International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences, 2(6) June 2013, Pages: 490-494

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International Journal of Economy, Management and Social Sciences

ISSN
2306-7276

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Technologies for Instruction as Innovative Strategies in Higher

Education: A Nigeria Perspective
Mosiforeba Victoria Adegbija
(Ph.D.) DEPT. OF SCIENCE EDUCATION, UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN, ILORIN, NIGERIA.
AR TIC LE INF O

AB STR AC T

Keywords:

This paper examined the use of technologies for instruction as innovative strategies in higher
education from a Nigerian perspective. Changes in learning often come about when the current
practices are challenged, making a search for a more efficient way of achieving educational
objectives inevitable. The global educational standards require innovations in the development of
the educational system as a whole in the developing countries. This research portrayed
technologies for instruction as the specific teaching learning patterns that serve reliably as
templates for achieving demonstrably effective learning. It is the application of modern tools,
technical knowledge and methods as a unit for achieving a common goal. Higher education in most
African/developing countries is currently going through its most challenging and depressive
situation due to an unprecedented high demand of youths for admission into tertiary institutions;
lack of funding which is reported to be below UNESCO recommendation; etc. Since it has been
shown that technologies for instruction have been used by the developed countries over the years to
address and overcome instructional challenges at all levels of their educational system, it was
recommended that teachers and learners should be computer literate, government and other stake
holders in the education sector should encourage teachers to be exposed to the various technologies
for instruction through workshops, seminars, training and retraining.

Technologies
Higher Education
Innovative Strategies
Nigeria

2013 Int. j. econ. manag. soc. sci. All rights reserved for TI Journals.

Introduction
The main focus of this paper was to review technologies for instruction as innovative strategies in higher education from a Nigeria
perspective. Heinich, Molenda, Russell & Smaldino (2002) described technologies for instruction as the specific teaching learning
patterns that serve reliably as templates for achieving demonstrably effective learning. It is the application of modern tools, technical
knowledge and methods as a unit for achieving a common goal. Higher education in most African countries is currently going through its
most challenging and depressive situation due to an unprecedented high demand of youths for admission to tertiary institutions; lack of
funding because most governments have limited offer of scholarships to the ever increasing youth population; inflexibility with the
conventional higher education; academic demands and curriculum; lack of control over study or lecture time, and so on. Technologies for
instruction have been found over the years, to be able to address and control all these challenges in the developed countries of the world.
Higher Education refers to a level of the educational system that is beyond secondary education such as the Universities, Colleges of
Education, Polytechnics, Research institutes and Monotechnics, including institutions offering correspondence courses (National Policy on
Education (NPE), 2004). Students enrolment in such institutions even at the global level witnessed rapid increase since the mid - eighties.
This was linked with the global economic recession, changes in the labour market and possibly the technological development. For
instance, as at April 2004, there are 27million higher education students in European Union and United State of America (Scott, 2008).
Student enrolment in higher education in Nigeria has also manifested similar trend since year 2000, when the establishment of many states
and private Universities, Polytechnics and Colleges of Education relatively increased student enrolment in these institutions (JAMB, 2009).
In 1934, Yaba Higher College was formally opened. This was necessitated by the colonial government, commercial and organizations
need for suitably qualified persons to fill intermediate clerical and technical position in agriculture, Secondary School teaching, health
services, surveying and engineering. There was also agitation on the part of educated local elite for the provision of facilities for higher
education for national emancipation.
Generally speaking and despite the numerical growth, education experienced a slow pace of development and commissions after
commissions were set up for this purpose. Such commissions are Phelps-Strokes Commission in 1922, ERJ Hussey Memorandum on
Education Policy in Nigeria, Sir Walter Elliot Commission in June 1943, and Justice Cyril Asquith with two of her members in common
with the Elliot commission (Abudullahi, 2010).

