Instructional technology in higher education: A case of selected universities in the Niger Delta

This article examines the effectiveness of instructional technology in higher education institutions in relation to the role and usage of Information Communication Technology (ICT), its effectiveness in faculty teaching and its impact on student learning in universities in the Niger Delta of Nigeria. This study applied the Need Assessment Approach (NAA). A self-designed questionnaire, that employed benchmarks from similar studies conducted in the West, was used to collect data for this study. One hundred and twenty five (n = 125) respondents participated in the study. The results suggest that there are significant relationships between the impact of instructional technology, the usage of instructional technology and students’ academic achievement. An absence of ICT instructional materials, ineffective policy implementation and a lack of other resources (infrastructures) to aid teaching and learning are responsible for short comings in the effective implementation of ICT in education. The study revealed that experience makes it easier to employ and exhibit greater proficiency when using ICT instructional material in the teaching and learning process. The findings and nature of this study bare implications for higher education administrators, faculty and researchers. By design, this research was based on a narrow field of literature and a small sample size. Consequently, it is recommended that further studies are based on a more widespread survey of literature and a larger sample size, which might also involve multiple case studies.