EFFECTS OF BLENDED LEARNING ON OFFICE TECHNOLGY AND MANAGEMENT STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

EFFECTS OF BLENDED LEARNING ON OFFICE TECHNOLGY AND MANAGEMENT STUDENTS’ ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT AND INTEREST IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN SOUTH WEST NIGERIA

Background to the Study

Office technology and management (OTM) programme is a fundamental part of vocational education in the Department of Business Education in Colleges of Education. This programme offered knowledge, skills, in-depth administrative office preparation to meet the demands and challenges in the business environment (Okagbare & Fredrick, 2009). Office Technology and Management, according to Yakubu (2009), is a programme from which students can obtain office administrative skills applicable to various careers, industries as well as cognitive skills transferable to other employment situations and life experience. Some of the objectives of teaching OTM, according to the National Commission for Colleges of Education (2012), include equipping graduates with the right skills that will enable them engage in a life of work in the office as well as for self-employment and to produce Nigeria Certificate in Education (NCE) business teachers who will be involved in the much desired revolution of vocational development right from the primary to tertiary institutions. The knowledge and skills offered by the programme had advanced OTM profession. Office technology and management profession had reached an advanced stage that the responsibilities of a secretary now extend to wider boundaries far beyond that of a mere typist. Thus a secretary can be regarded as a worker or office technologist who can be delegated with greater and more complex responsibilities which include decision making on simple and complicated issues, representing the boss in board meetings, and overseeing complex office duties in compliance to standard (Ugwu, 2009). The advancement had caused a revolution for use of computer. There is a growing revolution throughout the educational sector for use of computer technology in the teaching and learning process. New and continuing advances in technology have contributed to the possibility of creating teaching materials in more accessible, 1 2 interactive and highly visual style. Online and real-time interaction is a powerful combination that makes teaching and learning interesting and participatory for both student and instructor (Piontek, 2013). Piontek further stressed that transmission of knowledge and information which used to be done through the lecture teaching method at the colleges of education level is globally being done electronically. The conventional mode of teaching office technology education courses in Colleges of Education in Nigeria is the lecture method. The students in 21st century and ICT age are bored of long lectures and dictations, rote memorization and interaction in the classroom because technology is making learning better, more fun and interactive (Piontek, 2013). Students today have become digital natives and are very comfortable with technology long before they enroll in higher education. Technology has transformed how they live, communicate, interact and learn within and outside classes. They are much familiar with electronic learning brought by the advent of technology unlike the lecture teaching method which requires the physical presence of both students and the teacher in the four walls of a classroom setting. Hadzimehmedagic and Akbarov (2013) stressed that in lecture teaching method the teacher plays the primary role in informing the learners through explicit instructions supplemented by textbooks and demonstrations. The teacher disseminates instructions to a set of students convening in a classroom. Lecture teaching method emphasizes learning through the teacher‟s guidance at all times while students are expected to listen and learn from the lectures. In order to ascertain students‟ achievement or educational outcomes from the series of instructions on topics taught in a subject of study, the teacher at interval administers tests in the class to measure the individual student‟s knowledge and the individual student‟s academic achievement in the subjects of study. Most of the tests are conducted in form of an essay, objective and practical. Lecture teaching method has its merits and demerits to both the teacher and the students.

BUY THIS TOPIC ON WHATSAPP

Related Project Materials

ABSTRACT

This study was carried out to examine the impact of financial incentives on employee productivity in public...