UTILIZATION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) IN TEACHING AND LEARNING LIBRARY AND INFORMATION SCIENCE (LIS) UNDERGRADUATE DEGREE PROGRAMMES IN UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT

Universities are seen as sources of new knowledge, innovative thinking, provider of skilled personnel and credible credentials. Library and Information Science (LIS) undergraduate degree programme is not left out of these benefits. This study was geared towards an inquisition into the utilization of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in teaching and learning LIS undergraduate degree programmes in universities in South – South, Nigeria. This involved the determination of acquisition of related ICT knowledge, skills and attitude needed to work in the libraries world of work. The research objective was to investigate the ICT facilities available in the library schools for teaching and learning LIS undergraduate degree programmes, and the extent of utilizing these facilities for teaching and learning by LIS lecturers. In conducting this research, six research questions were formulated and three hypotheses stated to guide the study. The research questions were answered using frequency, percentages, mean and standard deviation while hypotheses were tested using Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) at .05 level of significance. A survey research design was adopted for this study because it sought the opinions of LIS lecturers on the extent of utilization of ICT facilities in teaching and learning of LIS courses. The entire population of 86 lecturers from the six universities offering LIS in South – South Zone was used. Observation check – list and questionnaire titled Utilization of ICT in Teaching and Learning were the instruments used for data collection. These instruments were validated by five experts. Reliability coefficients of the following internal consistency indices of the sections testing different opinions were as follows: Section B = 0.75; Section C = 0.72; Section D = 0.79; Section E = 0.81 and Section F = 0.97. An overall reliability coefficient was found to 0.96. These indices were arrived at using Cronbach Alpha Statistic. Findings from analyzed data revealed that: some ICT facilitiers has not been made available to lecturers for teaching and learning LIS in these universities, while some of the available ones were in different proportions.  Lecturers in these universities required the essential ICT skills needed to teach LIS undergraduate degree programme. Lecturers strongly agreed that ICT can be utilized in teaching and learning all the various aspects of LIS undergraduate programme, yet numerous challenges impeded its utilization. Effective measures such as provision of adequate number of functional ICT facilities for regular practice by lecturers and students, organizing seminars, conferences and workshops for lecturers and students, as well as funding of LIS programme among others were adopted for the enhancement of adequate utilization of ICT for teaching and learning LIS undergraduate degree programmes. Two of the null hypotheses of no significant difference were accepted while one was rejected. That is, there were no significant differences in the mean scores of ICT skills required and strategies adopted by lecturers in federal, state and private universities in teaching and learning LIS undergraduate degree programmes. While there was a significant difference in the mean extent of utilization of ICT facilities by lecturers in federal, state and private universities in teaching and learning LIS undergraduate degree programme. The findings of this study have a number of implications for LIS lecturers, students and library and information science curriculum planners. From the above findings it was strongly recommended that, government should equip LIS classrooms and lecturers’ offices with modern functional ICT facilities for effective teaching and learning, LIS curriculum should be revisited for inclusion of utilization of ICT as a means of effective teaching and learning. Training and retraining of lecturers on utilization of new ICTs in teaching and learning LIS should also be encouraged.