Computer self efficacy as correlate of on-line public access catalogue use: a case study

Abstract

The use of Online Public Access Catalogue (OPAC) by students has a lot of advantages and computer self-efficacy is a factor that could determine its effective utilization. Little appears to be known about colleges of education students‟ use of OPAC, computer self-efficacy and the relationship between OPAC and computer self-efficacy especially in the Nigeria context. This gave rise to the study. The descriptive research design was used for the study and population comprised of 2755 students of the Federal College of Education (Technical) Lagos, Nigeria. The multistage random sampling technique was used to select the sample size of 209 and the questionnaire was the data collection instrument. Findings showed that most of the respondents 125 (61.6%) searched the OPAC through title and 53 (26.1%) used the OPAC twice a week. Results also showed that majority of the study had high computer self-efficacy, as there was a significant positive relationship between computer self-efficacy and use of OPAC(r = .430**; df = 202; p< 0.01). It was recommended that alternative power sources should be provided to reduce incessant power outage that limits OPAC use.

Keywords: Computer self-efficacy, OPAC, computer skills, Nigeria