Oladejo M.A., Nelson Adewole I.G.E., Fagunwa A.O., Arewa O.O.
Oladejo, M.A., Federal College of Education (SP), Nigeria; Nelson Adewole, I.G.E., Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, Nigeria; Fagunwa, A.O., Federal College of Education (SP), Nigeria; Arewa, O.O., Federal College of Education (SP), Nigeria
The recognition of the importance of distance education in providing students with the best and most up-to-date educational resources available in addition to the traditional teaching methods that they receive has made several traditional Universities to rapidly transform themselves from single mode to dual mode Universities. With the growth and acceptance of distance education, it becomes critical to ensure the success of students in the programme. This study therefore provided a causal explanation of academic performance through the analysis of some students' socio-demographic variables at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. The study adopted the descriptive research design of the 'ex-post facto' type. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 1500 participants while purposive sampling technique was adopted to select the University of Ibadan's Distance Learning Centre. Data were collected through self-designed questionnaire(r=.75). Two research questions were answered, while one hypothesis was tested at .05 level of significance. Regression analysis and t-test were employed for data analysis. Age and disability status made significant contributions to distance learners' academic performance. Gender has no significant difference on academic performance (t = .33, df =1488, P> 0.05). Students should pay serious attention to the selected factors, most importantly age and disability status. © EuroJournals Publishing, Inc. 2010.