BUSINESS EDUCATORS’ UTILIZATION OF ASYNCHRONOUS AND SYNCHRONOUS TEACHING AND LEARNING APPROACHES AS THE NEW NORMAL FOR INSTRUCTIONAL DELIVERY IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN RIVERS STATE

Abstract

This study assessed Business educators’ utilization of asynchronous and synchronous teaching and learning approaches as the new normal for Instructional delivery in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. Descriptive survey research was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of 137 Business educators from four tertiary institutions in Rivers State namely: Rivers State University, University of Port-Harcourt. Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, and Federal College of Education (Tech.), Omoku. Convenient sampling technique used to select only those available to respond to the research instrument. Therefore, only the 67 Business educators who were available and willing to answer the research instrument made up the sample of the study. The researchers’ developed structured questionnaire which was validated by two experts, one of Measurement and Evaluation, and one of Business Education all from Rivers State University, Port-Harcourt was used for the study.  Cronbach alpha reliability computed yielded reliability indexes of 0.85, 0.72, and 0.81 for the three clusters and an average index of 0.79. Data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation. The findings revealed Business educators to a moderate extent utilize asynchronous teaching and learning approaches and to a low extent utilize synchronous teaching and learning approaches as the new normal for instructional delivery in tertiary institutions in Rivers State. The findings showed that the challenges affecting Business educators’ utilization of asynchronous and synchronous teaching and learning approaches as the new normal for instructional delivery are inadequate facilities supporting technologies usage, poor electricity supply; poor digital skills for preparing digital contents and lack of motivation and incentives for those using these approaches. Based on the findings, it was recommended among that, Business education administrators should train and retrain Business educators on the use of synchronous approaches to teaching and learning.

Keywords: asynchronous, synchronous, electronic learning and Business education