ICT Literacy Skills, Accessibility and use of Web-Based Information Resources by Public Polytechnic Students

Abstract

Web-based Information Resources (WBIR) are becoming increasingly important tools for students to use in order to complete academic tasks. Existing research has focused on students' use of online and offline e-resources, with little attention paid to the use of WBIR. This study, therefore, was carried out to investigate ICT Literacy Skills (ICTLS), accessibility to and use of WBIR by public polytechnic students in Southwestern Nigeria. Six public polytechnics (Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, Federal Polytechnic, Ede, Federal Polytechnic, Ilaro, Lagos State Polytechnic, Rufus Giwa Polytechnic, and The Polytechnic, Ibadan) out of the 16 offering Higher National Diploma (HND) programmemes were selected by equal allocation sampling method to reflect federal and stage polytechnics. Proportionate to size of 10% was used to select 1,463 out of 14,629 HND students. The instruments used were ICTL Skills (α=0.93), Accessibility to WBIR (α=0.79), and WBIR use (α=0.98) scales. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, and Pearson’s product moment correlation at 0.05 level of significance. Students’ ICTL skills was high against 47-68 test norm. Accessibility to WBIR was average. Online reference sources, Web 2.0, and social media were regularly used WBIR. The level of WBIR use was moderate against the test norm of 21-35. The Students’ ICTL skills r=0.39**, p = .000., accessibility to WBIR r=0.59**, p = .000. had significant relationships with WBIR use. ICT literacy and accessibility are directly related to the use of web-based information resources. Polytechnic administration should provide more ICT infrastructure for students to use in polytechnic e-libraries.