Digital Literacy Skills and Instructional Resource Utilization among Agricultural Education Lecturers in Colleges of Education, Rivers State, Nigeria

This study assessed the digital literacy skills of agricultural education lecturers and their utilization of instructional resources for effective curriculum delivery in Colleges of Education in Rivers State. A descriptive survey research design was adopted. The population comprised all full-time agricultural education lecturers across the two public tertiary institutions offering the program in the state: Federal College of Education (Technical), Omoku, and Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Rumuolumeni. The researcher collected data using a structured questionnaire called the "Digital Literacy and Instructional Resource Utilization Questionnaire (DLIRUQ)," which was face and content validated by three independent experts. The reliability of the instrument was established using Cronbach’s Alpha, yielding a coefficient of 0.84. Descriptive statistics (Mean and Standard Deviation) were used to answer the research questions, while the independent samples t-test and Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) were utilized to test the null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. The findings reveal a significant positive relationship between lecturers' digital literacy competencies and their rate of instructional resource deployment. Based on the outcomes, the researcher recommends that the Rivers State Ministry of Education collaborate with institutional provosts to organize mandatory, discipline-specific ICT capacity-building workshops to bridge the pedagogical technology gap.