Influence of Gender and Attitude of Pre-Service Teachers towards On-Line Instruction in a Selected University in South-western Nigeria

The study examined the influence of gender and attitude of pre-service teachers on habitual use of online instruction in Faculty of Education at Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Nigeria. The sample size of 300 part two Education students (150 males and 150 females) was used as sample for the study. Data were collected using 12 items structured questionnaire. The reliability of the questionnaire was determined using Cronbach Alpha and a reliability coefficient of 0.86 was obtained. The results showed that gender was a significantly factor in the usage of online learning. It was also revealed that female Education students showed higher habitual use of online learning than the male student’s teachers. The results also showed that gender significantly influenced attitudinal constructs. Female pre-service teachers were found to have higher habitual use. It was therefore concluded that gender was a determinant factor in the use of online instruction. Not only this, student’s actual usage was determined by their perceived ease of use and usefulness.


Introduction
The United Nations declared 2005 to 2014 as the United Nations' Decade of Education for Sustainable Development (ESD).With this declaration, teacher education will continue to attract attention in the implementation of this goal because teachers are very important in the attainment of the UN declaration on education for sustainable development.In order to achieve the above; there is need for a shift in teaching from the old conventional teacher-centered to student-centered approach.Approach to learning should also change from the old passive learning to active and collaborative learning using online /World Wide Web and technology supported learning.These modes of learning should equally adopt the constructivist and collaborative learning theories.Constructivist and collaborative learning help students to develop the necessary skills required for self-supported study.Learner's sex and their individual differences must also be given attention.A gender-inclusive teaching method is desired to develop understanding and respect for learner participation and success in learning (UNESCO, 2001).Mainstreaming and gender factors are important factors that must be considered in any online/technology enhanced learning.The Learning experiences of the female and male must also be considered.This is necessary because it is an integral part of the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation so that both sexes can benefit equally.The issue of gender divergence and attitude, psychological and social aspects of online learning environment would be a positive step towards mainstreaming a gender perspective.

Literature Review
Online learning according to literature presents new options, new possibilities and indeed opportunities for learning especially in Africa.Online instructional resources have come to play a central role in education (Wu & Hwang, 2010).This is referred to as digital revolution and the new revolution is becoming universally accepted at all levels of education.It is not only teachers that find online learning useful but also majority of the students, who sees online learning as a creative and better substitute to the overcrowded traditional lecture method of instruction .According to literature, students see online learning as a compliment to conventional classroom teaching techniques.To them, online education is more efficient more extensive, interesting, compelling, informative and accessible than the conventional teaching techniques (Gigurovic, 2010).Online instruction is an approach that facilitate and enhance learning through both computer and communication technology Such devices include CDROMs, games and simulations, Wikis, collaborative soft wares, classroom management soft wares, PDAs, mobile phones discussion forum, blogging etc( Van-Ejil, Pilot & De-Vologda, 2005).Thus online learning in Nigeria is becoming both more useful and more cost effective for many field of teaching; however one major limitation to its adoption across all the education sectors is the attitude of the teachers in training to its integration.Teacher's attitude is very important to determining whether the innovation will yield the desired result or whether it will prove effective to the classroom.This therefore, forms the justification for the study.There are so many studies that examined the effect of online pedagogy on students' knowledge construction and learning experience.Some of them are Pena-Shaff and Nicholls (2004); White and Frederiksen (2005); Guan, Tsai and Hwang (2006); Abduls and Yoshimura, (2010).One common thing with these studies is that they measured academic self-efficacy within online instruction with genders as a factor.Other studies in this category are Bong and Choi (2000); Thompson, Meriac and Cope (2002); Meyer et-al (2002); Brown, et-al. (2003); Tai (2006); Crippen and Earl (2007); Yukselturk and Bulut (2007).Other studies examined gender, access to and use of the online environment.White (2000); Denis and Olivier (2002); Ono and Zavodny (2003) investigated the social and cultural perceptions of male and female and their preferences.However, little or no information is known about Nigeria.Hence, the need for the study.
The study is designed to assess the effect of attitude and the gender of pre-service teachers on the utilization of on-line instruction.It also examined the subtle and unintentional incidents of gender effect on students' participation in technology (Gatta, 2001).Literature also revealed that there is general lack of information on gender issue and the need for further studies in this area with respect to pre-service teacher education in Nigeria.It is therefore important to assess gender effect and attitude towards online instruction with its implications on classroom teaching and learning.

