ASSESSMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE STUDENTS’ ATTITUDES ON AVAILABILITY AND UTILIZATION OF ICT RESOURCES IN COLLEGES OF EDUCATION IN KANO STATE, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT:Attainment of qualitative education requires the use of ICT to improve the quality of teaching,learning, research, communication and educational administration in institutions of learning.Despite globalinvestments on ICT infrastructure, policy formulation, and professional development to improve teaching andlearning in institutions of learning by many governments, international indicators,adoption and integration inteaching and learning have not been achieved maximally in Colleges of Education in Nigeria. This paperassesses the availability of ICT resources, students’ attitudes towards utilization and the challenges facingcomputer science students in Colleges of Education of Kano State, Nigeria. Survey research was adopted forthis study. Random sampling technique was used to select 150 students from the four Colleges of Education inKano StateTwenty-three questionnaire were developed on availability of ICT resources. Similarly, twenty-threeitem Likert scale questionnaire were equally developed using frequency, sometimes, seldom and never wereused.Three research questions were adopted. Two experts in the field of ICT and test and measurementvalidated the instrument. Cronbach Alpha Reliability coefficient of 0.86% was tested at 0.05 level of significant.The researchers personally administered the questionnaire with 100% return rate. The researchers usedfrequency aspect of the Statistical Packages for Social Sciences version 25 to compute the results of the researchin a tabular form. Thefindings showed that there were challenges to the utilization of ICT resources rangingfromlack of students’ ICT skills and confidence, lack of suitable ICT resources to inaccessibility. The resultsalso revealed that computer sciences students’ attitudes were positive. Recommendations such as provision ofadequate funding, adequate and functional ICT resources, supply of constant electricity and constant trainingand retraining of lecturers and students to effectively utilize ICT for teaching and learningto be competitive inline with the global best practices are put forward.

Keywords: Assessment, availability, computer science students’ attitudes, utilization of ICT resources, Collegesof Education, Nigeria.