CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Any nation's technological progress is built on the foundation of scientific education. The purpose of education is to contribute to the development of the mind and self; to provide pupils/students with essential knowledge required to survive in the natural world; to ensure a happy life to serve the individual human being; to guide him into an awareness of his condition and promote his successful commitment to a significant and meaningful existence, among other things. Furthermore, education, which is considered to be a wise investment, is a long-term investment by the state/nation in order to make it a better place to live and work. As a result, science education may be defined as the training and acquisition of scientific knowledge via observation and analysis of occurrences or natural phenomena, which aids an individual's successful integration into society. It may also be defined as knowledge derived from empirical reasoning that results in initiative for man's progress, resulting in the modification and simplification of his existence (Ifeakor, 2004). A man can only produce what he sees in his mind's eye, since everything that has already been proven was once just a dream. To truly acquire this scientific knowledge, abilities, and attitudes, one must first consider the educational outcome (product).To this aim, the educational system must be transformed in terms of the techniques and tools used to carry out such duties in order to produce people who can successfully function in the workplace in the twenty-first century. As a result, traditional classroom teaching, learning, and evaluation in Nigerian higher education institutions are severely insufficient and ineffectual, necessitating a shift in teaching and assessment techniques in particular. The curricular content, techniques and resources required for curriculum implementation, as well as the methodologies and instruments needed to measure learning outcomes, should all be determined by the educational program's goals. Educational assessment methods, as well as the application of evaluation findings, have been shown to have a significant impact on instructors' curriculum implementation tactics and students' learning styles. Assessment is experiencing changes at the same time as learning and teaching, and it seems to be moving at a quicker pace. This would be achieved by incorporating e-learning and e-assessment into the educational system. Recent developments in university-level evaluation of students' academic achievement need a new approach to assessment based on e-learning, in which assessment is an essential component of instructional activities. Elearning has emerged as one of the most essential and potentially effective instructional techniques for improving teaching, learning, and evaluation. The use of information and communication technology (ICT) facilitates and supports it (Asogwa, 2007). One of the fastest growing sectors of education, training, and assessment is the creation of e-learning products and the provision of e-learning opportunities. E-learning refers to the use of electronic applications and procedures to learn and is basically the network-enabled transfer of skills and knowledge. Web-based learning, computer-based learning, virtual classrooms, and digital collaboration are some of its applications and procedures. The internet, intranet/extranet, audio or video cassettes, satellite television, and CD-ROM are all examples of distance learning. It may be used to evaluate learning outcomes as well. E-learning is favored for a number of reasons: it offers uniform and global training, decreases delivery cycle time, enhances learner convenience, minimizes information overload, improves tracking, and saves costs (Welsh, Wanberg, Brown, Simmering, 2003). It includes a visual classroom that allows the instructor to show lessons to an unlimited number of individuals at once, as well as chat rooms that allow a student to invite another learner connected to the system to participate in a synchronous conversation. It features a back-end database that stores all of the learning content and evaluation tools. As previously stated, computer-based e-learning may be utilized to evaluate various learning capacities.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

Due to the obvious growing pressure to catch up to industrialized nations in terms of global competitiveness, education is becoming an inevitability. Prior to the advent of e-learning, many individuals who wished to attend institutes of higher learning had to fight for the limited spots that were available at other schools. Those who were given positions had to apply for study leave since they had to go via the traditional knowledge system, which had a cap on the number of students who could be absorbed in each academic session. According to the findings, there seem to be no research studies on the combined effects of e-learners' socio-demographic, hours spent online/offline, and previous computer skills factors on their academic achievement. Scholars, on the other hand, have emphasized the need to adopt a holistic approach, taking into account all aspects of e-learner experiences as well as the unique aspects of the e-learning environment. However, it has been determined that studies have been conducted to explore problems that predict e-learners' academic success in higher education institutions, as opposed to those who rely only on probability correlations as a component of their learning. Academic performance, particularly of traditional students, has been studied, but not so much as the academic performance of postgraduate students in one thing--learning in Nigerian higher education institutions. As a result, the purpose of this research was to look at the effect of e-learning on university students' academic performance in Nigerian higher education institutions.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The objectives of this study are to:

I.       to assess the benefits of e-learning at a university

II.    Determine ways to maximize e-learning possibilities for successful academic achievement.

III. Determine the obstacles to the adoption of e-learning at the University of Nigeria.

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS

I.         What are the benefits of using e-learning at a university?

II.      What are some of the ways that e-learning can be used to its full potential for academic success?

III.   What are the obstacles to the adoption of e-learning at the University of Nigeria?

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The overall goal of this research is to look at the effect of e-learning on the academic performance of university students in Nigerian higher education institutions. The study's objectives were to:

I.       examine the effect of e-learning on the academic performance of university students in Nigerian higher education institutions.

II.    Identify the barriers to the utilization of e-learning to improve the academic performance of university students in Nigerian higher education institutions.

III. Decide on ways to enhance university students' academic performance at Nigerian universities.

1.6 SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The research focused on the effect of e-learning on the academic performance of university students in Nigerian higher education institutions.The case study was the University of Nigeria Nsukka in Enugu state.

1.7 LIMITATION OF STUDY

The research was limited to the University of Nigeria Nsukka in Enugu, Nigeria.Because of the short duration of studies and budget constraints, not all universities in Nigeria can be covered.

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS

E-learning: learning conducted via electronic media, typically on the internet.

Academic efficiency: Academic efficiency is defined as the extent to which a school utilizes its time for the academic development of all its students.

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