teacher training institutions in the area of the study. The e-resources components considered  were computers and its assorted course wares   on  removable   resources   (containing   Tutorial,   Simulations,   Drill  and   Practice, Statistical Package  for Social Sciences  (SPSS), Interactive  Multimedia,  Problem solving), handsets,   Internet   Services,   Power   Point  Projector,   CD  Interactive   Machine   and  its accompanying Soft Wares, Digital Camera, Blue Tooth, MP3, MP4, MP5, Electronic Boards, and Waist Band Amplifier (Appendix 4).

The feasibility study shows that, some Nigerian Universities and Colleges of Education in the area of study are networked to the Internet ready for instructional use (e-learning adoption). The Federal Government provides supports by the establishment of the  Galaxy Backbone; Step B (a supplement project to Galaxy Backbone) and National Policy on Information and

Communication   Technology.   Galaxy  Backbone  is  a  public  enterprise  of  the   Federal Government incorporated established in 2006 (Galaxy Backbone, 2009). A service that builds and operates a single nationwide (unified) Information Technology Infrastructure platform which provides  network services to all Federal Government  Ministries,  Departments  and Agencies.  It also  seeks to manage all national databases  and transversal applications  and service  for all Federal Government  Ministries,  Departments  and Agencies  (FGMDAs).  It

provides connectivity and Internet access to rural and under-served communities and 3rd party

customers. These are aimed to support the use of various forms of e-resources placed on the Internet across the world. The contents may also  includes student generated Digital Video in capturing  objects,  scenes  of  events  and  learning  process,  both  for  playbacks  and  video productions elsewhere in the world.

Student generated Digital Video in schools is increasingly becoming an area of interest to many researchers of ICT in education, hence the editing software is more accessible, both in terms of cost and use, (Kearney and Schuck, 2006). The teachers’ knowledge, involvement and ability to monitor groups collaborative abilities can facilitate students’ efforts to transact meanings and develop a common knowledge base, which can bring about authentic learning that  arouse  through  the  student  using  e-resources  like  digital  audio  recorders  and  video cameras in capturing activities in a learning environment.

Staff in any subject area can develop their subject content on these resources, and at the same time, capture live teachings of several concepts and produce them on Digital Visual Display (DVD) plates or memory cards for play backs. This may have positive effects or impacts on the students  in concretizing  in them the learned  concepts,  which  have been the focus of proliferate writings on educational technology e-resources in the new millennium, (Roblyer,

Jack, and Havriluk, 1997; Detroit Educational Technology Plan, 2006; and Ikyumen, 2007a

& b)

The  new  millennium   experienced   proliferative  writings  on  educational  technology  e- resources use in education.  Many laid emphases  directly on computers  and its  programs, (Ikyumen, 2007a; Ikyumen and Gbodi, 2007; Iyekekpolor & Ogbulu, 2006); some recognized other  new  training  technologies  (NTTs),  (Sandholtz,  Judy,  Ringstaff,  Carty,  Dwyer,  and David, 1997; Tayseer,  2004; Reiser & Demsey,  2002); some still  emphasized  on the old training technologies (OTTs), (Gbodi and Laleye, 2006). Many of the e-resources could at best  be  used  for  communication  of  information  in  learning.  Modular  Object-Oriented Dynamic  Learning  Environment  (Moodle),  a  free  web  application  used  for  curriculum development  and programmes in the learning of  management  information system, can be used by educators to create effective on-line learning sites, (Moodle.org, no date) It can be used for course management,  courseware, course assignments  and examinations.  It has a feature  of  ‘technology  and  pedagogy  study  group’  colloquium,  devoted  to  the  study  of advanced technology, pedagogy and andragogy, which carter for the current learning needs to

drive educational technology in the 21st  century. The base tool for the use of most of these

facilities is the computer.

