Facilitating Conditions, a Factor for Use of Open Access Resources by Lecturers: A Case Study of Lecturers from the University of Ilorin, Nigeria

Abstract

The study analysed the access points used by lecturers to access open access resources, types of open access resources used by lecturers and the facilitating conditions that affect the use of open access resources by lecturers in University of Ilorin, Nigeria. The main objective was to find out the relationship between facilitating conditions and use of open access resources by lecturers in University of Ilorin. The design adopted for the study was the descriptive survey research and population comprised lecturers from University of Ilorin. Random sampling was used to select 117 as sample size. Questionnaire for Lecturers was used as the research instrument. The analysis was done using descriptive statistics to answer research questions while Pearson product moment correlation and regression analysis was used to test hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. The result revealed that majority of the lecturers (76.0%) agreed to using laptops. Also 67.0% of them used smart phones a lot to access open access resources while only about 5.0% did not use laptops at all. The use of smart devices likes laptop and phones have made it very easy for lecturers to utilize open access resources regardless of where they are. The result of the correlation conducted between facilitating conditions and use of open access resources by University of Ilorin yielded positive significant relationship(r= .432**; N = 100; p < 0.05). This indicated that facilitating conditions is a strong determinant of use of open access resource. Majority of the lecturers agreed that they enjoyed good management support, possessed high computer and internet literacy skills and had good technological support. While the challenges identified included inadequate power supply and slow internet connectivity.