Effect of Teaching Quality on Students' Satisfaction in Nigerian Tertiary Institutions: The Moderating Role of E-Learning Amid COVID-19 Recovery

Education enterprise has suffered severe setbacks worldwide during the COVID-19 pandemic due to lockdowns and other COVID-19 protocols This study aims to examine the effect of teaching quality on student satisfaction in Nigerian tertiary institutions amid COVID-19 recovery with moderating role of e-learning The study collected 279 survey data from students of two tertiary institutions in Kano state using a convenience sampling technique The study finds that teaching quality is positively related to students satisfaction Similarly the results indicate that e-learning positively and significantly affects students satisfaction Furthermore the results show a positive but insignificant moderating effect of elearning on the relationship between teaching quality and students satisfaction The study concludes that teaching quality characterized by effective interaction with students in training them through communication technology contributed significantly to their satisfaction It is also concluded that a lack of familiarity with and limited access to e-learning technology contributed to the absence of empirical evidence to support the moderating effect of e-learning on the relationship between teaching quality and students satisfaction The findings provide a fertile ground for policymakers in the education industry to develop new policies that could promote quality teaching and e-learning in Nigeria s institutions for better result

Structural, optical and thermal properties of Sm₂O₃/Bi₂O₃-doped zinc silicate glass ceramics from rice husk ash

The solid waste disposal has become a persistence problem in our communities. This evolves due to our rapid increase in population that leads to the growth of our industrial and agricultural sectors. A dramatic increase of solid waste deposition is experienced. Virtually, different collection of items is disposed, which change the compositional statues of our environments. Formally, solid waste disposal was carried out by incinerators technique. However, the burning of solid waste materials pollutes the surroundings. The community screams against the hazardous air pollution from incineration of waste materials. Hence, the technique changes to landfills solid waste disposal. Besides, this process tremendous number of problems is encompassing it, which changes the scientists and researchers way of thinking to the conversion of waste materials. Therefore, a subset of agricultural waste known as waste rice husk is converted to a useful material, known as white rice husk ash (WRHA) is used in carrying out this experimental work for this thesis. Conventional melt quenching technique was used to synthesis and characterize Sm3+/Bi3+ doped zinc silicate derived from WRHA for the structural, optical and thermal properties. Some of the major findings were given as followed. At high sintering temperature, Porosities were decreased due to the diffusion of the ions into based precursor. The poly grains turned to aggregate with one another with increasing doping concentrations. The phonon was responsible for the conveying the heat energy. An increasing heat movement was noticed with growing samarium dopant concentrations. However, a fluctuated heat movement was observed due to the oxidation and de oxidation of Bi3+ ions. The decrement energy band gaps of the samples were occurring because of the conversion of bridging oxygen to non-bridging oxygen. Hence, in conclusion Samarium/Bismuth oxides doped zinc silicates were successfully synthesized via melt quenching technique. Porosity decreases with increase of Sm3+ / Bi3+ ions concentrations. The poly grains increase in size with increasing of Sm3+ / Bi3+ ions concentrations. The sample agglomerated more with 5 wt% increment of Sm3+ / Bi3+ ions concentrations. Thermal diffusivity increases with increase of samarium concentrations. Thermal diffusivity fluctuates with increase of bismuth concentrations. Optical band gap of bismuth doped zinc silicate decreases with increase of bismuth concentrations. Optical band gap of samarium doped zinc silicate increases at 3 wt% and decreases with 5 wt% samarium concentrations. Refractive index decreases with Sm 3 wt% and increases with Sm 5 wt% while molar refraction and polarizability increase with samarium concentrations up to 3 wt% and decrease to 5wt%. Refractive index, molar refraction and polarizability decrease with increasing of bismuth concentrations. Finally, the outcomes of XRD, FESEM, and FTIR transmittance spectra showed the formation of zinc silicate phase in the precursor ZnO-WRHA glass ceramics. The FESEM micrograms indicated the formation of well-defined zinc silicate phase with highly agglomerated Samarium/Bismuth oxides -doped zinc silicate glass ceramics. The crystallite size acquired from XRD pattern differs in the range of 54-59 nm for samarium oxides -doped zinc silicate and 41-94 nm for bismuth oxides -doped zinc silicate. The presence of Zn-O and Si-O-Zn vibration bands in Infrared spectra shows the features of willemite phase formation. The UV-Visible analysis displays the value of optical band gap, which reduces with growing in doping concentrations, and the sintering temperature improves the willemite crystallinity in the precursor ZnO-WRHA glass ceramics. Furthermore, the luminescence spectra of glass-ceramics establish that the Sm3+/ Bi3+ ions are diffusing into the glass-ceramic phase and through that improved the photoluminescence of the doped willemite glass-ceramics. Hence, the emission intensity of Zn2SiO4:Sm3+ phase showed red luminescence focused at 646.71 nm whereas the emission fixed at 621.57 nm developed from Zn2SiO4:Bi3+ phase matches to the 4G5/2–6H7/2 transition. The thermal diffusivities values grow with dopants proportions with the least value of 0.2039 - 0.1392 mm2/s and highest value of 0.4375–0.2653 mm2/s for Zn2SiO4:Sm3+. Again, the thermal diffusivities values fluctuate with dopant concentrations with the least value of 0.2008–0.1383 mm2/s and the highest value of 0.2329-0.1570 mm2/s for Zn2SiO4:Bi3+. For that reason, Zn2SiO4:Sm3+ glass-ceramics seems to be favorable for use in solid-state lasers as a promising phosphor material. On the other hand, Zn2SiO4:Bi3+ glass-ceramics suggests being favorable for use on radar screen as a promising phosphor material