* Corresponding author.
Email address: mosivic@yahoo.co.uk

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Internat ional Jour nal of Economy, Mana ge ment and Social Sciences , 2(6) June 2013

He further added that the first University College was established in Ibadan, Nigeria in January 1948. The Nigerian College of Arts,
Science and Technology (NCACT) was established in 1952 with a branch each in Enugu, Ibadan and Zaria and that the colleges ran courses
in Arts and Science subjects in preparatory for Cambridge which would qualify successful candidates for direct admission into university
degree programmes.
Furthermore, in preparation for October 1st 1960 independence in Nigeria, and in realization of the inadequacies of university college in
Ibadan to meet the countrys requirement for high level manpower both in variety and in quality, the Nigerian Government through the
Minister of Education appointed in April 1959, nine- member commission (including three Nigerians) to study the needs of Nigeria for
post-school certificate and higher education during the ensuring period of twenty years. The commission had Sir Eric Ashby as the
chairman, and submitted to the Federal Government in September 1960, a report captioned Investment in Education. One of the
recommendations was the increase in the production of graduates from 300 to 2000 a year by 1970 and enrolment of students in the
universities should be increased to about 7,500 by 1970 and to 10,000 in 1980. This marked the beginning of rapid growth in higher
education in Nigeria and higher education was put in the concurrent legislative list. Presently, there are at least 104 universities comprising
27 Federal; 36 State; and 41 Private universities in Nigeria.
According to Simiyu (1999), higher education in Africa as a whole has many problems which started with the rapid increase in enrolment,
lack of or inadequate instructional materials, inadequate personnel/lecturers, stream-lined/only conventional teaching methodologies, and
so on.

Innovative strategies
Technologies have played a very significant role in affecting most modern educational innovations positively. Educational innovations are
planned, objective-oriented aimed at improving upon existing educational practices which are based on specific need to effect a change.
Innovative technologies are the modern technological devices, tools, software and hardware, teaching methods, etc. employed to bring
pragmatic solutions to learning problems. According to Heinich, Molenda, Russell and Smaldino (2002), these innovative technologies are
designed to overcome one or more of the shortcomings of traditional whole class instruction. All of them directly address the problems of
passivity posed by the conventional lectures or teaching. Also they allow learners direct and active engagement with the subject matter and
require learner participation.
According to Simiyu, (1999), the greatest change and impact to education in the history of instructional technology came from the 2nd
World War when efforts were made to teach various skills to the military. The invention of the computer and programmed instruction were
applied to education with encouraging and positive results. However, the new technologies applied to higher education, especially in the
developing country such as Nigeria, should be considered within the socio-economic context of each country. This is because innovations
are relative and should therefore not be treated objectively and since the way individuals or societies perceive innovations differ.

The paradigm shift

Technologies have brought massive innovations that cannot be quantified as already stated. These innovations and changes cover all
aspects of education starting from the time when correspondence education evolved into distance learning and now into e-learning which is
now the current practice. The current system of education world-wide now utilizes technologies for instruction by incorporating a variety of
media to achieve educational objectives on a modern, faster, reliable and repeatable on a global basis. There is a dramatic change now on
what students learn, how the students learn it, and where the students will learn it based on global expectations and standards. The
examples of the shift or changes are presented in the table that follows:
Table 1. Technologies for Instruction versus the Conventional Mode of Teaching
Activities

Conventional

Technologies for Instruction

Classroom activities

Teacher-centred, didactic

Learner-centred, interactive, active participation

Teachers role

Knowledge transmitter, content expert, primary source

of information/educational problems

Collaboration/facilitation, mentoring, manager of

knowledge/information

Learners role

Passive recipient of information/ knowledge,

Active participation, taking responsibility for own learning,

learning is fun and exciting,

Instructional emphasis

information/ knowledge/facts memorization,

Relationship, inquiry, invention, research, knowledge

sharing

Concepts of knowledge

Accumulation of knowledge/facts

Transformation of knowledge/facts

Demonstration of success

Norm-referenced

Criterion- referenced

Assessment

Essays, manipulative/delayed feedback/results,

Performance based on quality of understanding, eexamination, immediate feedback.

Source: Adapted and modified from Abimbade (2010, pp.86-87)

Mosiforeba Victoria Adegbija

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Int ernational Journal of Ec onomy, Mana ge me nt and Soci al Sc iences , 2(6) June 2013

According to Abimbade (2010), these changes or innovations are as a result of technological advancement which had created a more
interactive and participatory learning environment that enables flexibility, individualization and self-pacing in the learning process. Class
activities that used to be teacher-centred and didactic are now learner-centred, interactive and active participation by the students with
immediate knowledge of results. The teacher has seized to be the only source of information as a result of the various forms of technologies
for instruction. The table on the application of technologies for instruction and the conventional mode of teaching shows the other details of
the different changes experienced with technologies.