The e-resources predominantly utilize computer for their usefulness. The only way computer can be instructionally useful in teacher educational institutions is by the  utilization of the various  Computer  application  packages,  like  Tutorial,  Simulations,  Drill  and  Practice, Statistical Package  for Social Sciences (SPSS),   Interactive  Multimedia,  Problem solving, various  other  subject  course  wares  and  networking.   These  are  used  in  instructional management,    supplementary    exercises,    programming,    database    development,    word processing, video editing packages; and several Internet resources. The practice of integrating

these  activities  in  the  instructional  process,  are  distributed  between  Computer  Assisted Instruction (CAI), and Computer Enriched Instruction (CEI), and at this infant  stage of e- resources use they are not clearly separated from each other. Some CAI activities are found described by researchers under CEI; and CEI under CAI activities.

Computer  Assisted  Instruction  (CAI)  is  a  narrower  term  compared  to  Computer  Based Education, and it refers to activities offered by computer themselves, or as supplements to traditional teacher directed instructions; like simulations, tutorials,` problem solving and drill and  practice.  According  to  Nwafor  (2007),  it  can  be  prescriptive  or  explorative.  The prescriptive form of CAI seeks to thoroughly impact to the learner complete understanding of the selected learning contents. The explorative  form supports the learner to acquire higher cognitive  skills  like  problem-solving  skills   and  meta-cognition  by  providing  memory scaffoldings with lower level skills and making room for their reconstruction to accommodate new knowledge. Salomon in Nwafor, (2007) emphasized that, when a partnership is created where computer forms the lower cognitive skills and supports the learners’ performance of higher  tasks,  it  offers  guidance  that  might  be  internalised  to  become  self-guidance  and stimulate the underdeveloped skills leading to higher level of skill mastery. It is used to assist the educators to supplement teacher directed lessons and assist the learners in assignments, practices  and  exercises.  These  facilities  are  not  too  different  from  Computer  Enriched Instruction, as most of the characteristics of the one are found in the other.

Computer  Enriched  Instruction,  refers  to  the  practice  that  utilizes  packages  in  which computer accepts inputs and generates information at the output, through which  the user’s performance  could be evaluated,  (Roblyer,  Jack, and Havriluk,  1997;  Hussaini,  2004). It includes the use of resources which the educator carefully selects and engage the learner to

‘enrich’ as well as ‘supplement’ lessons already taken so as to broaden the learners’ horizon,

(Hussaini, 2004; Lawal, 2004; Mamer, 2006; Nwafor, 2007). These could be experienced in packages like the SPSS, Interactive multimedia, drill and practice,  simulations and uses of soft wares like photo-shop, Microsoft Excel, and Power-Point. Some of the programs can be accommodated on Portable e-Resources (PER) that have larger memory space and operating system.

Another set of e-resources are the Portable e-Resources (PER) which are devices that  are small enough to be carried about or that can be held in hand and carried about where ever. They can provide opportunities in which the learner can easily and  smoothly carry out his learning process anytime, anywhere. Some of these are the mobile phone, laptop, semi laptop, iPod, ipad, mp3, mp4, mp5, palmtop, computers, windows mobile and blue tooth. In recent times, many researchers like Boyinbode and Akintola, (2009);

ITU,  (2005)  are  concerned  with  the  Portable  e-Resources  for  ubiquitous  learning  (“u- learning”) which is, learning platforms or environment structured by ubiquitous computing technology. Under this concept and practice, Blue-Tooth are used to transfer data from one computer to another in close proximity; tests are administered to students through Projected Power  Point  slides  after  lectures;  Students  are  involved  in  using  ‘documentation’  and supplementary materials on CDs to enrich their study; use digital video camera to take video clips of processes to produce Videos; and produce  videos  of  live teachings  for playback. These are the necessary components of e-resources that  can be used for instruction in the Universities and Colleges of Education, which this work investigates their use. Virtually, all the learning concepts that are found on the above e-resources discussed can be placed on the Internet for learners to access anywhere in the world for learning.

