P-12 Digital Literacy Skills and Massive Open Online Courses Participation by Lecturers in Babcock University

Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) promote open access to learning materials, thereby, providing learning opportunities for professional development and lifelong learning. University lecturers, especially in developing countries, can leverage on the opportunities presented by MOOCs for skills acquisition. Considering that studies have highlighted digital literacy skills as a determinant of MOOC participation, this study examined lecturers’ digital literacy skills and their participation in MOOCs. The study adopted a survey research design, while the population of study comprised 110 lecturers from the management and social sciences disciplines at Babcock University, Nigeria. A self-developed questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection from the entire population. Data collected were subjected to analysis using simple percentages, mean score and logistic regression. Findings from the study revealed that overall, lecturers possessed advanced digital literacy skills ( = 3.60). Regarding the enrolment for MOOC, just 15% of the respondents had enrolled for at least a course on any MOOC website. Additionally, only 20% of those that enrolled for at least one course on a MOOC website indicated they actively participate in the courses. Lastly, the study revealed no statistically significant influence of digital literacy skill on lecturers’ enrolment in MOOC (X2=2.35, p\u3e0.05). Conclusively, while this study has revealed that lecturers’ digital literacy skills do not influence their MOOC participation, it also revealed that lecturers are not yet availing themselves of the opportunities for skill acquisition and knowledge enhancement made possible by MOOCs