STAFF AND STUDENTS' EXPECTATIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF ONLINE FACILITATION AT THE NOUN: EVIDENCE FROM PRACTICE

Abstract

This paper reports the expectations and experiences of academic staff and students of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN)'s online facilitation processes the study employed the descriptive survey research design. The population of the study was 1596 made up of 1146 Students and 450 NOUN Facilitators. All 1596 respondents were purposively taken as sample size because they were enrolled as NOUN Students and Facilitators in a course during the end of the second semester of 2022. To guide the study, four research questions were raised, while two hypotheses were tested at a 0.05 level of significance. Data collection was facilitated with the aid of a questionnaire titled: “Staff and Students' Expectations and Experiences of Online Facilitation Questionnaire (SSEEOFQ) (r=0.918, r=0.746 respectively). Findings revealed that NOUN Students have a better understanding of online facilitation and are comfortable with online facilitation. Additionally, findings show that there exist positive expectations and experiences among NOUN students and facilitators. The findings further revealed that there was a strong, positive, and statistically significant relationship between NOUN Students' job status and their online facilitation experiences. It was also found that some NOUN students do not wish to attend online facilitation, despite their positive perception of the process. The study, therefore, recommended that University authorities should endeavour to continuously encourage good practices of better-perceived experiences on online facilitation in NOUN through various improvement activities.