Suchergebnisse

One of the major objectives of the Nigeria national policy on education is the provision of equal educational opportunities to all citizens at different levels of education. With regards to higher education, an aspect of the policy encourages distance learning to be organized and delivered by tertiary institutions in Nigeria. This study therefore, determines how much of the Government resources are committed, how the resources are utilized and what alternative sources of funding are available for this system of education. This study investigated the trends in recurrent costs between 2004/2005 and 2013/2014 at University of Ibadan Distance Learning Centre (DLC). A descriptive survey research design was employed for the study. Questionnaire was the research instrument used for the collection of data. The population of the study was 280 current distance learning education students, 70 academic staff and 50 administrative staff. Only 354 questionnaires were correctly filled and returned. Data collected were analyzed and coded using the frequencies, ratio, average and percentages were used to answer all the research questions. The study revealed that staff salaries and allowances of academic and non-academic staff represent the most important variable that influences the cost of education. About 55% of resources were allocated to this sector alone. The study also indicates that costs rise every year with increase in enrolment representing a situation of diseconomies of scale. This study recommends that Universities who operates distance learning program should strive to explore other internally generated revenue option to boost their revenue. University of Ibadan, being the premier university in Nigeria, should be given foreign aid and home support, both financially and materially, to enable the institute to run a formidable distance education program that would measure up in planning and implementation with those of developed nation.

Cyber pornography is fast gaining ground in the Nigerian cyber environment with undergraduate students among its major consumers. Against this background, this study investigated the trajectories of University of Ibadan undergraduates' exposure to cyber pornography. Containment theory was used as a theoretical framework. Data were collected from 250 respondents through surveys and in-depth interviews. Respondents' selection was achieved through a multistage sampling technique. Findings revealed that browsing for academic materials (37.0%) and Internet surfing (35.0%) were the major online activities predisposing respondents to cyber pornography. The majority of the respondents (78.3%) identified sex videos and nude pictures as the most commonly encountered cyber pornographic materials. Increased sexual urge was the major effect that most of the respondents (39%) attributed to cyber pornography. Undergraduate students need to be constantly counseled by relevant stakeholders on the danger and negative consequences associated with cyber pornography.

Abstract
Metacognition consists of knowledge of cognition (metacognitive knowledge) and regulation of cognition (metacognitive regulatory skills). The growing emphasis on student/learner-centered teaching at various educational levels including universities has led to recommendations for increased use of metacognitive strategies in traditional classrooms and online classrooms. This study examined metacognitive awareness among university students. The study population included 210 undergraduates and postgraduates studying biology or genetics among their regular courses in the university. Participants provided responses to the 52-item Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) instrument that captures self-assessed level of agreement to items assessing metacognitive knowledge and metacognitive regulatory skills. We conducted statistical analysis on the data collected. Mean self-assessed MAI scores was 79.9% (41.6/52), with metacognitive regulation scores of 80.1% (28.0/35) higher than metacognitive knowledge. Metacognitive awareness tends to decrease with level of study. Metacognitive regulation associated significantly with level of study (p=0.0127) or level of study and field of biology together (p=0.005). Students think highly of their metacognitive awareness especially in the regulation of cognition and this self-belief tended to reduce with year of study. The results provide baseline for future studies and global comparisons.

Introduction: The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has necessitated the implementation of public health measures including social distancing, quarantine, and lockdown. Nigerian public universities have been closed since March 2020 after the viral outbreak. This study was carried out in order to investigate the psychological impact of COVID-19 on undergraduate students.
Methods: The study was carried out among students of the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan. Study participants were recruited by snowballing sampling technique and data collection was via online self-administered questionnaires. The questionnaire was adapted from the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS-21) and the Revised Impact of Event Scale (IES-R) to determine scores for depression, anxiety, stress and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Results: There were 322 participants with a median age of 22.4 (IQR = 20.5-24.2) years. Psychological impact was mild to moderate in 20.2%, and severe in 19.6%. Depression was mild to moderate in 19.3%, severe to extremely severe in 5.3%. Anxiety was mild to moderate in 10.3%, severe to extremely severe in 7.5%. Stress was mild to moderate in 16.4%, severe to extremely severe in 2.2%. Factors associated (p < 0.05) with increased levels of depression, anxiety, stress and PTSD include increase in time spent on social media, TV and movies, sleep duration, and decrease in physical activity.
Conclusion: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant changes for Nigerian university students. Two-fifth of them reported PTSD symptoms; one-fourth reported depression; about one-fifth reported anxiety and stress. Students need psychosocial support to help them cope with and to effectively adapt to the changes caused by the pandemic.

This paper is concerned with the structural equation modelling of the academic performance in Statistics degree programme.Structural equation modelling is a class of methodologies that represent hypotheses about variances and covariances ofobserved data in terms of structural parameters defined by a theoretical model. It takes a confirmatory approach to themultivariate analysis of structural theory which specified the causal relations among the multiple observed variables. Thecausal pattern of intervariable relations within the theory was specified a priori. Structural equation modelling evaluatedtwo models – the measurement model and the structural model. The measurement model related observed responses orindicators to latent variables (confirmatory factor analysis), while the structural model specified relations among latentvariables (path analysis). The direct and indirect effects of personal factor, psychological factor, institutional/environmentalfactor, family characteristics, social and religious factor on the academic performance of students were studied. Theacademic performance of students remains a top priority for students, parents, educators, researchers, administrators(management) and government. The extent to which the theoretical model is supported by sample data collected fromundergraduate students of the Department of Statistics, University of Ibadan, was determined. There were 37 observedvariables and 7 latent variables. The result indicated that the attitude of students towards learning had positive directimpact on academic performance, while psychological factor had negative influence on academic performance. Also, thestructural equation model analysis with four basic fit indices suggested a reasonable model-data fit.