KEYBOARDING: AN ESSENTIAL 21ST-CENTURY DIGITAL SKILL FOR UNDERGRADUATES IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIAN FEDERAL POLYTECHNICS

Abstract

The study accessed keyboarding as an indispensable 21st century digital skill necessary for all undergraduates in Federal Polytechnics in South-East, Nigeria in particular. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised of 2,228 lecturers from three Federal Polytechnics in South-East. Nigeria. A sample size of 377 lecturers was drawn from the population using simple random sampling and Krejcie and Morgan table for sample size determination. A structured questionnaire titled “Keyboarding an Indispensable Course required by all Polytechnic Undergraduates (KICRPU) was used as instrument for data collection. Three experts validated the instrument while Cronbach alpha was used to obtain the reliability coefficient of 0.89. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study, 302 copies of the questionnaire were duly completed and used for the study. The items were rated on a four point rating scale; mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the research questions while t-test was used in testing the hypothesis. The findings revealed that keyboarding course is required by undergraduates to meet up with the demands of the digital age. The researcher recommended among others that the keyboarding course should be introduced in all disciplines in Polytechnics in Nigeria and as well, computer labs of various institutions should be adequately equipped to enable the teaching of this course.

Keywords: Keyboarding, digital skill, undergraduates, Polytechnics