USING ONLINE GROUP DISCUSSION FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING OF CHEMISTRY BY ANAMBRA STATE COLLEGES OF EDUCATION DISTANCE LEARNING

Abstract

This paper determined the use of online group discussion for the teaching and learning of chemistry education distance students in Anambra State Colleges of Education. Two research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The study employed descriptive survey design which involved 35 chemistry education teachers and chemistry education distance learning students from two colleges of education in Anambra State as the population, (18 teachers and 17 students), hence, all the respondents were used for study. Two instruments (questionnaire) were used to collect data. These instruments were validated and their reliabilities tested using Cronbach alpha and these gave reliabilities indices of 0.71 for teachers and 0.74 for students. Data was analyzed using mean, standard deviation and t-test at 0.05 alpha significance. Results obtained revealed that chemistry education teachers and chemistry education distance learning students from the colleges of education studied do not use online group discussion in teaching and learning. It was concluded that online group discussion is yet to be understood and utilized by teachers and students in these colleges of education because of lack of deliberate introduction of factors that propel their usage. It was recommended among others that teachers should be trained on the use of online group discussion to bridge the gap of face-to-face instruction which is dominant in distance education setting.