Mengenal Pasti Faktor-Faktor Yang Menyebabkan Pelajar Kurang Cemerlang Dalam Mata Pelajaran Sains. Satu Kajian Tinjauan Di Sebuah Sekolah Menengah Luar Bandar

Setiap kali peperiksaan, didapati ramai pelajar mendapat keputusan yang kurang cemerlang dalam mata pelajaran sains dan banyak punca telah dikaitkan dengan ketidakcemerlangan ini. Tujuan utama kajian ini adalah untuk meninjau faktor yang menyebabkan pelajar mendapat keputusan kurang cemerlang dalam mata pelajaran sains semasa menduduki peperiksaan Penilaian Menengah Rendah (PMR) bagi tahun 2007. Empat faktor yang diberi tumpuan dalam kajian ini iaitu cara pembelajaran pelajar, pengajaran guru, pengaruh rakan sebaya dan juga minat. Kajian ini adalah berbentuk tinjauan melalui penggunaan borang soal selidik yang dijawab oleh responden. Seramai 229 orang pelajar tingkatan empat telah terlibat sebagai responden dalam kajian ini. Data yang yang perolehi dianalisis menggunakan perisian Statistical Packages For Sosial Science for Windows (SPSS) versi 12.0. Kebolehpercayaan instrumen kajian agak tinggi dengan nilai Alpha Cronbach (?) = 0.829. Data dianalisis berdasarkan peratusan dan kekerapan responden yang setuju, tidak setuju dan tidak pasti. Hasil daripada kajian ini menunjukkan bahawa cara pembelajaran pelajar merupakan faktor utama yang menyebabkan pelajar kurang cemerlang dalam mata pelajaran sains. Akhir sekali, cadangan untuk para pelajar, guru, pihak sekolah dan juga ibu bapa dikemukakan untuk meningkatkan kecemerlangan pelajar dalam mata pelajaran sains

A Review of Service Quality at Higher Learning Institutions

In light of plenty of challenges and obstacles facing higher learning institutions, that include increasing tuitions fees, funding shrinkages, if not cuts, worries of decreasing numbers of students or preventing them in pursuing their education, and more importantly, accomplishing a sustainable competitive advantage in the marketplace of higher education, universities pay more attention and make all these challenges and obstacles at the top of its agendas. These pressing challenges have called on universities around the world to look for ways through which they can tackle them. Universities in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have not also been left behind in the wind of change that seems to have swept through the service sector. Service quality is a model developed under the management field in order to facilitate effective measurement of quality of services provided by any organisation, whether public or private. Therefore, the objective of this paper is to determine which of the five instruments of service quality has the relative superior measuring capability in measuring service quality in Saudi Arabian higher learning institutions. It also attempts to review the various models developed in service quality. The overall literature focuses on service quality at higher learning institutions. The conclusion of this paper shows that although higher learning institutions in Saudi Arabia have already joined in the implementation of service quality using various instruments, they still have not yet made a significant progress in the newly adopted system and there is lack of enough so far on this regard. Keywords: Service Quality, Higher Learning Institutions

How do interactive voice assistants build brands' loyalty?

Voice assistants have emerged as a new form of technology that can identify human speech and respond accordingly via synthesized voices and this family of technologies has helped people accomplish various requirements in their daily lives. However, despite the numerous benefits of AI-based assistants, consumers' concerns about their privacy have increased. Nevertheless, only a few studies focus on the brand loyalty of customers, which influences the intention of consumers to persist in using voice assistants. Furthermore, the impact of brand credibility on the overall perceived value receives little attention. Therefore, this study attempted to identify the mechanism through which the users of voice assistants might develop reuse intention and loyalty toward a specific service provider brand and analyze how brand credibility can influence the overall perceived value of voice assistants. The study drew on the uses & gratification theory, signaling theory, and prospect theory to develop the conceptual model and its underlying hypotheses. Using purposive sampling and an online survey, data were collected from 426 Chinese users of AliGenie, Alibaba's intelligent personal assistant. Data and the hypothesized model were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling. Findings from quantitative analysis identified the perceived privacy risk as the most significant factor and obstacle influencing consumers' overall perceived value toward the usage of voice assistants. Furthermore, findings indicate that brand credibility moderates the existing relationship between the perceived privacy risk and the overall perceived value, a high brand credibility results in a much lower association between the perceived privacy risk and overall perceived value. Furthermore, the findings discovered a significant and positive relationship between brand loyalty and individuals' continued usage of voice assistants