The world is increasingly becoming a global village, due to interconnectivity among nations. This is made possible through digitisation. Development in technology is gradually creeping into the academic system in Nigeria. But some view it as a menace, especially, the E-examination.
In academia, plagiarism is a serious offence, many have lost their certificates and credibility because of it. With digitisation, the rate of such acts is becoming rampant. Students are becoming lazy to visit libraries, hard copy of books are no longer patronised. With just some click on multimedia phones or computers, one may access thousands of information.
But the tragedy is that the information doesn’t have reliable sources, but still students make use of it.
The acceptance of digital learning system and the thirst for knowledge is still trying to get ground. Ranging from the lecturers complaining of finding it difficult to set e-test questions to students who exclaim that they are not finding it easy with the e-test, the system has not been aborted.
Questioning some students in University of Maiduguri which is the institution in the forefront in the Northeast that accepted the e-testing, the students lamented that e-testing is doing more harm than good to them, noting that many unqualified students will be graduated. Some Mass Communication students said that their career is in writing but with the e-testing system, they are being deprived of such a right.
On the other hand, the benefit of digitisation cannot be overlooked. It has positively improved the education system in the country. Digitisation makes it possible for nearly all hand copy text books, journals and other literary works to be converted into soft copy and stored on the World Wide Web for easy access.
With just some click one may have access not only to books written by our nationals but other international authors. Therefore, it bridges the gap of access to international books. Books with high cost may be affordable in soft copies.
Digitization interconnects students from different schools, even internationally in discussion of academic related matters which widens the research of many students. E-libraries are available in many varieties.
––Ahmad Mohammed Bashir, University of Maiduguri
