CHALLENGES IN USING INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICT) FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING FINANCIAL ACCOUNTING IN TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN RIVERS AND BAYELSA STATES

The study was conducted to investigate the challenges in using ICT for teaching and learning financial accounting in tertiary institutions in Rivers and Bayelsa States, Nigeria. Five research questions were developed and answered by the study while five null hypotheses were formulated and tested at P≤0.05 level of significance. The study adopted descriptive survey research design and was carried out in Rivers and Bayelsa States. The population for the consisted of all the 76 Business lecturers from three Universities, three Polytechnics and three colleges of education drawn from the two States. Due to the manageable size of the Business lecturers, the entire population of 76 Business lecturers were used for the study; therefore, there was no sampling. The instrument for data collection is a structured 61-item questionnaire. The instrument was validated by three experts. To obtain the reliability of the instrument, Cronbach Alpha reliability method was used and Cronbach alpha coefficient of 0.81 was obtained indicating high reliability of the instrument. Two research assistants were hired and trained to join the researcher for data collection. The researcher collated the retrieved copies of questionnaire for data analysis. The data collected were analysed using mean for answering the research questions while t-test statistics and analysis of variance (ANOVA) were used for testing the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. Based on the data analyzed, the findings of the study revealed that the use of ICT for teaching and learning Financial accounting in tertiary institutions in Rivers and Bayelsa States were challenged by 60 out of the identified 61 challenges. The findings on the hypotheses tested further showed that there is no significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of the Business lecturers in Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education on the challenges in the use of ICT for teaching and learning Financial accounting in the area. There is significant difference in the mean rating of the responses of male and female staff on the challenges of incompetence of personnel in the use of ICT for teaching and learning financial accounting. Based on these findings, the study recommended among others that the government should make adequate provision for supply of necessary ICT facilities for effective use for instructional delivery in tertiary institutions in the Study area.