PROGRAMME ADMINISTRATORS' RATING OF DIGITAL PEDAGOGICAL SKILLS REQUIRED FOR THE EMPLOYABILITY OF BUSINESS EDUCATION GRADUATES OF UNIVERSITIES IN ANAMBRA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated programme administrators' ratings of digital pedagogical skills required for the employability of business education graduates in universities in Anambra State, Nigeria. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 48 business educators (programme administrators) in three universities offering business education in Anambra State. A structured questionnaire titled "Business Educators' Rating of Digital Skills Required for Employability of Business Education Graduates Questionnaire" (BERDSREBEGQ) was used for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts and had a Cronbach's alpha reliability coefficient of 0.858 for the digital pedagogical skills cluster. Data was analysed using the mean and standard deviation to answer the research question, while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at the 0.05 level of significance. The findings revealed that all nine digital pedagogical skills items were rated as highly required, with a grand mean of 4.10. The highest-rated skill was "ability to create and deliver multimedia presentations" (mean = 4.22), while the lowest-rated was "ability to integrate social media into teaching" (mean = 3.93). The study found no significant difference in the mean ratings based on gender (F = 0.124, p = 0.726 > 0.05) and years of teaching experience (F = 0.367, p = 0.695 > 0.05). It was concluded that digital pedagogical skills are critical for enhancing the employability of business education graduates. The study recommended that curriculum planners should integrate digital pedagogical competencies into business education programmes, institutions should provide continuous professional development for educators, and adequate digital infrastructure should be provided to support effective teaching and learning