Appraisal of Student’s Computer Skills Acquisition After the Course “Use of Computer Packages” in Universities in South-East of Nigeria

This study dwelt on appraisal of students’ computer skills acquisition after the course “use of computer packages” in State-owned universities in the South-East Zone of Nigeria. Two research questions were posed and a null hypothesis, guided the study. The study adopted a quasi-experimental design specifically referred to as the pre-test – post-test non-equivalent control group design. The study was carried out using final year students of Education/Economics at Abia State University Uturu and Imo State University Owerri respectively. The sample which consisted of one hundred and sixty (160) students was purposively sampled in terms of gender and location. The instrument used for data collect were the researcher’s made text items and affective response rating scale on students affective response to the treatment. The internal consistency of the instruments were calculated using Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient statistics which had an index of 0.77 and Kuder-Richardson coefficient statistics which had reliability index of 0.87. The subjects were pre-tested before treatment and post-test was administered after treatment. Data analysis involved, mean, standard deviation and t-test. The result revealed that treatment group performed better than the controlled group. Again, female students’ performed better than male students during hands-on training using computer system. Following from the findings of the study, it was recommended that lecturers teaching in the universities should ensure that undergraduates are made to practice on their own with computer systems to enable them learn these skills since constant practice makes for perfection. That effort should be made to ensure that the computer systems are connected to Internet and made functional too. It is believed that if these measures are put in place our undergraduates would be proficient in computer usage thereby joining their counterpart all over the world in this era of ICT. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2013.v4n5p4