STAKEHOLDERS PERCEPTION ON SOME SELECTED CRITICAL ISSUES IN OPEN AND DISTANCE EDUCATION IN NIGERIA

The paper investigates stakeholders’ perception on some critical issues in Open and Distance Learning institutions (ODL) in Nigeria. It also seeks to clarify whether there is any significant difference in stakeholders’ perception between staff of dual-mode and unimodal institutions. The scope covers institutions in Nigeria that operate dual-mode instructional delivery where regular face-to-face university instructional system co-exists with online delivery mode, and unimode institution. The dual-mode institutions are Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife; University of Ibadan, University of Lagos; Maddibo Adama University, Yola; Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria; and University of Abuja, while the uni-mode is National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). The research adopted a quantitative survey design of the ex-post-facto. Staff of the institutions constitute the study population, while purposive sampling method was used to select the respondents which include the management of the institutions and staff involved in teaching online courses. A validated questionnaire was used to obtain data from the respondents. The questionnaire was physically administered by the researchers to one hundred staff of one dualmode institution and NOUN. The findings show that stakeholders have positive perceptions of how ODL is managed in Nigeria, and there is no significant difference in perception based on stakeholders’ institutional affiliation. Stakeholders also hold similar perception on procedure for staff engagement, types of courses to be offered, funding, targeted audience, and procedure for quality control.