The Conceptual Framework
This study is based on the theory of innovation and diffusion/ technology acceptance model (TAM).Innovation diffusion attempts to explain the variables that influence how and why users adopt a new information medium such as technology.Innovation diffusion research centers on the conditions that increases or decreases the likelihood that a new idea, product, or practice will be adopted by members of a given culture.Diffusion of innovation theory predicts that media as well as personality variables provide information and influence opinion and judgment

The Objectives of the Study
Based on the above, the following objectives are stated for this study: 1) determine the pre-service teachers' perception about the usefulness, ease of use and actual usage of online instruction, 2) find out if gender is a factor in using online instruction; 3) investigate whether there is difference in gender and attitude of pre-service teachers towards online instruction.
4) find out the effect of gender on each of PU,PEUS,AUS and HUS among the pre-service teachers; and 5) find out the interaction effect of perceived usefulness(PUS),habitual use(HUS) and perceived ease of use(PEU) on students teachers actual use of online instruction

Research Questions
Empirical answer will be provided to the following questions: 1) is there any significant difference in the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and actual usage of the online instruction?
2) is there any significant difference in the attitude of pre-service teachers towards online instruction?
3) will there be relationship between gender and attitudes of students towards online instruction?4) is there any effect of gender on each of PU,PEUS,AUS and HUS among the pre-service teachers?, 5) is there any interaction between PUS, PEUS,HUS and Actual use of the online instruction?

Significance of the Study
It is assumed that with the growing capacity and potential of the internet and the web based technologies; the growing familiarity with Information Communication Technology (ICT) such as, PDAs, iPods, ipad, smartphones, more students would use online resources to facilitate their learning especially in the developing countries with numerous educational problems.This is the case with Nigeria, where Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), Ile Ife, Nigeria like many other international institutions tried to use web based technologies and the information network to enhance teaching and learning.This study provides empirical information on student's perception, gender factor and student's attitude towards online instruction.It also provides insight into how the Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University and the University utilized integrated online technology to resolve the challenges of large class enrolment and inadequate facilities.

Research Method
The study adopted a descriptive survey design.The population for the study is made up of all the registered students in the Faculty of Education, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria.The samples of three hundred students were selected through stratified random sampling from the full time undergraduate students of the Faculty.Data were collected through a structured questionnaire containing 12 items that was made up of 5 point Likert -type Scale.Section1 solicited for demographic characteristic while section 2 contained frequency of usage (habitual use) of the online instruction.Other sections obtained information on the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and Actual use.This questionnaire was adapted from Technology Acceptance Model (TAM)..The questionnaire was validated using content and face validity.The reliability was determined using Cronbach Alpha reliability coefficient.A reliability co-efficient of 0.86 was obtained.This implied that the instrument is reliable.

The Study Hypotheses
The following null hypotheses are stated for the study: HO 1 there is no significant difference in students' perceived usefulness, ease of use and students' actual use of online instruction, HO 2 gender is not a determinant factor in students' habitual use of online instruction, HO 3 there is no significant relationship between students' perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and habitual use of online instruction; and HO 4 :there is no any interactions between students perceived ease of use, perceived usage, habitual usage and student teachers actual usage of online instruction

Data Analysis
The data collected was analyzed using inferential statistics of Pearson correlation, ANOVA and t-test.

