Course outlines: a learning tool for improving students’ academic performance at iaue, port harcourt

The study examined course outlines as a learning tool that can be used for improving the academic performance of undergraduates. Ignatius Ajuru University of Education, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria was used as a pilot for the research. The population was made up of all final year undergraduates of the institution, a total of 4,005 students. 200 final year students were randomly selected from each of the 6 faculties of the institution to form the sample of 1200 students (30% of population) that took part in the study. It was a correlational study with three research questions and one null hypothesis to guide the study. A self-developed questionnaire with reliability coefficient 0.82 and of a modified 4-point Likert style titled Questionnaire for Determining the Extent of Provision of Course Outlines to Undergraduates (QDEPCOU) was used as the instrument for the study. Means and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions and Pearson Product Correlation Coefficient was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 level of significance. While the students agreed that they were being provided with course outlines and that course outlines were very useful to them, the correlation coefficient r-value 0.047 was very low and showed no significant relationship between the provision of course outlines and the academic performance of students. The study recommended that the institution should keep up the good work of providing students with course outlines at the commencement of semesters and urged other institutions to emulate this excellent practice.