ACCEPTANCE, ADOPTION AND USABILITY OF MOBILE LEARNING DEVICES AS CORRELATES OF LIBRARY ELECTRONIC RESOURCE UTILISATION AMONG POSTGRADUATES IN PRIVATE UNIVERSITIES IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Library electronic resources are essential information materials which are generally utilised by library patrons. Reports have shown that library electronic resources are underutilised by postgraduate students particularly in Nigerian private universities. Previous studies focused largely on information availability, accessibility and students’ information literacy skills with little attention paid to acceptance, adoption and usability of mobile learning devices. This study, therefore, was carried out to investigate acceptance, adoption and usability of mobile learning devices as correlates of library electronic resource utilisation (purpose, frequency of use and types of resources) among postgraduate students in private universities in southwestern Nigeria.

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology served as the framework; while the survey design of the correlational type was used. Purposive sampling procedure was adopted to select nine private universities that were approved to run postgraduate programmes by the National Universities Commission as at 2016. All the Ph.D. students were enumerated, while proportionate to size sampling technique was used to select 622 Master degree students in the commonly available faculties/schools namely: Business and Social Sciences, Education and Humanities, Engineering, Environmental Sciences, Leadership Development Studies, Media and Communication, Natural Sciences, Natural and Basic Medical Sciences, and Science and Technology. A total of 764 postgraduate students in the universities were randomly selected as follows: Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti (76); Babcock University, Ilisan (343); Bowen University, Iwo (29); Caleb University, Imota (80); Covenant University, Ota (59); Joseph Ayo Babalola University, Ikeji-Arakeji (22); Lead City University, Ibadan (60); Pan Atlantic University, Lekki Lagos (45) and Redeemer’s University, Ede (50). The instruments used were: Utilisation of Library Electronic Resources (r=0.74), Acceptance of Mobile Learning Devices (r=0.72), Adoption of Mobile Learning Devices (r=0.72), and Usability of Mobile Learning Devices (r=0.71) questionnaires. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment correlation and Multiple regression at 0.05 level of significance.

Respondents’ age was 21.30 ± 3.65 years and 52.4% were males, while their distribution based on educational programmes were Ph.D. (18.6%), Master degree (81.4%). Utilisation of electronic resources ( =2.63) and usability of mobile learning devices ( =2.56) were moderate, while levels of acceptance ( =2.95) and adoption ( =2.70) were high as against the threshold of 2.50. There were significant relationships between acceptance (r= 0.15), adoption (r=0.28), usability of mobile learning devices (r=0.40) and utilisation of electronic resources. Acceptance, adoption and usability of mobile learning devices jointly contributed to utilisation of electronic resources (F(3;760)=56.01: Adj.R2=0.17), accounting for 17.0% of its variance. Usability of mobile learning devices (β = 0.36), acceptance of mobile learning devices (β = 0.10) and adoption of mobile learning devices (β = 0.05) relatively contributed to library electronic resource utilisation among the postgraduate students.

Acceptance, adoption and usability of mobile learning devices influenced utilisation of library electronic resources among the sampled postgraduate students in private universities in southwestern Nigeria. Private university libraries in southwestern Nigeria need to take cognisance of these factors for improved library electronic resources utilisation.