Influential Predictors of Students’ Academic Achievement in Online Peer Learning Among Undergraduate Students

Social media is widely used by students. Previous studies have projected conflicting results regarding the influence of online peer learning via social media on academic achievement. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that impact on academic achievement. Building on the literature, the study proposed a conceptual model consists of self-efficacy; engagement, performance expectancy, social influence, peer feedback, and collaboration were incorporated as independent variables that influence the academic achievement. Data was collected from 369 undergraduate students. The findings of regression analysis showed that the strongest predictor of academic achievement in online peer learning was performance expectancy followed by collaboration, social influence, and engagement. An online peer learning influences significantly on academic achievement.  Decision makers were advised to support the implementation of online peer learning in universities. Keywords: Social Media, Online peer learning, Academic achievement, UTAUT

Using social media to enhance student engagement and quality

The educational benefits, which accrue from the enhancement in student engagement, are well documented in the literature. Some of the benefits identified include increased student interest in course content, enhanced academic performance and enhanced student critical thinking skills. This study demonstrates a significant advantage in using social media platforms in student engagement with the course material and lecturers offering the material. Typically, student engagement has been and mainly is achieved as on-campus contact mode or contact at sites of delivery and even online, using platforms created and managed by universities such as Blackboard. In this study, a comparative review of the academic performance of two groups of students enrolled for a similar subject offered at a University of Technology is performed to analyze the effects of using social media as a method to engage students on performance outside the normal communication time. The assumption is that this method of student engagement would enrich the student experience and alter how course content is articulated, presented and absorbed, in essence allowing the student to feel enabled and included in the engagement paradigm. Feedback provided in the engagement with peers and the lecturer leads to clarity and improvement in the quality of the course overall

Social media usage among dental undergraduate students—a comparative study

Publisher Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.Social media use among students has infiltrated into dental education and offers benefits but may also cause problems. The aim of this study was to explore and compare current social media usage among dental undergraduate students from two countries—Malaysia and Finland. A self-administered structured online questionnaire was used. WhatsApp, YouTube, Instagram, Facebook and Snapchat were the services that were most familiar to the respondents from both countries. There were differences between the students from the two countries among the most preferred platforms. The most frequently used applications were WhatsApp (91.1% of students in Malaysia and 96.1% in Finland used it very frequently) and Instagram (74.3% of students in Malaysia and 70.0% in Finland used it very frequently). Students in Malaysia spent significantly more hours per week using the platforms as study tools than students in Finland. Over 80% of the Finnish dental students reported that lack of knowledge was not an issue in social media usage, while 85% of Malaysian students felt that lack of knowledge prevented them from using social media platforms frequently. The findings offer evidence that dental students used social media extensively.Peer reviewe

EU–originated MOOCs, with focus on multi- and single-institution platforms

No abstract available

The development of a sustainable framework for an industry driven career-focused ICT curriculum in producing sought after ICT graduates

The employability of ICT graduates is a critical issue that needs to be addressed by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). It can be argued that there are different challenges for higher education institutions, employers, and regulatory bodies around graduates’ readiness to join the modern workplace. The media and academic research is often critical on the matter of employability and continue to question the issues of (i) mismatches in the skills needed for and supply of ICT graduates; (ii) how faculty can keep themselves abreast with the changes in technology skills needed; (iii) how industry practitioners can be an integral part in the design and delivery of the curriculum that produces graduates with the global skills required by the workplace as demanded by Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs), Multi-National Companies (GNCs) and by the growing number of startups; and (iv) industry-academia collaboration for curriculum design and delivery. Typically, ICT remains the key driver and enabler of growth in all business sectors and is a recession-proof career; hence, all stakeholders should collaboratively design and deliver its curriculum. This study seeks to investigate the challenges Higher Education Institutions face in designing and delivering an industry-driven curriculum that would satisfy the expectations and requirements of students, academics, regulatory bodies, and employers. It aims to address the gaps and identify the mismatches in the expectations of these stakeholders. The goal is to develop a sustainable framework for curriculum design that contains strategic and measurable provisions in curriculum delivery, ensuring that experiential learning is genuinely embedded in the ICT curriculum. The research has achieved its research goal to develop a proposed framework from an extensive literature review and in-depth analysis of the findings obtained from online surveys and focus groups involving the different stakeholders – students, alumni, academia, and employers. This study contributes to the literature where minimal research is available on collaborative design and delivery of an ICT curriculum involving the different relevant stakeholders