Evaluating application of information and communication technology in patronizing guidance and counseling services among undergraduate students in selected north-western universities in nigeria

Abstract

The paper evaluates the application/usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in patronizing guidance and counseling services among undergraduates students in selected North-western Nigerian Universities. Three research questions were raised, and two hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. The population of the study comprised two universities with 351 students from the Department of Education, 190 students were sampled out proportionately. The researcher developed questionnaire tagged “Students questionnaire on application/usage of ICT in patronizing guidance, and counseling service (SQAICTGCS)” was used for data collection. The instrument was validated, and it has reliability index Alpha of 0.776. Percentage, frequency mean, and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while an independent sample t-test was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that the majority of the undergraduate students in North-western Nigeria universities are not applying/using electronic tools in patronizing guidance and counseling services with the highest frequency of 130, 70%, mean 1.3481, and standard deviation of 0.47788. It was concluded that there is generally low application/usage of ICT in patronizing guidance and counseling services by undergraduate students in Northwestern Nigerian. Based on the findings, the research recommends that awareness campaign should be made by Universities counselors to the students for them to understand the importance of application/usage of ICT in patronizing guidance and counseling service.