ICT literacy among undergraduates in Nigerian universities

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate the availability, use of Information and Communication Technology and the ICT literacy skills of undergraduates in seven Nigerian universities. The descriptive survey research design was adopted and seven universities were selected based on distribution of ownership of university. Four faculties were purposively selected with a study population of 8,497. Random sampling procedure was employed using a sampling percentage of 20% to give a sample size of 1,702. Results revealed that computer, telephone and the Internet were the three ICT mostly used by the undergraduates, although more on an occasional basis. The undergraduates in the state universities (BSU and IMSU) were found to have poor ICT literacy skills in the use of the three ICT with over 25%, while those with average ICT literacy skills were in the federal universities (ABU and UNIMAID). Three major factors affecting the ICT literacy of the undergraduates were identified as irregular power supply, inadequate ICT and limited duration of the use of the ICT. For increased ICT literacy of undergraduates, the university administrators must introduce courses on ICT competency to all students especially first year students and encourage all lecturers to use ICT for teaching and learning. The article contains original work carried out on the ICT literacy competencies of undergraduates in selected Nigerian universities and the result would be useful to library staff and university administrators.