GLOKALde October 2021, ISSN 2148-7278 Volume: 7 Number: 2, Article 4
UTILISATION OF E-LEARNING AMONG NIGERIAN UNIVERSITY LECTURERS IN THE COVID-19 ERA
ABSTRACT
The study investigated the extent to which lecturers in the Faculty of Education in a public university in Southern Nigeria engaged in online/distance teaching during the Covid-19 lockdown in Nigeria. The study further examined factors that hindered online teaching in the lectures. Seventy-seven lecturers responded to an online semi-structured questionnaire designed using Google forms and posted on the WhatsApp and Telegram groups. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze the quantitative data, while the qualitative open-ended responses were analyzed using thematic analysis. One hypothesis was stated and tested using the Pearson Product Moment Moments Correlation Coefficient. The results showed that most of the lecturers had the requisite training to facilitate online courses, although actual online teaching during the Covid-19 lockdown was done by only 10 per cent. But before the Covid-19 era only 50 per cent of the lecturers reported that they ever did any online teaching. Of that number more male than female lecturers reported teaching online. A strong positive relationship was found between years of teaching experience and frequency of doing online teaching before Covid-19. The most frequently reported hindrances to online course facilitation were lack of or inadequate electric power supply and inadequate access to the internet and digital technologies. From the findings, it was recommended, among others, that university lecturers explore available opportunities to acquire and update their online facilitation skills.