Internet (the net) is a global collection  of computers  connected  to each other,  forming  a network  of  thousands  of  computers  from  individuals,  research  institutions,  government

agencies,  business houses,  and at universities  throughout  the world, (Feldman,  2003;  Go,

2000; Kirschner and Woperies, 2003; Akudolu, 2004; Ikyumen, 2009). It is a heterogeneous channel with vast resources;  the pinnacle  of integration of technologies  into the learning process, which contain vast and limitless sources of all forms of on-line library, museum and other forms of information.  According  to Go (2000),  Kirschner  and Woperies,  (2003),  it provides opportunities for sophisticated repertoire of teaching strategies. The more versatile resources have been provided by the Internet resources which are accessed by whoever that is connected to the network through a wireless system or a modem. The use of these various e- resources offers several advantages to learners and to the education system as a whole.

The various advantages of learning with e-resources as discovered by Biztro, (no date), and Ikyumen (2007 a and b) include learning effectiveness, time saving,  producing measurable results, learning at ones’ pace, cost effectiveness, flexibility, personalized learning, develops knowledge  and provides for high level of concentration.  Biztro, (no  date), however listed some disadvantages of e-learning as offered by the e-resources as; access problem, software and files management problem, need for high motivation, isolation of the user from human support and interaction, (except interactive programs) constant challenge of knowledge and skills update of the users as a result of new emerging e-resources. Recently, researchers like Sturgeon, (2004) and Schings, (no date), have discovered that, Cyber-loafing pose a serious problem to institutions that have the e-resources; the concept that refers to the employees’ use of official e-resources to perform un-official work during the office hours. These e-resources are utilized by both young and older educators.

Educators’  age  is  a  significant  factor  in  e-resources  utilization  in  the  Universities  and Colleges of Education. Carvin (1999) is of the opinion that, older and higher status educators potentially have more opportunities to develop network of colleagues in collegial e-resources

utilization activities, as they belong to a larger educational community so could stand  the chance of facing greater challenges and opportunities to utilize the e-resources. On the other hand, the younger educators are very enthusiastic about the e-resources and spend much time even on the expense of crucial matters in learning or using them. That is to say, educators of all ages stand several chances of utilizing the e-resources. These may equally stand true of the educator  status.  As  the  e-resources  use  in  the  instruction  process  is  at  the  infant  level globally,  it suffices  here to cluster the ages  of educators under younger educators (20-45 years) and older educators (46-65 years) for analyses of their respective use.

Educator status ranges from Graduate Assistance to Lecturer one (1) on the lower rank cadre, and Senior Lecturer to Professor (Chief Lecturer in the Colleges of Education) at the higher rank  cadre  in  the  teacher  education  system.  Both  of  education  cadres  use  any  of  the instructional methodologies in the teaching-learning process and can integrate their learning materials on any of the e-formats (CAI, CEI, Internet resources and Portable e-Resources) of information presentations in the instruction process.

Educators’ instructional styles reflect their own interaction patterns, those who learn from their colleagues and present their ideas and opinions to their colleagues are more likely to get their learners develop some collegial learning in the learning processes (Carvin, 1999). The older and higher status educator may need skills from the younger and lower status, while the younger may need the cooperation of the older & higher status to get network of colleagues in collegial e-resources utilization. The educators of all ages and status can be of any gender and equally stand the chances of making the instructional use of e-resources.

Gender factor is deemed necessary to be included in this work. With the Nigerian female educators’  statistics  of 17% in the tertiary  educational  institutions  in 2004,    34% in the secondary  schools  in 2007,  and  48% in the primary education  in 2007  (United  Nations,

2010), female  gender   is seen to constitute significant  percentage  of educators across  the levels of education to give gender sufficient attention in research of this nature.

