Adoption of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in Distance Education: A Retrospective Analysis

Abstract

In recent times, the Information Communication Technol ogy (ICT) in educational settings has gained much attention in research. Thus, the author examined the use, accessibility and effect of ICT in Distance Education (DE) in Ghana’s first public university since ICT plays a critical role in enhancing teaching and learning processes of DE programmes. Using a cross-sectional design, the author adopted both in terview and questionnaires as instruments for collecting data from the management staff and distance learning students respectively. The main findings of the study were that; in accessibility and inadequacy of ICT facilities had affected students’ academic work especially in the areas of research, learning and even library services. Moreover, the findings confirmed that a strong relationship existed between ‘adequa cy of ICT facilities’ and teaching, learning and research’. The regression analysis found that there is a significant positive relationship (r= 0. 814, p < 0.01) between adequacy of the fa cilities/resources and academic performance.