Abstract

Despite coming of age with the internet and other technology, many university lecturers lack the information and communication technology (ICT) literacy skills necessary to navigate and use the overabundance of information available today. This paper assesses the ICT skills and the areas of ICT training needs to improve teaching and research of lecturers in the faculty of agriculture, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. Data for the study were collected from 66 out of 104 academic staff of the faculty through the use of questionnaire. Data were analyzed using percentage, mean statistic and charts. The results of the study revealed that, lecturers were skilled in general windows operation (M = 1.79), word processing (M = 1.81) and internet/on-line activities (M = 1.74). They were not skilled in slides preparation/presentation (M = 1.15), spreadsheets preparation (M = 1.26), and data analysis using computer software (M = 0.84). The highest demand for ICT training need by the lecturers was data analysis using computer software like SPSS, GENSTAT, Excel, E-view etc (95.0%). The study therefore, recommended that academic staff of the faculty should be exposed to ICT training to enhance teaching and research in the university.

Key words: Training needs, lecturers, information and communication technology (ICT) skills, faculty of agriculture, University of Nigeria.