Statement of the Problem

Teacher  education systems of the world are being redesigned  to rely more on  e-learning systems which utilize e-resources. The prospective teachers therefore have to be prepared to cope with this change  in their future  contemporary  workplace,  both for  pedagogical  and andragogical update. The feasibility study (Appendixes 1, 3, and 4) shows that Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States of Nigeria have several e-resources that can be utilized in the teaching-learning process, The Federal Government provides supports through several e-resources services; Universities and Colleges of Education have provided support for e-resources utilization; Several internet service providers are available, including mobile modems; and several modes of e-resources adoption in the Universities and Colleges of Education are available.

The Federal Government has made much effort through the Federal Ministry of Education, the Galaxy Backbone, STEP B, the National Policy on Information Technology (“Use It”), The NUC, and the NCCE to provide the necessary infrastructure and policy for e-learning in the Universities and Colleges of Education. There is availability of numerous e-resources like the computer,  Computer  applications  packages  (CAI & CEI), Internet  services (including Modems provided by various service providers like the GLO, MTN, Multi-links, Etisalat and Celtel), and Portable  e-Resources  (mobile e-resources,  ubiquitous resources or Hand Held Devices).  The   Federal  Government  has  invested  in  the  Universities  and  Colleges  of Education and assume that Nigerian University graduates especially prospective teachers, are e-learning compliant, so could be instrumental in training about 5000 masses to acquire the e- skills  during  their  service  year  (FRN,  2008).  With  the  Government   investments  and

discoveries researchers have made of the benefits of e-resources use in education and the fact that Nigeria education system is expected to employ the e-learning paradigm shift to enable her products perform  well at the certificate  examinations  and compete  favourably at the world labour market. However, there is a public outcry on the performance in the Certificate Examinations.

There is a lamentation on the alarming failure rate of the West African Examination Council (WAEC) and National Examination Council, (NECO) (Bunmi, 2012), which are examination bodies mandated  by the federal government  through the ministry of  education to conduct senior   certificate   examinations   for   graduating   students   of   senior   secondary   schools

throughout the nation. Earlier on, Daily Trust (Wednesday, 6th April, 2011) reported that out

of 25 subjects registered  by 256, 840 candidates in the NECO examination,  no  candidate scored up to 50% Credit pass! The NECO (November/December,  2009)’s “results showed

98% failing to clinch five Credits, including English and Mathematics”. Only 1.8% got five credits, including English and Mathematics; the poorest result in the history of the examining body (Bunmi, 2012). Coupled with the lamentation of these examination  bodies (WAEC,

1992,  1998,  2002,  2005;  FRN,  2000;  FRN,  2001)  on  ever  increasing  mass  failures  in examination by learners who are taught by Universities and Colleges of Education graduates; which  these  examination  body accredit  to  lack  of proper  use of  appropriate  educational learning  resources  dominated  by e-resources;  this  research  work  is  therefore  set  out  to investigate the extent of the instructional use of e-resources in the Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States of Nigeria.

Purpose of the Study:

The purpose of the study is to explore the extent of instructional use of e-resources in the Universities  and Colleges  of Education  in the North Central states of Nigeria.  The  study specifically determines:

       The extent of instructional use of Computer Assisted Instruction in the  Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria;

       The extent of instructional use of Computer Enriched Instruction in the  Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria;

       The extent of instructional use of Internet Resources in the Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria;

    The  extent  of  instructional  use  of  Portable  e-Resources  in  the  Universities  and

Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria;

    Influence  of educator’s  rank cadre on their  instructional  use of e-resources  in  the

Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria;

    Influence  of  educator’s  gender  on  their  instructional  use  of  e-resources  in  the

Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria;

       Influence of educator’s age on their instructional use of e-resources in the Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria.

Significance of the Study

The theoretical significance of this work is that, it treated the use of e-resources in relation to relevant theories which provide simpler ways of facilitating learning through the use of the various  e-resources  packages  it  utilized.  It provides  a link  between  the  social  cognitive development theory, constructivist theory of cognitive development in a learning process and methododical time controlled events in constructed environmental conditions to bear on the learning practice in the learning environment.

