GASPRO International Journal of Eminent Scholars

ABSTRACT
The need to utilize LinkedIn for collabourative learning is a form of educational innovation. However, lecturers need to know how to use technologies in order to achieve global competitiveness. This study centres on using LinkedIn technology for collabourative learning among lecturer’s in Cross River State Tertiary Institutions. The study adopted the survey research design. Two research questions and two research hypotheses were developed to guide the study. The targeted population of the study consisted of all 32 Educational Technology lecturers in the four tertiary institutions in Cross state (University of Calabar = 9, Cross River University of Technology = 3, Federal College of Education Obudu = 12 and College of Education Akamkpa = 8). Twenty-two Educational Technology lecturers were purposively used as sample size for the study, while Cross River University of Technology with three lecturers was used for reliability testing. The instrument for data collection was the LinkedIn Technology and Collabourative Learning Questionnaire (LTCLQ). The instrument was divided into two sections- section a measures ‘LinkedIn Technology variables, while section B Measures Collabourative Learning. The instrument was used after being validated by two experts in the department of Educational Technology University of Uyo. Chronbach Alpha Reliability Coefficient of .71 was used to test for reliability. Data were analyzed using mean and standard deviation to answer the research questions while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. It was found that there is no significant mean difference in the responses of Lecturers in the use of LinkedIn ‘Muse’ and ‘News Feed’ for Collabourative Learning among Educational Technology Lecturers in Cross River State Tertiary Institutions. Some recommendations were made to include that emphasis should be laid to utilize LinkedIn technology among lecturers through practices and innovations for achieving collabourative learning and global competitiveness.
KEYWORDS: LinkedIn Technology, Collabourative learning, Global Competitiveness, Cross River State Tertiary Institutions