Digital Media and Capacity Building of Non Academic Staff in Nigerian Universities : Insights from Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka Anambra State (Unizik), and Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo Ebonyi State (Funai)

The non-academic staff of educational institutions, universities inclusive, take care of the institutions database and therefore must be attuned to the digitalization process which is a major hallmark of the 21st Century. This paper documents a pilot study carried out in two South-Eastern Nigerian universities in a bid to ascertain the extent to which the managements of these universities have gone towards mentoring their non-academic staff in the digitalization and the information and communication technology (ICT) sphere. Data were generated with a well structured questionnaire and the major findings are that there is strong evidence that the non-academic staff of these two institutions are technophilic (love and adapt easily to new technologies) as 97% of the respondents can operate a computer while 85% can use internet services. Findings also show that university administrations in Nnamdi Azikiwe University Awka (UNIZIK) and Federal University Ndufu-Alike Ikwo (FUNAI) do not have positive attitudes towards digital mentoring of their non-academic staff because though 63% of the respondents affirmed that their universities offer digital literacy training, 56% of the respondents agreed the frequency of these trainings is not regular. Results from the Chi2 shows that although to a large extent, digital resources are very useful to the staff work schedule, the extent of digital mentoring is not very extensive. This study therefore recommends that university managements should partner with private sector initiatives to train these staff for this new era and help match their knowledge and exposure with their job descriptions. In this regard, the study applauds the initial involvement of the AFRIHUB and recommends that FUNAI should take a cue and that UNIZIK should sustain this relationship