Perception, readiness and disposition of lecturers towards online-based data collection for academic research

Abstract

Academic research focuses on conceptualizing particular problems and situations to create broadly applicable ideas that help us recommend workable solutions. This study investigated university lecturers’ perception, readiness, and disposition to the data collection process via an online-based method in academic research. A descriptive survey research approach was used for this study’s research design. The population for this study comprises all colleges of education lecturers in Kwara State. 400 lecturers served as the sample for this study using multi-stage sampling techniques. A researcher-designed questionnaire was adopted for this study, with a reliability index of 0.73 obtained. Summated mean was used to answer research question one, while percentage was used to answer questions two and three. Three hypotheses were generated and tested with a two-way Analysis of Variance at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that lecturers held positive perceptions with a grand mean score of 3.26, 151 (37.8 %), and 197 (49.25 %) were sometimes ready and had a moderate disposition towards online-based data collection methods. It was recommended, that the National Commission for Colleges of Education should endeavour to make adequate provisions for ICT facilities (computers, laptops, internet, power supply) that will encourage lecturers to adopt online-based data collection methods for research.