DIGITAL ASSESSMENT COMPETENCIES OF TEACHER EDUCATORS IN NIGERIA FOR IMPROVING QUALITY EDUCATION

Abstract

The implementation of digital technologies in schools has given rise to remarkable improvements in terms of development and management of assessment of students' academic achievement. However, it is worrisome that digital assessment is not visibly present in the processes of educational assessment, in teacher education institutions in Nigeria. Teacher education institutions are expected to model best practices in the formation of student teachers to meet the demands of the wider society in educational leadership and implementation. This study therefore, investigated the digital assessment competencies of teacher educators in colleges of education in Nigeria. One research question and one research hypothesis were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study was carried out in the two public colleges of education in Enugu State.  The entire population of teaching staff totaling 408, comprising of 338 from Federal College of Education Eha-Amufu and 70 from Enugu State College of Education Technical was used for the study. Census sampling was used because the population is manageable. A self-developed structured questionnaire titled Digital Assessment Competency Questionnaire (DACQ) was used as the instrument for data collection. The instrument was validated by three experts, one expert in Measurement and Evaluation; and two experts in Educational Management, all from the Faculty of Education, Enugu State University of Science and Technology. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha. The instrument yielded reliability indices of .75, which shows suitability of the instrument for the study. Copies of questionnaire were administered and retrieved by the researcher with the aid of survey heart application, which web link was shared using the WhatsApp platforms of the Academic Staff Unions of the respective institutions. Mean with standard deviation was used to answer the research questions. The null hypothesis was tested using z–test statistics at .05 level of significance. Mean scores of 2.50 and above were considered positive while those below 2.50 were considered negative. From the result of the findings of the study, it was concluded that the teaching staff of colleges of education in Nigeria do not possess adequate digital assessment competencies. Comparison of the federal and state institutions shows that there was no significant difference between the mean scores of teaching staff of federal and state colleges of education on digital assessment competencies.  It was therefore, recommended among others that there is need for government to provide the supportive infrastructure and training that will aid the smooth transition to digital assessment in teacher education in the colleges of education in Nigeria.