Digital Literacy Skills of Undergraduate Students in Nigeria Universities

Influence of digital technology in our educational system cannot be overemphasized. Hardly can any undergraduate student survive in tertiary institution without basic skills and knowledge of digital technology. The composite skills require for student to fit into digital environment in achieving his/her academic pursuit is digital literacy skill. This prompted the study on the digital literacy skills of undergraduate students of Federal Universities in Southwest, Nigeria. Research design employed for this study was the descriptive survey design. The population for this study was 60,997 undergraduate students of Obafemi Awolowo University, University of Ibadan and University of Lagos. However, multiple stage sampling technique was used to arrive at 595 sampling size for the study. The instrument used was a questionnaire. Data was analyzed using frequency distribution tables; percentage, mean scores and standard deviation on Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Finding of the study revealed that majority of the students admitted that they are confident on their level of information Literacy Skills, especially in using other people’s work (found online) without committing plagiarism. The students also indicated confidence in their level of Information and Communication Technology literacy skills, significantly when writing online on a web page for private use. Likewise, a high percentage of respondents were confident on their level of media literacy skill when using media-capture devices, e.g. recording on video. The study concluded that lecturers should encourage students to engage in academic research using electronic information resources on the web without committing plagiarism. Also, undergraduates ICT skills should be enhanced by encouraging them to open and operate online Blog for public access and lastly, lecturers and other academic staff should use electronic media resources in delivering lectures in order to challenge the confident level of undergraduates in using electronic media