BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS AWARENESS AND UTILIZATION OF E LEARNING

ABSTRACT
The study investigated the awareness of e-learning and its utilization by business education students in Anambra State tertiary institutions. Four research questions were posed and four hypotheses formulated. A total of 1603 business education students in four tertiary institutions in Anambra State made up the population of the study, out of which 320 students were used as sample. The research instrument was a structured questionnaire titled “Awareness and Utilization of E-learning by Business Education Students”. Five experts validated the instrument and a reliability test using split-half method yielded correlations of tttt0.86, 0.58, 0.62 and 0.97 for sections B, C, D and E respectively. Mean rating was used to answer Research Questions 1, 3 and 4. Research Question 2 was answered using frequency counts and percentages while t-test, at 0.05 level of significance, was used to test the hypotheses. The major findings of the study were as follows: respondents were very aware of checking results online and searching for academic information on the internet; they were fairly aware of partaking in videoconference and getting academic support and advice from a teacher by e-mail. Respondents were competent in computer usage and they often utilized e-learning facilities for searching for educational materials, checking results online and processing assignments. Respondents did not often send feedback to lecturers through e-mail. To encourage the utilization of e-learning by business education students, it was recommended, among others, that the management of tertiary institutions in Anambra State should provide e-learning infrastructure like digital libraries, and free wireless internet connections on the campus. Learning Management Systems (LMS) that allow online interaction between lecturers and students should be introduced. Videoconferencing should be introduced through collaboration with foreign institutions and some course content should be restructured using e-learning modules that can be recorded on CD/DVD which students can use.