The role of product innovation for the internationalization of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

Internationalisation of business is not limited solely to large and multinational corporations alone, today the business world has witnessed many case scenarios where Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are predominantly gaining a wave and spaces at the international market.The growing share in the developed and even in the developing economy explains their strong participation to the internationalisation. The aim of this paper is to examine how small and medium-sized enterprises internationalise by using innovative approach to their product development, and how this influences their internationalisation process. The focus therefore is on obtaining better understanding of the role of innovation for the SMEs as a driver for their participation at the international market environment.The paper adopts a literature survey where extant literatures are reviewed with a view to gaining an insight into the role of innovation in the internationalization process.The paper concludes that being innovative and vast in R&D can lead to gaining many accesses to the international market, seeking more opportunity and discovering new market for products and services.It recommends that managers of SMEs should focus on new technology, effective Research and Development, and try to be responsive to market changes in the industry they belong to.This can be achieved by having an effective and efficient management that values innovation for change not for fashion

Social entrepreneurship as a panacea for insecurity challenges in northern Nigeria

The myriad of problems facing Northern Nigeria, especially high poverty incidence, illiteracy, economic inequality, and conflicts cannot be adequately overcome by the government alone. There is the urgent need for an alternative community intervention mechanism to compliment government’s efforts in confronting social problems on sustainable basis. Today, Social Entrepreneurship is considered critical in achieving vital socio-economic objectives in nations worldwide. Unfortunately, the subject has not received adequate attention in academic and policy discussions in Nigeria.This paper, therefore, is aimed at examining the concept of Social Entrepreneurship in the Nigerian context and also shows how innovative social interventions have assisted in reducing the menace of insecurity problems in Northern Nigeria.The analysis conducted in the paper has benefited extensively from contemporary literature on the subject, observations and interviews with members of three community organisations in northern Nigeria. Accordingly, the paper found that social entrepreneurship has not been fully understood in Nigeria, even though the activities of social groups have tremendously help in reducing the problem of insecurity bedevilling the region. The community organisations observed lacked proper organisation, funding and capacity.With better enlightenment and sensitisation, coupled with improved capacity to generate and manage funding, community organisations will be in better position to augment government’s initiative in restoring peace and security in the northern Nigeria