Evaluation of ICT tools accessibility to business education lecturers and students

ABSTRACT


INTRODUCTION
Business education plays a pivotal role in a nation development. For optimum educational teaching and learning of business education courses, there must be adequate provision of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) tools. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an indispensable tool in this digital age. Currently, there is a parading shift in the ICT world to meet up with the challenges peculiar to this information age. Also, it is a powerful force that has shaped several aspects of people's way of life. The significant impact of ICT in the last three decades in fields of law, tourism, business, engineering, architecture and medicine is in valuable. Thus, changes in the mode of operation of these fields are now completely different. Interestingly, teaching and learning by students and lecturers have been the new norm. Ensuring optimum teaching and learning in higher institution, adequate provision of ICT tools for both the teachers and students is crucial [1]. Business education programme is required to train skilled business educators in higher and secondary institutions as well as quick-witted for economy growth. They explained further that facilities and equipment are essential for educational programmes. Education regulatory agencies like National Universities Commission (NUC), and National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) recommended minimum number of facilities for specific number of students.
Meanwhile, several reports have been documented showing government readiness to provide quality facilities to enhance better performances [2]. Anderson and Glen opined that ICT in the modern dispensation improves technological advantages in accessing, gathering, manipulating and presenting information [3]. Ajisafe viewed Information and Communication Technology as all forms of technology used in creating, storing, processing and using information in various forms to aid communication [4]. Oluwalola captured the matter succinctly that ICT is the form of education enhancing learners with relevant digital skills which enables such individuals to contribute profitability to societal development [5]. In the contemporary developed and developing countries, ICT has enhanced both teachers and students performances in tremendous measure [6]. A report documented that (90%) of teachers in Europe have employed ICT at various levels of teaching for effectiveness and proper comprehension by students. In spite of the relevance of ICTs in education, lecturers in Nigerian tertiary institutions have been reported to lack relevant digital skills to enable them deploy and utilize ICT base teaching [7]. Apkan's study on lecturer's efficiency in Nigeria shows that there is a missing link between the utilization of ICT resources and the competency of the lecturers [8]. Therefore, business education teachers need to be adequately trained and retrained to acquire the competencies and skills required for effective utilization of technological instructional delivery [9].
However, business education is an integral part of vocational and technical courses highly recognized as means of empowering youth for sustainable livelihood and social-economic development. It is a programme with the capacity of delivering the knowledge, skill and philosophy that influence the development of attitudes and behaviors likely to impact on the actualization of educational goals [10]. Azih and Igboke [11] viewed business education as the acquisition and development of attitudes, skills and competencies for efficiency of economic system. In [12], Jimoh and Umoru viewed business education as a conglomerate of courses concerned with the acquisition, development and inculcation of the proper values for the survival of the individuals and the society. Yakubu [13] opined that business education is the development of intellectual capacities of learners to understand and appreciates the environment. Empowerment of students with special skills in accounting, distributing and technological skills could be attributed to the application of business education programme [14,15]. Hence, technological courses are offered in universities and Colleges of Education across Nigeria. Notably, Colleges of education are tertiary institutions that produce teachers in various specializations for the relevance in secondary schools across Nigeria. Umah and Nwokike stated that college of education as tertiary educational institutions that prepare teachers for minimum of three years to enable them fit and teach their respective subjects of specializations [16].
Business education contributes immensely to economic development as graduates possess the ability to impact others and raise effective administrators as well as business men and women [17]. The primary goal of the programme (in NCE) is to raise qualified and competent graduates to teach business subjects in secondary schools and in other related educational institutions as stated in NCCE [18]. Presently, some of graduates of business education today cannot perform as expected of them due to lack of require skill acquisition while in school. This situation has become a controversial issue in the society, because of incompetent on the part of business education products. These problems are not farfetched because some institutions today are suffering from inadequate of infrastructural facilities coupled with incompetent of the lecturers for teaching those ICT related courses. It is one thing for the facilities to be available and it is another thing for the teacher to know how to make use of it. Therefore, inadequate utilization of new technologies facilities by business education teachers could result in producing graduates with only theoretical knowledge and less experience in practical courses which required the application of ICT skills. The teachers are expected to equip graduates with relevant technological skill for effective performance in this global world. ICT utilization is the utilization of computer, laptop, video machines, multimedia projectors or PowerPoint, interactive board, digital cameras, internet facilities, computer network, telephone Global System Mobile (G.S.M) and land phones, e-library, television programmes, data base among others in educational setting. They opined that the use of ICT facilities by lecturers' in colleges of education largely depended on the ownership of the school. This may because federal government owned institutions are better funded than others.
Studies carried out by Okolocha and Nwadiani [19] and Jones [20] established that ICT usage in this dispensation is not encouraging and that business educators are posed to diver challenges chiefly amongst others is irregular power supply. Ezenwafor and Soneye reported the unavailability of ICT resources and poor accessibility by lecturers [21]. While Iwe and Ufot [22] observed that business education department in some Colleges of Education and Universities is ill equipped most especially the computer studio which result in continuous use of non-digital method of teaching. The reason for this may be as a result of financial constraints faced by most of the tertiary institutions in the provision of ICT facilities for the institutions, coupled with fear of unknown in the use of these technological gadgets on the part of the lecturers. Therefore, it is expected of the teachers to make adequate use of ICT for teaching such as preparation of teaching materials, teaching, assessing students' performance, for practical purposes and many other administrative activities. Hence, it is worthy of note that ICT gadgets in many colleges of education are grossly inadequate in teaching and learning of business education courses. National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) [23] specified three cogent ways of using ICT for educating students. Information technology (IT), aided learning, through the availability of technological tool and computer. Information Technology (IT) assisted learning was divided into; 1) Computer-Assisted Learning (CAL), which is the interaction between a student and a computer system designed to assist the students in learning; 2) Computer Assisted Research (CAR) means the use of ICT library and empirical research which enhanced through the World Wide Web that has created a virtual library accessible only by the technologically literate; and 3) Distance Learning (DL), which is the use of telecommunications, designed to enhance students' learning through e-mail, interactive web sites and two-way audio/video teleconferencing. Despite the inclusion of ICT into business education programme for some years back, it seems as if the students are not getting the right skills to meet the challenges in the labour market. This shows that the main goal of introducing it into the curriculum has not been adequately achieved. Some institutions are suffering from inadequate of ICT tools in teaching and learning of business education courses. Therefore, there is an urgent need to pay more prominent attention to the improvement of teaching and learning, through the provision of more ICT tools in Nigerian tertiary institutions.
The use of ICT is an immeasurable intervention of this modern time which prompts a swift shift from the use of ancient instructional equipment to modern technological devices so as to move on with the tide of global technology advancement. Alawaye, et al. reiterated that evolution of ICT in higher institution would make teaching-learning more effective, thereby engendering a variety of tools to enhance and facilitate lecturers' pedagogical activities and students' academic performance [24]. Idele and Paul-Mgbeafulik, et al. affirmed that ICTs facilitate learning in programmes, learning in subjects areas and learning at home on one's own [25]. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine evaluation of ICT tools accessibility to Business education lecturers and students in Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, Nigeria. Specifically, the study sought to: investigate available of ICT tools for teaching and learning of business education and determine the utilization of ICT tools among lecturers and students in Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin.

