THE APPLICATION OF INNOVATIVE ICT FACILITIES FOR EFFECTIVE BUSINESS EDUCATION TEACHING AT MICHAEL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE
Abstract
There has long been a problem with business education lecturers and students not using information and communication technology (ICT) in teaching and learning. Interactions and observations with respondents prompted further research into the use of innovative ICT facilities for effective business teaching. The descriptive and survey designs were used in this study, which was conducted at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture with a population of 1392.
Five research questions were posed, as well as five null hypotheses. The collected data were analyzed using percentages, and the five null hypotheses were tested using the Independent T-test at the 0.05 level of significance. The study’s findings revealed, among other things, that ICT has not made a significant positive change in the teaching and learning of business education due to a lack of ICT facilities, the high cost of acquiring ICT facilities, and a poor network.
Because the t-value was greater than the t-critical value, the first, second, third, and fifth null hypotheses were rejected. Based on the findings, the researcher concluded that the majority of business education lecturers and students lack ICT skills, making it difficult for them to compete in the workplace.
The researcher made some recommendations, including that business education lecturers engage in continuous training in ICT facilities to deliver more effective instruction. Furthermore, adequate and sustainable funding is required to ensure the program’s survival.
TABLE OF MATERIALS
Abstract
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 The Study’s Background
1.2 Problem Description
1.3 The Study’s Objectives
1.4 Research Issues
1.5 Research Theories
1.6 Importance of the Research
1.7 The Study’s Fundamental Assumptions
1.8 Research limitations
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED WORKS
2.1 Theoretical Foundation
2.2 Information, Communication, and Technology Concept
2.3 Business Education Concept
2.4 Business Education Teaching and Learning Concept
2.5 The use of cutting-edge ICT tools for effective teaching and learning
Coursework in Business Education
2.6 Empirical Research
2.7 Literature Review Synopsis
CHAPTER THREE
DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY OF RESEARCH
3.1 Research Plan
3.2 The Study’s Population
3.3 Sample Size and Sampling Method
3.4 Data Collection Instrument
3.4.1 The Instrument’s Validity
3.4.2 Pilot Research
3.4.3 Instrument Dependability
3.5 Data Collection Procedure
3.6 Data Analysis Procedure
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
4.1 Demographic Information –
4.2 Research Question Answering
4.3 Testing Hypotheses
4.4 Discussion of Results
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION, AND RECOMMENDATION IN CHAPTER FIVE
5.1 Executive Summary
5.2 Final Thoughts
Recommendations (5.3)
5.4 Study Restrictions
5.5 Suggestions for Additional Research
References
Appendices
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 STUDY BACKGROUND
Education is the most powerful agent of change and the foundation of both industrial development and socioeconomic growth. Education is the most important investment a country can make for the rapid development of its social, economic, political, technological, and human resources.
As a result, most countries around the world prioritize education in their development efforts. Developed countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and Japan, among others, have embraced and recognized technology as a means of achieving economic independence and self-sufficiency.
Information and communication are inextricably linked, and while information can always be communicated, not everything communicated is information. Only when data derived from communication is organized and interpreted in such a way that it contains meaning beyond the individual facts and can be used in decision making does communication become information. While technology refers to the tools that people and organizations use to get things done more quickly, easily, or efficiently.
Communication and Information Technology is a powerful force that has altered many aspects of our lives. When comparing fields such as medicine, tourism, business, law, banking, engineering, and architecture over the last two or three decades, the impact of ICT has been enormous. These fields operate in vastly different ways than they did in the past, but when it comes to business education, there appears to be an uncanny lack of influence and far less change than other fields have experienced.
Business education is an important component of general education that emphasizes the acquisition of skills and competencies for use in offices and businesses. According to Aliyu (2006), business education is education for the development of skills and competencies, as well as attitudes that are required for the efficiency of the eco-social system. According to Nwanewezi (2010), business education includes office occupation education, business teaching, business administration, and economic understanding.
In today’s business world, business education curricula must replace the traditional pedagogical practices that continue to underpin the teaching and learning process. The most significant competitive challenges that business education products face are that they appear to be relatively deficient in computer skills and understanding of international business trends. The curriculum requires ICT not only as a tool for communication, but also for teaching and learning, as well as for conducting research.
The rapid advancement of information and communication technologies is opening up new avenues for the creation and dissemination of knowledge. These technologies have fundamentally altered how we live, work, and learn, and they have transformed us into a global community.
