An Investigation of the Efficacy and Interest of Nigerian University Students in Virtual Classroom (VCs)

This paper adopted a descriptive design to investigate the Efficacy and Interest of Nigerian University Students in Virtual Classroom (VCs). Virtual classrooms are digitally driven classrooms that provide learning support that has potential to enhance students’ ability to communicate effectively through latest technology and learn innovative strategies for virtual teamwork by using electronic communication to interact with a group. The study was carried out in one federal and one private university in the North-Central of Nigeria. Three research questions and three hypotheses guided the study. The population comprised of 890 University of Abuja students and 450 Africa University of Science and Technology (AUST), Abuja students giving a total population of 1340 respondents. Purposive sampling techniques based on convenience and accessibility was used to select the two universities. Simple random sampling techniques based on students’ consent was used to draw the sample size of 300 from the University of Abuja (Uniabuja) and 250 from Africa University of Science and Technology (AUST), Abuja given a total sample size of 550 respondents. The instrument for data collection tagged “Virtual Classrooms Assessment Questionnaire†(VCAQ) was 33-items questionnaires developed by the researcher was validated by two experts. The instruments were trial tested on twenty (20) males and twenty-five (25) females students in two universities outside the study area; University of Ibadan and Nile University of Nigeria, Abuja. Internal consistency was computed using Cronbach Alpha techniques and yielded a reliability coefficient thus; Section A = 0.75, Section B =0.80 and section C = 0.85 respectively. The reliability coefficient values were considered appropriate for the study. The instrument was administered via social Network Technologies (SNT) and Google Apps in order to adhere to NCDC directives of Covid-19 and data collected. Likert scale of four points was used and the weightings of responses were; strongly Agree (SA) = 4 points, Agree (A) = 3points; Disagree (D) = 2 points and Strongly Disagree (SD) = 1. The options of the responses were added like this, vz; 4+3+2+1=10/4=2.5. The data collected was analyzed using mean (x̄) and standard deviation (SD) and independent sample t-test statistics to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The results showed among others that the use of virtual classroom (VCs) is not effective in UniAbuja as compared to AUST due to inadequate VC’s learning environment and facilities. Based on these submissions, some recommendations were made.