PERCEPTIONS OF POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF IGNATIUS AJURU UNIVERISITY OF EDUCATION ON THE USE OF USE OF WHATSAPP PLATFORM FOR ONLINE LECTURE IN THE COVID-19 ERA IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The study investigated the perceptions of postgraduate (PG) students on the use of Whatsapp platform for online lectures during the Covid-19 pandemic lockdown. The study adopted descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of 122 PG students from Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Portharcourt,Nigeria. Three (3) research questions guided the study. The objectives of the study are: to assess the effectiveness of the use of Whatsapp platform as a collaborative tool for online lectures, to identify the perceptions of PG students towards the use of Whatsapp platform for online lectures during the Covid-19 lockdown and to determine the challenges faced by PG students in the use of Whatsapp platform for online lectures during Covid-19 lockdown phase. Data were collected using online questionnaire and total enumeration sampling technique was used. The validity of the instrument was determined by checking the face and content validity and the instrument proved valid because the items in the instrument were appropriate in terms of subject contents. Cronbach Alpha technique was used to determine the reliability coefficient of the instrument and an index of 0.87 was obtained. This shows that the internal consistency of the instrument was high and good. Data was analyzed with descriptive statistics such as frequency count and simple percentage. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents indicated that the use of Whatsapp platform is an effective collaborative tool for online lectures. On the perceptions of PG students, it was observed that shy students can freely communicate and make seminar presentation through WhatsApp, also Whatsapp learning appears to be the immediate positive response, in the wake of the Covid-19school closure period and that the Whatsapp platform is cost-effective, convenient and easy to use.This shows that they had positive perceptions about the use of WhatsApp. Slow Internet connectivity,lack of constant power supply to charge phones, high cost of data for subscription and misuse of the platform were some of the major challenges faced by PG students in the use of Whatsapp platform for online lectures. Based on the findings, the researchers recommend that Whatsapp platform should be adopted for teaching and learning in our higher institutions and that