Information and Communication Technology (ICT) and Adult Learning: a Case of Graduate Students at Makerere University.

Abstract

The Paper reports findings of a study on the factors affecting Makerere University graduate students as adult learners in the process of acquiring ICT skills for their meaningful and individualized learning. We had three objectives, namely, to establish the effect of adult learner-characteristics on ICT learning of graduate students; to determine the extent to which graduate students' prior experience in operating computers affected their ICT learning; and to investigate the effect of graduate students' attitudes towards use of computers in their learning. The study was non-experimental and employed a cross-sectional survey design on 235 graduate students from faculties of Arts, Social Sciences and Education. The findings indicated that adult-learner characteristics and prior computer experiences of graduate students affected their ICT learning significantly. However, graduate students' attitudes towards computers, did not significantly affect their ICT learning. We concluded that adult-learner characteristics and computer experiences significantly affect their ICT learning, while attitudes towards use of computers were not significant. The paper ends with a number of recommendations for the way forward.