LECTURERS’ ATTITUDE TOWARDS THE USE OF SEARCH ENGINES FOR RESEARCH IN UNIVERSITIES IN BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA
Ahmed Idris Issa; Amos Ochayi Onojah; Auwal Mohammed Bako; Adenike Aderogba Onojah
Department of Educational Technology
Faculty of Education, University Of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria
Corresponding Email: Haymoresonojah@Gmail.Com
ABSTRACT: This study investigated lecturers’ attitude towards the use of search engines for research in universities in Bauchi State. Specifically, the study: (i) determined the lecturers’ attitude towards the use of search engines for research; (ii) investigated the lecturers’ attitude towards the use of search engines for research based on gender; and (iii) determined the lecturers’ attitude towards the use of search engines for research based on area of specialization. A descriptive research design of the survey type was used for the study. The samples were drawn from three faculties namely Education, Sciences and Management from two universities in Bauchi State. The respondents were 252 university lecturers which consists of 208 male and 44 females. The sample were selected using multi-stage sampling procedure. The instrument used for data collection was a researcher-developed questionnaire validated by three experts from educational technology. A pilot study was conducted to establish the reliability of the instrument, coefficient of 0.74 were obtained. The research questions were answered using frequency count, mean and percentages while inferential statistics of t-test and ANOVA were used to test the formulated hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance.
Findings of the study were that:
- university lecturers had positive towards the use of search engines for research (3.2 > 2.5);
- there was significant difference between universities lecturers’ attitude towards the use of search engine for research based on gender (t-value 2.279 > t-table 1.960) ; and
- there was significant difference between universities lectures’ attitude towards the use of search engines for research based on area of specialisation (F-cal 5.628 ˃ F-tab 2.996).
The study concluded that universities’ lecturers had positive attitude towards the use of search engines. The study recommended that management of the universities should organises seminars and workshops to equip lecturers with the knowledge and benefits of using different search engines and also to provide them with research assistance.
Keywords: Attitude, Lecturers, Search engines, Research, Universities