PERCEPTION OF TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS STUDENTS TOWARDS THE USE OF E-LEARNING RESOURCES FOR LEARNING AND RESEARCH IN ACADEMIC LIBRARIES IN DUTSIN-MA METROPOLIS

Abstract

This study investigated the perception of tertiary institution students towards the use of e-learning resources for learning and research in the academic library in Dutsin-Ma Metropolis. The study adopted a descriptive survey design. The target population was all undergraduate Long Vacation Training (LVT) students at the Federal University Dutsin-Ma and regular library patrons at Isakita College of Education in Dutsin-Ma Metropolis. Two hundred (200) respondents were selected for the study using simple random sampling technique from the total population of 490. The instrument used in collecting data was an adapted questionnaire developed by Wisdom (2020) in assessing electronic resources in Kogi State University. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and percentages to answer the research questions and inferential statistics of ttest for testing the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that tertiary institutions students in Dutsin-Ma Metropolis are aware of elearning resources available for learning and research, satisfied with majority of e-library resources available except video and audio conferencing, agreed that e-library resources have positive impact on learning and research and confirmed that the strategies that can be used to improve the use of e-library resources include provision of reliable internet services, provision of technical support services, training of students on the use of e-resources and creation of dialogue database for user-librarians interaction among others. There is no significant difference in the perception of tertiary institution students toward the use of e-learning resources based on gender. There is significant difference in the perception of students from state owned institution (Isakita College of Education) and students from federal owned institution (Federal University Dutsin-Ma) towards e-learning resources based on types of schools. Based on these findings, it was recommended that the training on the use of video and audio conferencing should be provided for both students and library staff so as to be able use them effectively.