Assessment of the Availability and Usability of Teaching and Learning Materials and Resources in Higher Education Institutions for Graduates’ Employability Skills Development
Keywords:
Higher education, Resource availability and usability, Graduates’ employability, Skill developmentAbstract
Purpose: This study examined the availability and usability of teaching and learning materials and resources in Nigerian higher education institutions and assessed their adequacy in supporting graduates’ employability skills development for the twenty-first-century labour market.
Methodology: A non-experimental design of descriptive survey research type was adopted. Using a multistage sampling precedure, 1,109 graduates were drawn from 80 federal, state, and private higher education institutions across Nigeria. Data were collected using the Teaching and Learning Materials and Resources Inventory (TLMRI), which demonstrated high reliability (r = 0.93). Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the levels of resource availability and usability.
Results: Findings showed a relatively high level of resource availability (67.9%), indicating adequate provision of core instructional facilities such as lecture halls, textbooks, and computers. However, resource usability was only moderate (52.4%), suggesting that many available resources were underutilised, outdated, or poorly maintained. Digital, collaborative, and psychosocial resources recorded particularly low usability levels, limiting their contribution to employability skills development.
Novelty and Contribution: The study advances an Input→Process→Outcome framework in which resource availability represents the input, usability serves as the mediating process, and graduates’ employability is the outcome. By highlighting usability as a mediating mechanism linking resources to employability outcomes, the study extends existing literature beyond mere resource provision.
Practical and Social Implications: Improving the usability of teaching and learning resources can enhance experiential learning, reduce graduate skills gaps, and support the production of innovative, workforce-ready graduates, with implications for institutional effectiveness, national competitiveness, and sustainable development in Nigeria’s higher education system.
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Copyright (c) 2025 Miriam Uwak James, Monica Ngozi Odinko (Author)
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This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
