The study abroad, also known as Year Abroad or Period Abroad, has always been and remains a very important part of any language degree programme. Whilst abroad, students are expected to develop language, academic, cultural, intercultural, personal and professional skills; even though some providers’ attention has been leaning on the development of foreign language skills. Self-reported experiences have revealed that after the study abroad, many students fail to use productively acquired skills to cope with demands of the academic complex tasks, including independent major writing projects, various communicative encounters and the development of related soft skills. With an insight into the issues surrounding the curriculum provision, the learning support and the assessment of the study abroad in language programmes, the paper examines and challenges the way many students are prepared and supported to embark on the independent learning journey. The analysis of the findings suggests recommendations for effective learner engagement.
Readiness of Undergraduate Students for Distributed Learning in Selected Higher Educational Institutions in Southern Nigeria (Published)
The study investigated the level of readiness of undergraduate students for Distributed Learning. Descriptive survey method of the cross-sectional research design was used for the study. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select the sample of 600 from the population of 39,316 undergraduate students of the University of Port Harcourt and the Port Harcourt study center of the National Open University of Nigeria. A self-assessment instrument, Distributed learning Readiness Instrument (DLRI), developed by the researcher was used to collect data from the sample. The reliability of the instrument was determined through the test-retest method and a reliability coefficient of 0.77 was obtained. Three experts in the field of Educational Technology and two in Measurement and Evaluation confirmed the face and content validity of the instrument. Six research questions were answered using mean and standard deviation while six hypotheses were tested with t-test and one-way ANOVA at 0.05significance level. The results showed that Distance and Part-time students had higher level of readiness than Full-time and Sandwich students. Also, there were significant differences found on modes of study, gender, age and course of study. The conclusion is that there is inequity in the readiness of students for e-Learning. The use of readiness assessment, orientation programmes, effective learner support were recommended.
“The impact of Garrison’s Model of Self-directed Learning on Improving Academic Self- Concept for Undergraduate Students” “AUE as a Model” (Published)
The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of Garrison’s Model of Self-directed Learning on improving Academic Self- concept for AUE Undergraduate Students. The study was carried out with (58) students consisting of 30 males and 28 females out of (115) psychology students, selected randomly and divided into two groups: experimental and control group. The data was collected based on the results of the Academic Self-concept Scale (the reliability coefficient of the scale was calculated by the researcher as (0.93). ANCOVA test, means and Standard deviation were used to analyze the data. The analysis of the data revealed a discrepancy between the means for both the experimental and the control groups that constitutes the study participants. The study also showed a more significant mean for the experimental group than the control group. The “F” value for post-test reflected Garrison’s model high impact in improving Academic Self-concept for AUE Undergraduate students.