RESEARCH METHODS
A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. This study was carried out in Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin, Nigeria. The population for the study comprised 300 business education students and all the lecturers in the department of business education. One hundred and ten (110) students were randomly selected and all the twenty (20) lecturers in department were purposely used because of their manageable size in number. The research instrument for data collection was a researcher developed structured questionnaire titled: Evaluation of ICT Tools Accessibility for Business Education Questionnaire (EICTBEQ). The instrument was made of up ten (10) items arranged in two sections. Section A contain items 1-5 focused on research question one which was on availability of ICT tools and Section B bothered on research question 2 which focused on utilization of ICT tools among lecturers and students for teaching and learning of business education courses.
The questionnaire was structured in line with the four-point scale of Adequately Available (4 points), Available (3 points), Fairly Available (2 points) Not Available (1 point). The instrument validated was trial tested on 30 respondents from other schools which were not part of the study area. The data obtained from the trial testing was analyzed using Cronbach Alpha to establish internal consistency of the instrument for the study was 0.86. The researcher is therefore convinced that instrument is reliable. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions and any mean that is equal to 2.50 and above was regarded as Available and means below this were regarded as Not Available. The T-test statistics was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The decision rule for testing the hypothesis was, where the t-calculated value (t-cal) is less than the t -table value (t-table), the null hypothesis of no significance difference was accepted and where it is higher, the alternate hypothesis was rejected.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Research Question 1: What are the categories of ICT tools available for teaching and learning of Business Education in Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin as perceived by lecturers and students?
To answer research question one, data based on sampled responses were collated and analysed as shown in Table 1 using descriptive statistic of mean rating.

Research Question 2: To what extent does the usage of ICT tools among lecturers and students in Kwara State College of Education, Ilorin?
Data based on sampled responses were collated and analysed as shown in Table 2 using descriptive statistic of mean rating to determine extent of utilization of ICT tools for teaching and learning among lecturers and students of Business Education in Kwara state college of Education, Ilorin. Table 2 indicates the extent of using ICT tools for teaching and learning of Business Education in Kwara State College of Education Ilorin. The average mean (Mean=3.61) implies that these ICT tools are used Always (A) for teaching and learning in the department based on the sampled lecturers and students responses. Hypothesis Testing: There is no significant relationship between availability and utilization of ICT tools for teaching and learning among the lecturers and students of Business Education in Kwara State college of Education, Ilorin Table 3 reveals that Pearson correlation analysis value yielded 634 which is significant with P value .000<0.05. This shows a significant result, hence, the hypothesis is rejected. This implies that there is a significant relationship between availability and utilization of ICT tools for teaching and learning among the lecturers and students of Business Education in Kwara State College of Education. The findings of the study revealed that ICT tools were found to be available for teaching and learning Business Education through the availability of projector, teleconferencing gadgets, software, computers, and social media. The result was in line with the view of Oluwalola and Awodiji [26] affirmed that, the widespread availability of the ICT has precipitated a vast changed in education and especially in the delivery of instruction. This depicts that optimum teaching and learning cannot take place without the use of ICT tools in tertiary institutions. It is a known fact that effective teaching and learning cannot take place in isolation without availability of ICT tools.
Furthermore, the finding of this study revealed that ICT tools are used among the lecturers and students for qualitative teaching and learning of Business Education courses. This is in line with Ezenwafor