CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
BACKGROUND OF STUDY
It is a widely accepted fact that technology enhanced system of education, including distance and online instructions, is the known viable instrument necessary for preparing students to participate in the computer-driven teaching and learning activity. The concepts computer-aided teaching and computer-aided learning have given birth to computer-aided instruction, and all combined together to form the basis of e-education. Moreover, access to instruction through the internet is flexible, ensures broad viability and availability of educational opportunities. It is cost effective system of passing instruction to students and learning materials can be accessed irrespective of time and space. The use of Information and Communications Technologies (ICT) in education has become more and more popular globally.
E-education according to Craige (2007) is the computer and network enabled transfer of skills and knowledge for the diffusion of innovative teaching and learning. E-education according to Rosenberg is the process by which people acquire skills or knowledge for the purpose of enhancing their performance through the internet or intranet and multimedia which leads to reinforced learning by means of video, audio, quizzes and other forms of interaction. Ahmad (2012) maintained that e-education is all about learning with the use of technologies presumably computers and other modern day tools such as phones. E-education involves the use of electronic technology to deliver lessons and teachings, to monitor students’ performance and to report the students’ progress. Hedge and Hayward (2004) view it as an innovative approach for delivering electronically mediated, well-designed, learner-centered and interactive learning and teaching environments to anyone, at any place, at anytime. Its success is mainly based on its benefits and distinctive features; it is easily accessible, cost efficient, gives students the flexibility of learning, it helps provide uniform delivery to all users reducing chances of misinterpretations, as well as promoting team learning and collaboration. Information technology application to education is being deployed all over the world in varying modes from sector to sector; these range from basic e-education or distant learning to the use of small device such as mobile phones.
Education has shifted from the traditional form of education towards new methods of teaching and learning through the explosion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The continuous advances in information technology have enabled the realization of a more distributed structure of knowledge transfer through the development of e-education. The developing countries have embraced Information and Communications Technologoies and consequently e-education so as to keep pace with unimaginable speed in the area of technology. The use of Information and Communications Technologies in Nigeria and African countries generally is increasing and dramatically growing.
Classroom and digital collaboration where contents is delivered via the internet, intranet and extranet, audio and or video tapes, satellite TV and CD-ROM are the specification for e-education (Arbaugh, 2000). In Nigeria using National Open University of Nigeria Benin City center as a case study, the commonest type of e-education adopted is in form of lectures note on internet which can be played as at when the students desires. The challenge of this method is unavailability of internet facilities and it is also un-interactive in nature as compared to when lectures are been received in the classroom. Most e-students in Nigeria go to the cyber cafe but because there are people of diverse intension on the net at the same time, and the bandwidth problem, a multimedia interactive cannot be done. Despite all these and other challenges facing e-education in Nigeria educational institution, institutions such as University of Ibadan, Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Benin, University of Abuja, University of Lagos, National Open University of Nigeria among others has the facilities for e-education. The number seems very low (compared to other parts of the world and the usefulness of the e-education in the economy development) because of location of most institutions, bandwidth issue and mostly the challenge of electricity. Although most educational institutions (private and public) have started setting up their Information and Communications Technologies centers for internet services alone without actually taking into consideration other components of e-education centre. The greatest success of e-education in Nigeria is the establishment of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) (an online and distance learning federal university in Nigeria) on which this study is based.
The National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), was established in July, 1983, by an Act of the National Assembly (as the first distance learning and teaching which are the basis of education in tertiary institution) in Nigeria when it became crystal clear to the then Federal Government that the ever growing demand for education by her people cannot be met by the traditional means of face-to-face classroom instructional delivery. The institution was closed down few weeks after its establishment and the Act that established the University was suspended in 1984 by the then Federal Military Government that overthrew the civilian government. Many years after the closure, the compelling reasons that informed the earlier establishment of the university as well as the need to fill the gap created by the Federal Government clamped down on mushroom outreach study centers of many conventional universities all over the country and the need to take advantage of emerging developments in the field of Information and Communications Technologies which have revolutionalized the techniques and methods of instructional deliveries in the distance education mode necessitated the reactivation of the suspended NOUN Act of 1983 in 2002. This paved the way for the resuscitation of the NOUN. Keegan (1998) once said of Online-education as being “Characterized by the separation of teachers and learners which distinguishes it from self study and private tutoring, the use of a computer network to present or distribute some educational content, the provision of two-ways communication via a computer network so that students may benefit from communication with each other, teachers, and staff ”, linking it with the description of e-education which Arbaugh, (2000) stated that “ e-education implies the abilities of people to use information technology and the internet to learn and teach, improve their teaching and learning skills and strengthen their capabilities in the information society ”.