Access to information and communication technology (ICT) for quality delivery of higher education in rivers state

Abstract

The study focused on the access to Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for quality delivery of higher education system in Rivers State. The study investigated the extent of lecturers’ and students access to ICT for quality delivery of Higher Education in Rivers State. The population of the study comprised of five higher institutions in Rivers State. A simple random sampling was use in the selection of 750 lecturers (470 male and 280 female) and 1200 students (750 male and 450 female) from the five higher institutions in Rivers State. The data for the study was gathered with a questionnaire titled “Access to ICT for Quality Delivery” (AIQD) Questionnaire designed using the four points rating scale of Strongly Agree (SA), Agreed (A), Disagree (D) and Strongly Disagree (SD) weighted as 4, 3, 2 and 1 respectively. The instrument was validated and its reliability co-efficient established at ‘r’0.72. The questionnaire consisted of 17 items that elicited relevant information to the problems investigated. Data was analyzed using simple descriptive statistics as means and standard deviation. A criterion mean of 2.50 was established by dividing the sum of the weights with 4. Responses with grand mean of 2.50 and above were accepted (A) while responses below 2.50 were not accepted (NA).The hypotheses posed for the study was tested using the Z-test statistics at 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that there is a significant difference between male and female lecturers on access to ICT for Quality delivery of Higher Education. Again, a significant difference was established between male and female students on access to ICT for Quality delivery of Higher Education in Rivers State. It was recommended that government should increase on the funding of higher institutions, provide more internet facilities, ensure constant provision of power supply to higher institutions to aid the use of internet facilities and lecturers should encourage the students on the use of internet to solve their problems.