Impact of Cloud Services on Students’ Attitude towards Mathematics Education in Public Universities in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study focused on the impact of cloud services on students’ attitude towards mathematics education in public universities in Benue State, Nigeria. Ex-post facto research design was adopted for the study. The instrument for the study is the researcher-developed Cloud Service Impact Questionnaire – CSIQ (Cronbach Alpha Coefficient = 0.92). The CSIQ was   administered to a sample of 328 mathematics education students drawn from the two public universities having operational cloud service delivery system in Benue State.  Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions while t-test was used in testing the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. In-depth analysis of data obtained in the study revealed that there is a positive high level of impact of cloud services on the mathematics confidence (cluster mean attitude score = 2.85), affective engagement (cluster mean attitude score = 2.87) and behavioural engagement (cluster mean attitude score = 2.92) of mathematics education students in public universities in Benue State. The results also indicated a high frequency of usage of cloud services, with smartphones (49%), tablets (24%) and laptops (16%) being the set of computer devices readily available among mathematics education students in public universities in Benue State. The t-test analysis of mean attitude scores established a statistically significant difference between the public universities. The mean difference in attitude scores between male and female mathematics education students was also found to be statistically significant. The outcome of this study has shown that adoption of cloud services for augmenting learning results in strong positive mentality and confidence among mathematics education students, leading to students feeling good, thinking hard and actively participating in their own mathematics learning.