ICT Skills of University Freshmen and their Projections for Improvement upon Graduation: A Case Study of Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Nigeria.

Abstract

The paper reported the outcomes of the assessment of the information and communication technology (ICT) skills of freshmen in a Nigerian private university and the projection of the students for improvement at graduation. It became necessary in this digital era, where it is assumed the Millennial are digital natives, to know what computing capabilities fresh university students are coming with from their earlier educational exposures and also to know their expectations for ICT skills honing at higher educational level. The findings show that although many of the students are proficient users of varying devices (desktop, laptop and mobile devices), laptop is their preferred device for academic work. It also indicated that laptop and smartphones are their best choice for a device combination. The students are more skilful in E-mail (159%), web browsing (53%), online registration (57%), mobile apps use (53%), e-banking (49%), e-commerce (44%). Whereas they show interest in learning other skills, they indicated that the ICT unit is the arm of the university perceived to contribute the most to their skills improvement during the study years. Recommendations were made based on the findings.