Findings and Discussions
Result of the analysed data is presented in tables 1-8 Table 1 provides answer to the first research question: "Will there be any difference in students' perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and actual use of the online instruction?"The table revealed a significant difference in the students' perceived usefulness F (2, 275) = 26.19,P < .05,perceived ease of use F (4, 275) = 49.653,P <.05 and actual use F (9, 275) = 39.14, P < .05respectively.Based on this result, the null hypothesis (HO 1 ) that states that there is no significant difference between gender of students' and their perceived usefulness of online instruction was rejected.The study further revealed that female students had higher mean scores.Tables 4 and 5 showed that there is a significant difference between habitual use, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and gender.Based on the findings, the Null hypothesis (HO 3 ) that states that there is no significant relationship between students' perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and habitual use of online instruction was rejected.Table 4 shows that a significant relationship (r = .129,P < 0.05) exists between sex and habitual use of the online instruction.The results show that the female group had higher sum and mean scores for habitual usage (2.93, 3.20 respectively, see Table5).F=18.37, 23.764 and 13.34) respectively ( see Table 6).
However, with respect to the interaction factors between habitual use, PUS and PEOUS, it was revealed that the F calculated were also significant (F 3,296 = 9.52 &21.47) respectively.It implied that student teacher perceived ease of use and habitual use determines whether they will actually use the online instruction (See Table 7) Table 8 shows that there is significant interaction effect between habitual use, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use of the online environment.8, the results obtained shows that student teachers perceived ease of use have a significant effect on habitual use.On the other hand, it was revealed that Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use jointly contributed significantly to Habitual use(F (2,297) = 23.596;P <. 0.05.
These findings agreed with those of Gun ( 2003), Yuen and Ma (2002) and Sanders and Morris-Shetlar (2001).Gunn (2003) in New Zealand also observed that females had higher usage and performed better in online than in a classroom environment in a Web design course.Yuen and Ma (2002) found out that there was a significant difference in beliefs and attitude of male and female pre service teachers.Applying the technology acceptance model to a group of pre-service teachers Sanders and Morris-Shetlar (2001) observed that the attitude of female towards web based learning was more positive than that of the male.In contrasts Paris (2004) argued that there was no significant difference between the attitudinal scores of male and female to computer and online instruction.The findings from this study also was in contrast with those of Atan, Sulaiman, et al.  2011) argued that men and women did not differ significantly in their actual use of online instruction.However they reported obvious differences in their perceived skills and nature of use of the online environment.

Summary and Conclusion
The study determined the pre-service teachers' perception about the usefulness, ease of use and actual usage of online instruction.It also find out if gender is a factor in using online instruction.In addition it investigated whether there were difference in gender and attitude of pre-service teachers towards online instruction.The effect of gender on each of PU,PEUS,AUS and HUS among the pre-service teachers were determined and lastly the study examined the interaction effect of perceived usefulness(PUS), habitual use(HUS) and perceived ease of use(PEU) on students teachers actual use of online instruction.The results showed that gender significantly influenced attitudinal constructs with female showing significantly higher attitude than the male.Female pre-service teachers were found to have higher habitual use.Gender had a significance interaction with habitual use.There was also a significant interaction effect between gender and the three measured constructs.It is therefore concluded that gender was a determinant factor in the use of online instruction.Not only this, students actual usage is determined by their perceived ease of use and usefulness.

Table 1 .
Analysis of variance showing significant difference in perceived usefulness, ease of use and actual usage

Table 2 .
Gender and perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and actual use of the online instruction Table 2 depicts that the sum and mean of female in the three measured constructs are higher than those of the male.

Table 3 .
Paired sample t-test showing significance difference in habitual use of the online instruction by gender Table3shows that there is a significant difference in habitual use of the online instructional environment by gender (t = -24.95,P < .05).

Table 4 .
Correlation between gender and habitual use of the online instruction

Table 5 .
Effect of gender on habitual use of the online instruction

Table 6 .
Effects of perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived ease of use (PEOU) on students teachers active usage of online instruction , when a comparison of the effects of PU, PEU and PEOUS on students teachers actual use were carried it was revealed that the effects were significant (

Table 7 .
Interaction between habitual use, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use

Table 8 .
Joint contribution of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use to habitual use