This is consistent with Ononogbo’s (1990) assessment of information and communication technology as a revolution that has permeated almost all fields of human activity, transforming our economic and social lives. As a result, information and communication technology refers to the use of skills such as browsing, power point, and Microsoft Word in combining information and communication processes and devices to obtain, analyze, store, recall, and transmit accurate information from one location to another at high speed.
In general, teaching is a deliberate effort to effect desired behavioral change. The modifications affect the three major domains of Bloom’s taxonomy of educational abilities, which include cognitive, affective, and psychomotor abilities. Teaching affects cognitive ability by increasing the ability to store useful information and understanding of basic concepts, principles, and operations taught in a specific subject.
Teaching provides a change in the possession of desirable attitudes and ideals in the affective domain. It also helps the learner develop by increasing their satisfaction with their learning achievements. Teaching in the area of psychomotor abilities results in changes in the acquisition of practical skills, abilities, and habits for efficiently performing certain job activities.
Learning is defined as the modification of a person’s behavior in a specific field of study so that his or her behavior changes permanently. Learner behavior can be modified during the learning process through organized experience. Learners are given the opportunity to acquire knowledge that will allow them to complete a given task completely during the learning process.
Globally, the nature of teaching and learning is rapidly changing as a result of increased interaction from more accessible global telecommunication networks driven by internet content. There is an increasing capacity of information and communication technology.
increase in new learning opportunities outside of the traditional book-teacher model Because of the shift from teacher-centered to student-centered learning via the internet, teachers and students at all levels must embrace information and communication technology.
Information and communication technology is widely regarded as a model instrumental tool that enables business educators to modify the teaching and learning methods they employ in order to increase student interest. Though the chalkboard, textbooks, typewriters, duplicating machine, dictating machine, radio, and film have all been used in business education over the years, none has had the same impact on the teaching and learning process as the computer-internet.
While typewriters and radios only have a slow impact on users’ audiovisual facilities and skill acquisition, computers can activate users’ senses of sight, hearing, and touch. ICT has the potential to provide users with more interactive opportunities to develop their individual skills, intellectual and creative abilities.
The collective and rigid nature of learning, as well as the nature of learning associated with the use of a typewriter, radio, duplicating machine, and chalkboard, do not contribute significant innovative changes to traditional business education program teaching methods.
In the developed world, information and communication technology are being used for instructional functions in teaching and learning, as many nations are including computer literacy, reading literacy, and writing literacy as skills students will need to succeed in a technologically developed world.
The goal of reviewing existing programs or designing new ones is to ensure that they meet current or emerging challenges in a discipline. The primary goal of curriculum study and development programs in business education is to improve school quality in order to make them more capable of arming students with broad knowledge and diverse skills.
According to studies, there is a gap in the curriculum content of business education. According to Okeke and Eze [2010], vocational education [including business education] has an inadequate curriculum to meet the current technological development, which is based on information and communication technology. However, a reasonable degree of correlation should exist between the curriculum in use and the knowledge and skills required by employers. School curricula should be designed to produce graduates for current jobs rather than jobs that existed several years ago.
With the introduction of information and communication technology into university business education courses, teaching and learning have shifted from traditional chalkboard to electronic learning, requiring teachers and students to have skills such as internet browsing, Microsoft word, power point, Microsoft excel, and teleconferencing gadgets.
According to Nwosu (2003), the benefits of ICT skills to business education students include the development of multiple sensory delivery, increased self expression, active and cooperative learning. Graduates of business education from various universities are expected to be at the forefront of applying ICT skills in their daily interactions, which is geared toward preparing them for the workplace and the classroom.
All of this serves as the foundation for the study. The use of innovative ICT facilities for effective teaching business education courses at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Nigeria was planned.
1.2 THE PROBLEM’S STATEMENT
Despite the incorporation of ICT into the curriculum of business education in Nigerian universities, NCE business education students’ performance has remained unchanged. Despite the introduction of new ICT-based teaching methods, most lecturers prefer to use traditional methods in teaching and learning business education such as chalk board, obsolete equipment for teaching skills acquisition courses such as typewriter. Many reasons have been advanced by lecturers and students for continuing to use the old method of teaching and learning.
According to the researcher’s interactions with some lecturers from the colleges studied, the incorporation of ICT in teaching business education courses has had little impact due to the lack of relevant ICT facilities for teaching purposes.
