Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Motivational Predictors of Academics’ Electronic:
Publishing in Nigerian Colleges of Education
Maruff Akinwale Oladejo and Adelua Olajide Olawole
Federal College of Education (Special) Oyo, Nigeria
maruvoladejo@rocketmail.com
adeluaolajide@yahoo.com
Abstract: In the modern era of digital information revolution, the application of electronics to almost every aspect
of human endeavours is on the increase. For instance, in the area of scholarly or academic journals, electronic
publishing has gained unprecedented popularity both in the developed and the developing nations. The main
thrust of the present study therefore, is to examine the predictive power of some academics’ motivational
characteristics on electronic publishing in Nigerian Colleges of Education. The study adopted the descriptive
survey design which is ‘ex-post facto’ in nature. It purposively selected the three Colleges of Education in Oyo
State,with 350 participants selected through disproportionate simple random sampling technique. Three validated
self-designed instruments were used for data collection. Six hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level
of significance. Findings revealed that attitude towards technology (r=0.67) and computer self-efficacy (r=0.56)
were significantly related to electronic publishing. Also, there were significant differences in electronic publishing
based on gender (t = 2.29, df =348, P> 0.05) and age (t = 2.22, df =348, P> 0.05) respectively. The greatest
challenges electronic publishing now faces are acceptance and continual patronage among scholars. Nigerian
College academics need to embrace digital publications and appreciate the value of this medium for scholarly
communication. Thus, College academics should exhibit positive attitudes and be more self-efficacious about
electronic publishing. Institutional administrators should put in place, necessary motivational mechanisms such
as giving free or subsidized laptops and modems to the academics, and organize regular training and re-training
workshops or seminars on internet.
Keywords: electronic publishing, attitudes, computer self-efficacy, self-concept, motivation
1. Background
In the modern era of digital information revolution, the application of electronic to almost every aspect
of human endeavours is on the increase. For instance, in the area of scholarly or academic journals,
electronic publishing has gained unprecedented popularity both in the developed and the developing
nations. In fact, the impact of the new electronic data and word processing technologies on the
publications of scientific journals cannot be over-emphasized. Academic communication has since
changed over the past decade with the arrival of the Internet as authors, scholars and researchers
now communicate nearly at the speed of thought. Thus, the systematic progress of Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) as well as the sharp increase in internet usage has transformed
the way scientific or academic journals are published, and findings disseminated, resulting to steady
exponential growth in the number of scholarly or academic journals. According to (Nasser and
Abouchedid 2001 ), there is a fundamental change in the world of scholarly publishing represented by
a shift away from the medium of print to electronic.
Information and Communication Technologies have therefore facilitated the publication of scholarship
on the Web. To some extent, it has altered the old epistemologies of research and re-conceptualized
ideas in forms that are quite interactive, global and instantaneous (Okerson, 1991) Ezema (in
Omotayo, 2010) remarked that electronic journal publication is a new way of stimulating the
production and dissemination of knowledge and its popularity has continued to grow since 1999s. It
has been observed that academics in developing countries are fast adapting to the Internet as a
source of information for teaching and research (Omotayo, 2010). According to her, some research
reveals the use of the Internet for things like email and browsing (Badu & Markwei, 2005; Ojedokun &
Owolabi, 2003). Several other studies have also been conducted to determine the use of e-journals
and other e-resources in Africa. For instance, Manda (in Omotayo, 2010) investigated the utilization of
electronic resources in Tanzania by academics. He reported that there was low and poor utilization of
electronic resources, due to limited access to Personal Computers (PCs), poor search skills, lack of
end-user training, slow connectivity, and budget cuts. Smith (2007)’s study in South Africa established
that the range of electronic journals in the respondents' field of interest was fairly limited due mainly to
lack of bandwidth.
In Nigeria, (Ehikhamenon 2003) found out that even though 77.5 percent of Nigerian Scientists rated
electronic journals as "important" or "very important", their rating was based on expectation rather
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