Importance of technologies for instruction

Technologies for instruction have been utilized in the developed countries of the world as innovative means for revitalizing their
educational system since the 1950s. This was when teaching machines and now, the computers and programmed instruction developed by
Presley, B.F. Skinner and others brought a new way of addressing educational problems bordering on active participation, reinforcement
and feedback of learners. This development paved the way for a new and exciting educational system that we have in the developed
countries today. Examples of these technologies for instruction enumerated by Heinich, Molenda, Russell and Smaldino (2002) include
Programmed instruction, Programmed Tutoring, Personalized System of Instruction, Audio-Tutorial Systems, Simulation and Gaming and
Computer Assisted Instruction (details to be given later).
In Nigeria and most developing countries, technologies for instruction are still experiences read about and not adequately experimented.
There are policies on computer instruction and the application of technology in the classrooms but most of these are more in paper than in
practice. Policies on computer education which would have contributed to computer literacy never saw the light of the day or in most cases
got truncated because of political problems. For instance, the Federal government of Nigeria had started as far back as February/March
1985 to set up the first National Conference on Computer application which was held at the University of Lagos. Unfortunately, no action
resulted from this Conference until another National Computer Policy Committee was inaugurated with the responsibility of making
policies on the following:

To catch up with the rest of the world (in technology)

To be ready to enter the 21st century of high technology where computer will undoubtedly be at the centre of it all
To be able to land on jobs demanding computer knowledge
To bring about a computer literate society in Nigeria by the middle of 1990s and to enable the present generation of school
children at different levels of education appreciate the potentials of the computer and be able to utilize the computer in various
aspects of life and later occupation. (Ajelabi, 2006, p.175).

As laudable as these are, not much was achieved or implemented. Thus, the Federal Ministry of Education launched the ministerial
initiative in 2004 of which e-education was one of the initiatives for the attainment of Education for All (EFA) and the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG). These Information and Communication Technology (ICT) resources were to be used as the delivery systems.
The new technologies according to Simiyu (1999) can bring the following benefits to higher education:

Increase access to instructional resources through the Internet,

Share experiences through technologies such as the virtual university,
Increase access to higher education through distance teaching and learning,
Increase flexibility in what to learn, how to learn, and
Motivate potential learners to engage in higher education (p.142).

These advantages are not limited to higher education in the conventional tertiary institutions alone but more importantly to distance
learning, e-education or e-learning which require the services of technologies for their operations as a whole.

Implementing technologies for instruction in education

Most technologies require the use of computers and or projectors all over the world. Therefore there is no way we can over emphasise the
importance of computer literacy in our educational system, even though some may consider this as something we should not be writing or
referring to in this technological age. Both teachers and the learners need to be computer literate for technologies to be fully implemented in
the developing countries. Also, Adegbija and Daramola (2007) observed that computer literacy cannot be fully achieved without an
adequate provision or procurement of technology materials, tools or hardware and their accompanying software. There have been so much
policies, talks, or proposals on all of these in Nigeria in particular without the corresponding or necessary action to procure the equipment
needed for technological advancement (Abimbade, 2010).
Nigeria should get to a point in which computer literacy should be a prerequisite for admission, employment and other official operations.
For instance, it was reported that Americans who were not computer literate by as far back as 1999 were to be regarded as functionally
illiterates. A stern action such as this in the developing countries may lead to a greater level of achieving technological development
especially in the educational system.