Similarly, the students interviewed complained that the ICT facilities provided by the colleges are not available to the students, causing them to be deficient in using new technology. A lack of adequate ICT facilities tends to impede effective teaching of business education courses.
Other students with whom the researcher interacted complained that some lecturers are inept at using ICT to teach their students. This is why such lecturers prefer to teach in the traditional manner. This is supported by Adeshina (2007), who stated that in order for business education lecturers to grow professionally and remain relevant, they must have ICT skills.
Based on the foregoing, the researcher is interested in learning the extent to which ICT has influenced business education courses in Nigerian universities.
1.3 THE STUDY’S OBJECTIVES
The primary goal of this research is to determine the extent to which information and communication technology influences business education course teaching in Co, Nigeria. The specific goals are as follows:
determine the extent to which business education lecturers and students are proficient in the use of ICT facilities in the classroom at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria
Determine the extent to which ICT facilities are available for teaching business education courses at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria.
determine the extent to which ICT facilities provided for teaching business education courses at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria are used
Identify the difficulties in using ICT facilities to teach business education courses at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria.
Identify the extent to which available ICT facilities have aided students in learning business education courses at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria.
1.4 QUESTIONS FOR RESEARCH
The following research questions were addressed for the purposes of this study:
Are business education lecturers at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria, proficient in the use of information and communication technology in the classroom?
Are ICT facilities available at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Nigeria for teaching business education courses?
To what extent are ICT resources used to teach business courses at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria?
What are the difficulties in using ICT facilities to teach business education courses at Michael Okpara University in Umudike, Nigeria?
To what extent do available ICT facilities aid business education students in their studies at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria?
1.5 THEORIES OF RESEARCH
The following null hypotheses were tested in accordance with the specific objectives and research questions:
In Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria, there is no significant difference in the opinions of business education lecturers and students regarding the use of information and communication technology facilities for teaching business education courses.
There is no significant difference in opinion between business education lecturers and students regarding the availability of information and communication technology facilities for teaching business education courses at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria.
In Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria, there is no significant difference in the opinions of business education lecturers and students regarding the use of information and communication technology facilities for teaching business education courses.
In Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria, there is no significant difference in the perspectives of business education lecturers and students on the challenges of using ICT facilities for teaching business education courses.
In Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike, Nigeria, there is no significant difference in the opinions of business education lecturers and students regarding the use of available ICT facilities in learning business education courses.
1.6 THE STUDY’S SIGNIFICANCE
A study’s significance is to announce and identify those who will benefit from the research findings. As a result, it is hoped that this study will be extremely beneficial to federal and state governments, business education lecturers, students, and other researchers.
The study’s findings will benefit the federal and state governments as employers of labor by addressing the issue of obsolete and outdated office equipment, poor working conditions, poor infrastructure, and an inadequate network. It will help the commission assess the use of ICT in teaching and learning at Michael Okpara University in Umudike, Nigeria, and make recommendations to the Federal Ministry of Education.
The study’s findings will encourage business education lecturers in universities to acquire information and communication technology skills relevant to teaching business education courses, as well as the need for lecturers to attend conferences, seminars, and workshops to keep their knowledge up to date. Furthermore, the outcome will guide and direct students to acquire marketable skills that will give them a competitive advantage in the workplace.
Furthermore, prospective researchers will find the work useful for further research in this area. Furthermore, the findings of this study can be used by university administrators to provide adequate information and communication technology facilities for teaching and learning business education in their various institutions.
1.7 THE STUDY’S BASIC ASSUMPTIONS
The following assumptions are held by the researcher:
Students’ overall learning experience is improved by information and communication technology.
Both lecturers and students are knowledgeable about information and communication technology.
Availability of adequate information and communication technology facilities at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture, Umudike.
There is no power supply interruption when using information and communication technology.
The colleges provide all instructional materials for teaching and learning.
1.8 THE STUDY’S LIMITATION
This research was limited to all students at Michael Okpara University of Agriculture in Umudike, Nigeria. The study was also limited to all business education lecturers and Year 3 students who needed ICT skills such as internet browsing, Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. This is due to the fact that they are direct beneficiaries of the use of information and communication technology in the teaching of business education courses.
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THE APPLICATION OF INNOVATIVE ICT FACILITIES FOR EFFECTIVE BUSINESS EDUCATION TEACHING AT MICHAEL OKPARA UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE