Assessment of Digital Instructional Materials Development Capacity Among Lecturers in State Universities in Kano State, North West Nigeria

This study assesses the capacity of lecturers in state universities in Kano State, North West Nigeria to develop digital instructional materials for academic courses. The quality of online and blended learning is directly tied to the quality of digital materials lecturers produce, making capacity assessment a critical institutional planning activity. A descriptive survey design was employed with a sample of 110 lecturers from Kano State University of Science and Technology and Yusuf Maitama Sule University. A validated Digital Content Development Capacity Scale evaluated competence across five areas: multimedia design, screen recording and editing, document formatting for digital delivery, interactive activity creation, and digital copyright awareness. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings reveal low capacity in multimedia design and interactive activity creation, with digital copyright awareness being the most severely deficient domain. Lecturers in education and computing departments demonstrated significantly higher capacity than those in arts and social sciences. The study recommends that both universities establish centralised instructional design support units, provide subscription access to digital content creation tools, and integrate digital material development into annual staff development programmes. Keywords: digital instructional materials, lecturers' capacity, state universities, Kano State, content development