Vol. 9(1), pp. 17�25. January, 2021. 

ISSN: 2360-7858

DOI: 10.14662/IJALIS2021.001

 

Full Length Research

 

Abstract

The study was carried out to assess the influence of gender and self-efficacy on use of e-resources by law undergrdauates in private universities in South-west, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population comprised 2,823 law undergraduates at 300, 400 and 500 level in the ten private universities offering law programme in South-west, Nigeria. Purposive sampling technique was used to cover law undergraduates at these levels since it is at these levels that law undergraduates are exposed to court attachment, legal research methods, while 500 level undergraduates are expected to write their project reports using up-to-date literature, which are the essential features of the e-resources. A sampling fraction of 50% was further employed using simple random sampling technique and this gives a sample size of one thousand, four hundred and sixty seven (1467). Out of 1467 copies of questionnaire distributed only 1089 copies which constitute 74.2% return rate were found usable for the study; it was analyzed with the aid of frequency counts, percentages and correlational methods. The results revealed that the law undergraduates in private universities use e-resources to obtain information on trending legal issues, to obtain complementary learning materials and for research development. The findings further indicated that gender does not influence their use of e-resources. However, there was significant influence of both gender and self-efficacy on the use of e-resources by law undergraduates in the studied universities. The implication of the findings is that an improvement in the level of self-efficacy of law undergraduates would result in corresponding increase in the use of e-resources by law undergraduates in private universities in South-west, Nigeria. The study appears to be the first among its kind and output of the study would add to the body of knowledge in the area of gender and psychological wellbeing of undergraduates towards the use of information resources particularly among the law undergraduates.

 

Keywords: Gender, Self-efficacy, e-resources, Law undergraduates, Private universities

Cite This Article As: George, A.E., Opeke, R.O., Ikonne, C.N., Unegbu, V (2021). Gender and Self-Efficacy as Factors Influencing Use of Electronic Resources by Law Undergraduates in Private Universities in South-West, Nigeria. Inter. J. Acad. Lib. Info. Sci. 9(1): 17-25