Influence of Globalisation on Teaching and Learning: What is the Stance of Information Literacy in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions?

Teaching And Learning In The Globalisation Era

Globalization era is characterized by flow of data, information and knowledge mainly via the online environment. Data smug, information glut and knowledge explosions are manifesting in the teaching and learning system across the globe. Also, communication, collaboration and sharing of information by individuals across countries, regions and continents are now carried out with ease due to ICT availability and accessibility; pointing to the fact that teaching and learning in this era via the information superhighway and other digital gadgets are feasible in spite of geographical barriers, if properly articulated and implemented.

The era of globalization has redefined open and distance education as practiced and executed by some institutions of higher learning. Many reputable and accredited universities and other categories of such institutions all over are now providing e-learning and online educational opportunities to qualified individuals ranging from certificate, diploma, bachelor, masters to doctoral programmes. While most of these programmes are accessible from all corners of the globe, and are 100% online, others require some degree of residency. These online programmes are facilitated with learning management systems, plagiarism detection systems, and Web portals, majority of which are open source programmes, freely available online for tertiary institutions. Students of such online programmes are expected to posses certain skills, among which are excellent knowledge of English language rules, communication skills, ICT knowledge and skills as well as information literacy competencies. Even students of conventional tertiary institutions are also expected to posses the above-stated skills because both categories of students are faced with the same volume of online information resources.