It outcome contributes in pushing the frontier of knowledge in educational technology and provides information and empirical data on the extent of instructional use of e-resources in the Nigerian Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States.

When the outcome of this work is made available to the curriculum planners, it will inform them to review the curriculum structure to integrate the use of e-resources to follow the current paradigm shift in the education systems of the world.

Its  recommendations  will  inform  government  Agencies  like  the  National  Education  and Research Development Council (NERDC) to organize Seminars and workshops to enlighten the soft ware developers  to develop  various soft wares in the various  disciplines  and on various e-resources format that are relevant and useful to our teaching/learning needs.

Recommendations  made  to professional  bodies  like the Science  Teachers  Association  of Nigeria  (STAN),  National  Association  of Educational  and Media Technology  (NAEMT), National   Association   For   Advancement   of   Knowledge   (NAFAK),   Association   for Encouraging Qualitative Education in Nigeria (ASSEQEN), will help them to include in their conferences,  symposia,  seminars and workshops, techniques  of  production, utilization and evaluation with e-resources.

When government accepts and adopts recommendations of this work and organizes seminars and workshops on its outcome, it will profit the book writers and publishers, to structure their text books in the modular  and evaluative  system,  incorporating  the use  of e-resources  to afford integrated multi-media utilization approaches.

Workshops on the research outcome will inform the parents to support in subscribing  and equipping the schools’ e-resources centres for their children to learn with e-resources.

Scope of the Study

The study covers the extent of instructional use of CAI, CEI, Internet Resources and Portable e-Resources  in  the  Universities  and  Colleges  of  Education.  Institutionally  it  covers  the Colleges of Education and Universities’ Faculties or Schools of Education. Geographically it covers  the  North  Central  States  of  Nigeria,  which  includes  Abuja  (the  Federal  capital Territory), Benue, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger and Plateau states.

Research Questions

To guide the researcher to achieve the aim of this study, the following research  questions were raised and answered;

1. What is the extent of use of CAI by teacher educators in Universities and Colleges  of

Education in the North Central states of Nigeria?

2. What is the extent of use of CEI by teacher educators in Universities  and Colleges  of

Education in the North Central States of Nigeria?

3. What  is the extent of use of Internet  Resources  for instructional  purposes  by  teacher educators  in  Universities  and  Colleges  of  Education  in  the  North  Central  states  of Nigeria?

4. What is the extent of use of Portable e-Resources for instructional purposes by teacher educators in Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria?

5. What influence does educators’ rank cadre have on the instructional use of e-resources in

Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria?

6. What influence does educators’ gender have on the instructional use of e-resources in

Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria?

7.  What  influence  does  educators’  age  have  on  the  instructional  use  of  e-resources  in

Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central states of Nigeria?

Research Hypotheses

The following research hypotheses were formulated and tested at .05 level of significance:

1.  There  is  no  significant  difference  between  mean  rating  of  Lower  and  Higher  cadre educators’ use of CAI in Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States of Nigeria.

2. There is no significant difference between mean rating of Lower and Higher cadre educators’ use of CEI in Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States of Nigeria.

3.  There  is  no  significant  difference  between  mean  rating  of  Lower  and  Higher  cadre educators’ use of Internet Resources in Universities  and Colleges of  Education in the North Central States of Nigeria.

4. There is no significant difference between mean rating of Lower and Higher cadre educators’ use of Portable e-Resources in Universities and Colleges of Education in the North Central States of Nigeria.

5. There is no significant difference in the mean rating of instructional use of e-resources in the Universities and Colleges of Education among teacher educators according to rank cadre in the area of the study.

6. Gender is not a significant factor in the mean rating of instructional use of e-resources in the Universities and Colleges of Education in the area of the study.

7. Age is not a significant factor in the mean rating of instructional use of e-resources in the

Universities and Colleges of Education in the area of the study.

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