STRATEGIES FOR THE TEACHING OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AND COMPUTER APPLICATION RELEVANT IN PREPAREDNESS FOR TODAY'S WORKFORCE

Abstract

The study examined strategies for the teaching of information technology and computer application more relevant in preparedness for today's workforce. Three research questions guided the study and one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance. Descriptive survey design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised 33 Office Technology Management Education lecturers in the four colleges of education in Delta State. The entire population was studied. Data for the study were collected by means of structured validated questionnaire. Test re-test was used for reliability test, which yielded coefficient value of 0.83. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyze the research questions while t-test was used to test the hypothesis. Findings revealed that allocation of 3 credit units to information technology and computer application improves content coverage and adequate Information Technology resources, can add relevance to its teaching at very high extent respectively. Hypothesis proved that there was no significant difference in the responses of the respondentson the extent allocation of 3 credit units to information technology and computer application is a strategy for adding relevance to its teaching. Based on the findings, recommendations made include the need for curriculum review that can properly positioninformation technology and computer application as a core OTME course, with 3 credit units and adequate information technology resources should be made available in the right quality and quantity for effective teaching and skills acquisition in OTM E programme