Universities Lecturers’ Use of Web Tools for Blended Instruction in Abia state

Abstract

Web tools are internet-based platforms that navigate the web for easy accessibility, information dissemination, interaction and collaboration which is well known to be very necessary for the teaching and learning process. However, a sizeable number of lecturers who are digital immigrants might not have been trained with ICT’s and in the time of proliferation of web tools. Thus, the need for this study which assessed lecturers’ use of web tools for blended instruction in universities in Abia State. The research adopted a descriptive research design. The sample for this study was purposively drawn from three universities in Abia State which were Abia State University, Uturu, Michael Okpara University of Agriculture Umudike and Gregory University Uturu. The respondents were 257 lecturers which consisted of 194 males and 63 females respectively. Among the sampled lecturers were 27 in the professorial cadre, 52 senior lecturers and 178 others (Lecturer 1-Graduate Assistant). Mean score was used to answer the research questions while t-test and ANOVA were used to test hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that university lecturers in Abia State were not using web tools for blended instruction (1.30 < 1.50 benchmark); there was no significant difference between male and female lecturers use of web tools for blended instruction; there was no significant difference on the use of web tools for blended instruction based on lecturers’ status. Thus, it was recommended that school proprietors provide an avenue for training and retraining of staff on the use of web tools for blended instruction.