DIGITAL SKILLS ACQUIRED BY BUSINESS EDUCATION LECTURERS FOR IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS EDUCATION CURRICULUM IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN DELTA STATE

Abstract

This study ascertained level of digital skills acquired by business education lecturers for implementation of business education curriculum in colleges of education in Delta State. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 95 business education lecturers from three colleges of education in Delta State. One research question guided the study and a null hypothesis tested. A validated structured questionnaire with 25 items on a five points rating scale was used to collect data. The internal consistency of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha statistics, which yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.88. Ninety-five (95) copies of the questionnaire were distributed; only 89 copies representing 94 percent were retrieved and used for analysis. The data collected were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer research question while t-test statistics was used to test the null hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed among others that business education lecturers acquired the ability to locate and use appropriate storage devices (hard-disk, flash drives) for storing and sharing files, use of printing machine and mobile phone for voice, messaging and internet source at a high level. Ability to use zoom for video conferencing and use of google classroom in instructional delivery were acquired at a low level while the ability to use Microsoft Team for conversation with online video call and screen sharing were acquired at a moderate level. In fact, outside the mere computer basic literacy skills, the rest of the needed and core digital skills were lowly and moderately acquired by the lecturers. It was concluded that business education lecturers have not acquired digital skills at a significant level for effective implementation of business education curriculum in colleges of education in Delta State. It was recommended among others that business education lecturers in colleges of education should be engaged in digital skills’ acquisition training and re-training for capacity building, to effectively implement the current business education curriculum in colleges of education.

Keywords: Digital Skills, Acquisition, Business Education, Lecturers, Implementation, Curriculum