PERCEIVED BENEFITS OF E-LEARNING TECHNOLOGIES BY BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS: IS AVAILABILITY A CONCERN IN UNIVERSITIES

Abstract

The study explored the benefits of e-learning technologies in business education programmes in
universities by considering the concerns of the availability of the technologies. Two research
questions and two hypotheses were raised and formulated respectively to guide the study. The
study adopted a descriptive survey research design. The population of the study comprised 521
Business Education students at the University of Benin and Benson Idahosa University, out of
which 100 students were used as a sample, using the disproportionate stratified random sampling
technique. A structured questionnaire containing 17 items was the instrument used for data
collection. Having validated the instrument, its reliability was determined using Cronbach’s
alpha method, which yielded a coefficient 0.84. Data collected were analyzed using mean and
standard deviation for the research questions, while t-test and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
were used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that students had several
positive perceptions about e-learning technologies for enhancing business education programme
to bridge the gap that exists between theories and practice in learning. However, availability of
the e-learning resources is a concern because students perceived that the resources were not
available in their institutions as expected. Based on the findings it was recommended that
relevant shareholders in education should provide adequate e-learning technologies for the
teaching and learning process of business education courses.