Availability and Utilization of Virtual Teaching Resources in Colleges of Education in Southern Nigeria

The outbreak of the Corona virus epidemic had an adverse effect of schooling worldwide, students and indeed everyone had their movement restricted to avoid the spread of the deadly virus, social distances were maintained while face to face method of transmitting knowledge became difficult to actualize. It was based on the above that the virtual teaching method of knowledge dissemination became not only necessary but the way to go. However the successes recorded in many tertiary educational institutions in Africa and Nigeria in particular was said to be below average as many schools closed without an alternative because several virtual teaching materials were not in place. This paper analyses the availability and extent of utilization of virtual teaching resources in colleges of education in southern Nigeria. Three research questions were raised to guide the study while the research design employed for this study was ex-post facto design. The population of the study include all Colleges of Education (Federal, State & Private) in Southern Nigeria.. A sample size of twelve (12) public and private Colleges of Education across the South-South geopolitical zone of Nigeria was used. The instruments for the study included a checklist adapted from National Commission for Colleges of Education (NCCE) as well as a questionnaire titled Questionnaire on Utilization and Prospect of Virtual Resource Colleges of Education in Nigeria (QUPVRCEN). The findings of the study revealed Whatsapp and Zoom are virtual teaching resources available in Colleges of Education in Nigeria while on the average virtual teaching resource in private and public Colleges of Education in Nigeria are underutilized. The paper recommended among others that More virtual teaching resources should be employed by institutions of higher learning in Nigeria and provision of infrastructure to support technology driven educational systems should be provided and put in good working condition. Keywords: availability, utilization, virtual resources, teaching, colleges of education. DOI : 10.7176/JEP/15-11-01 Publication date : October 30th 2024