MITIGATING IMPACT OF COVID-19 PANDEMIC THROUGH THE ADOPTION OF BLENDED LEARNING IN BUSINESS EDUCATION IN PUBLIC TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS IN SOUTH-SOUTH (GEOPOLITICAL ZONE) NIGERIA
Abstract
The study focused on mitigating impact of covid-19 pandemic through the adoption of blended learning in business education in public tertiary institutions in south-south geopolitical zone. Two research question and two hypotheses were raised to guide the study. The descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population of the study comprised all 521 business education lecturers in public tertiary institutions in south-south geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The entire population was studied without sampling due to its manageable size. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire which was validated by three experts. The reliability coefficient of the instrument was established using Cronbach Alpha coefficient which yielded reliability co-efficient of 0.87. The mean and standard deviation was used to analyze the two research questions while t-test was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study revealed that adoption of blended learning by business education lecturers is effective in mitigating impact of Covid-19 pandemic; and there are several challenges faced by business education lecturers in adopting blended learning. The study recommended among other things that business education lecturers should adopt blended learning approach despite the challenges as this is effective in encouraging students’ active participation as well as enhancing student’s general academic performance.
Keywords: Covid-19 Pandemic, Blended Learning, Business Education, Public Tertiary Institutions.