Abstract

The growing integration of digital technologies into higher education curricula necessitates a rigorous appraisal of students' digital competencies. This study examined the digital literacy of business education students, with specific focus on adaptability skills and management skills, in Colleges of Education in North-East Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive survey research design, drawing on a sample of 540 business education students and 69 lecturers selected through stratified and purposive sampling techniques, respectively. A validated 4-point Likert-scale questionnaire served as the primary data collection instrument, with a reliability coefficient of 0.84 (Cronbach's alpha). Descriptive statistics, including mean and standard deviation, were employed to answer the research questions, whilst an independent-samples t-test was used to test the two null hypotheses at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings revealed that business education students in the sampled Colleges of Education possessed moderate-to-high levels of digital adaptability (Grand X̄ = 3.36) and digital management skills (Grand X̄ = 3.39). The t-test results indicated no statistically significant difference between the mean responses of students and lecturers on both dimensions. The study recommended curriculum enrichment with digital literacy modules, provision of adequate ICT infrastructure, and capacity-building workshops for business education lecturers across North-East Nigerian Colleges of Education.