E-LEARNING IN THE UNIVERSITY ENVIRONMENT: THE NIGERIAN EXPERIENCE

The world is a global village and technology has helped to strengthen education and social relations. E-learning is fast becoming the more popular way of ensuring the professed democratization of education. As a veritable tool for not only Distance Education but also other university programmes, e-learning promotes quality, stress-free education that contributes to efficient time management and higher productivity. Nigeria as a developing nation has had her challenges with getting its tertiary institutions into the 21st century mood in terms of technology application. University-based education aims at producing high level manpower and through its open learning systems extend higher education to its otherwise engaged clientele for functional, relevant and quality education. All of these have tremendous implications for the use of modern technologies and e-learning as well as ICT management, in the quest to join the global world and meet up with international education standards. The study therefore seeks to examine the status quo in terms of availability and use of e-learning facilities for teaching and learning in Nigeria, Lagos State, with focus on four universities isolated as a case study. The data for the study will be collected through questionnaire, observation and interview techniques, and analyzed through descriptive statistics and qualitative discussion. Initial findings showed that the availability and use of technology is very low in all the universities and there is the need for more information on e-learning systems for all stakeholders. The cost intensiveness of the provision of e-learning facilities and its management also calls for creative use of the e-learning system. The study will provide information on the status of e-learning in an African country.