EFFECT OF VIRTUAL FIELD TRIP METHOD ON ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT OF COLLEGE OF EDUCATION STUDENTS IN ECOLOGICAL CONCEPTS IN ANAMBRA STATE

Abstract

The study examined the effect of virtual field trip method on the academic achievement of college of education students in ecological concept in Anambra State. Three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. The researcher adopted the quasi- experimental design (using the pre-test, post-test non-randomized control group design.). The population for the study comprises all the 82 NCE year I students in government owned colleges of education in Anambra state. No sample was selected and the entire population for this study was used for the experiment. The instrument for the study is the Ecology Achievement Test (EAT). The instrument was validated by three experts, with reliability coefficient of 0.83 established using KR-20. Data collected was analyzed using mean, standard deviation and Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA). The findings of the study revealed that students taught ecological concepts using virtual field trip method (VFTM) achieved higher than their counterparts taught with the conventional lecture method, which proved statistically significant when tested. On gender, the study also revealed that VFTM favoured males more than the females, although the difference was not statistically significant. Based on the findings, the study concluded that VFTM is an innovative approach that can enhance students’ academic achievement in ecological concepts, irrespective of gender and recommended among others that ecology lecturers should adopt VFTM while planning their lessons to enhance students’ interaction with each other and the learning materials to facilitate effective learning.