Self-Proficiency of Essential Technology Skills of Undergraduate Students at a Coastal University in Ghana

Abstract

One of the numerous challenges facing education today is that of preparing students and staff for globalization and the information and communication revolution. Policymakers, educationists, non-governmental organizations, academics, and ordinary citizens are increasingly concerned with the necessity to make their societies competitive in the evolving information economy. Globalization and advancements in technology have led to an increased utilization of ICTs in all sectors, and education is no exception. Uses of ICTs in education are widespread and are repeatedly growing worldwide. Thus, this study investigated undergraduate students’ self-proficiency of essential technology skills in the University of Cape Coast, Ghana on the use of technology for various educational purposes. The study adopted the descriptive survey design using 318 randomly selected respondents from three different programmes in the university. The quantitative data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The study found that students possessed technical abilities needed to perform some specific tasks such as changing the default settings of tech tools to meet specific needs and also make configurations to connect computers to a network. However, respondents were unable to perform advanced formatting functions such as customized tabs, insert page breaks, query databases and sort the results, and using styles as well as unable to create and manage classroom webpages.