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Internat ional Jour nal of Economy, Mana ge ment and Social Sciences , 2(6) June 2013

In addition, an adequate knowledge of the various technologies for instruction will assist the teacher in the implementation of these
technologies in the classroom as displayed in table 2.
Table 2. Characteristics of Technologies for Instruction

A teaching/
learning
pattern

Designed
to provide
reliable
instructions
Effective
Instruction

To
each
learner

Application
of
scientific
principles
of human
learning

Programmed
instruction
Small units of
information,
practice followed
by feedback

Programmed
Tutoring
Small units of
information,
practice followed
by feedback

Program recorded
in printed form

Teacher follows
directions; learner
uses
structured
workbook
Programs
are
learner tested and
revised
during
development
process
Individual pacing
and
flexible
responsive
branching by the
teacher
Reinforcement
theory;
verbal
response followed
by knowledge of
results,
social
reinforcers;
occasional
personalised
human contact

Programs
are
learner tested and
revised
during
development
process
Individual pacing

Reinforcement
theory;
verbal
response
followed
by
knowledge
of
results

Personalized System
of Instruction
Large
units
of
information
in
sequential order and
Mastery is required
before proceeding
Course clearly spelled
out on print materials,
standardized tests

Audio-tutoring
system
Laboratory
audio
used independently,
could be large or
small groups

Simulation
and
Gaming
Small
group
activity and could
be representation
of
reality
or
competition
Game procedures
and ply materials
are enforced

Computer
Assisted
Instruction
Small
units
of
information presented
on
display
screen
followed by immediate
feedback
Instructions are coded
into Computer programs
and displayed

Mastery is assured by
testing or correction
cycle

Mastery
is
encouraged by small
group tests/review
sessions

May be learner
tested
for
effectiveness

Programs are learner

tested
and
revised
during
development
process

Individual pacing and

discussion on one-toone of test error and
questions

Individual pacing in
independent
study
section of the course

Individual pacing and

some branching

Frequent response to
test
followed
by
immediate correction;
occasional
personalised human
contact;
mastery
required to show that
learner is working at
his
level
of
comprehension

Conversational
contact with teacher
via tape; high use of
audio
and
audiovisual media;
occasional
personalised human
contact;
active
involvement
in
challenging tasks

Usually
group
paced
with
individuals
assigned
to
compatible groups
Social interaction
with small group;
emotional
involvement;
repetition of drilland-practice,
,
highly
motivational

Core
materials
recorded on audio
tapes

Reinforcement theory;
verbal response followed by know- ledge of
result and branching;
may involve audiovisual
display; appea- rance of
personalized
humancontact;
apply
mastery concept; highly motivational

Source: Adapted from Heinich, Molenda & Russell (1982, p.284)

Table 2 shows the different types of technologies for instruction stating their teaching or learning patterns, reliability, how to determine
their effectiveness, how they apply to each learner and how they could be applied to satisfy and achieve learning objectives in practical
terms. Admittedly, these are old or obsolete ideas because the developed countries have been using them since the 1980s. However, the
developing countries, such as Nigeria, need them as much as the developed countries needed them many years ago for technological
advancement.

Conclusion
This paper reviewed technologies for instruction as innovative strategies for higher education from a Nigerian perspective. Innovative
technologies are designed to overcome one or more of the shortcomings of traditional or conventional whole class instruction. Innovation
affects classroom activities, the teachers role, instruction or content emphasis, concepts of knowledge, demonstration of success and the
assessment of learners performance. Technologies for instruction are relevant for all types and levels of education. According to Ipaye
(2009) the flexibility, self-pacing and individualization features of technologies are particularly excellent in ensuring the effectiveness of eeducation, distance learning or e-learning environment. Technologies for instruction further provide learners the opportunity to learn while
having fun through games, simulations and computer assisted instruction.

Recommendations
Based on this study the following recommendations have been proffered in order to fully implement technologies for instruction as
innovative strategies in higher education in Nigeria:

Lecturers and learners should be trained and developed in computer literacy, skills and competency,

Mosiforeba Victoria Adegbija

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Int ernational Journal of Ec onomy, Mana ge me nt and Soci al Sc iences , 2(6) June 2013

Government and stakeholders in the education sector should assist in the production and procurement of adequate technology
resources or facilities such as the computers, internet facilities/connectivity
Government and stakeholders in the education sector should encourage lecturers by sponsoring them to attend refreshers courses,
workshops, seminars, trainings, etc. to update their knowledge and skills, and
Government and other employers should begin to make computer literacy/skills a requirement or prerequisite for employment and
or promotions in their establishments.

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