Libraries at University of Nebraska-Lincoln
Date of this Version
2018
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) promote open access to learning materials, thereby, providing learning opportunities for professional development and lifelong learning. University lecturers, especially in developing countries can leverage on the opportunities provided by MOOCs for skills acquisition. Considering that studies have highlighted digital literacy skills as a determinant of MOOC participation, this study examined lecturers’ digital literacy skills and their participation in MOOCs. The study adopted a survey research design while the population of study comprised 110 lecturers from the Management and Social Sciences discipline at a private University in Nigeria. A self-developed questionnaire was used as an instrument for data collection from the entire population. Data collected were subjected to analysis using simple percentages, mean score and logistic regression. The findings from the study revealed that on the overall, lecturers possessed advanced digital literacy skills ( = 3.60). Regarding the enrolment for MOOC, just 15% of the respondents had enrolled for at least a course on any of the MOOC website. Additionally, only 20% of those that enrolled for at least a course on the MOOC website indicated they actively participate in the courses they enrolled for. Lastly, the study revealed no statistically significant influence of lecturers’ digital literacy skill on their enrolment in MOOC (X2=2.35, p>0.05). Conclusively, while this study has revealed that lecturers’ digital literacy skills have no influence on their MOOC participation, it also revealed that lecturers are not yet availing themselves of the opportunities for skills acquisition and knowledge update made possible by MOOCs.