The Role of Social Media for Collaborative Learning to Improve Academic Performance of Students and Researchers in Malaysian Higher Education

Authors

  • Waleed Al-Rahmi Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Mohd Shahizan Othman Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
  • Lizawati Mi Yusuf Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i4.2326

Keywords:

social media, interactivity, intention to use, academic performance

Abstract

Social media is widely considered to improve the collaborative learning among students and researchers. However, there is a surprising lack of empirical research in Malaysian higher education to improve performance of students and researchers through the effective use of social media that facilitates desirable outcomes. Thus, this study offers a review of the empirical literature, and its distinctiveness stems from the focus on collaborative learning and engagement in literature, as dominated by higher education. This study also aims to explore factors that contribute to the enhancement of collaborative learning and engagement through social media.  It is also unique in that it highlights that the effective use of social media depends on users in what is referred to as social interactivity to "collaborative learning, engagement and intention to use social media" - a phenomenon that relies on the theory of social constructivist learning. The findings showed that collaborative learning, engagement and intention to use social media positively and significantly relate to the interactivity of research group members (students and researchers) with supervisors to improve their academic performance in Malaysian higher education.

Author Biographies

Waleed Al-Rahmi, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

In 2002, Waleed Mugahed AL-Rahmi received his BSc in Marine Science Telecommunication in Yemen. In 2005, Mr. AL-Rahmi earned his diploma in Computer Information coding from the Department of Electronics and Computer Systems in Yemen. He went on to earn a Diploma in Computer Science from the National Institute of Administrative Sciences (2007). He has also studied English in Malaysia. Waleed completed his Master’s degree at the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) in 2011. He graduated with a PhD from the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems at UTM in 2015. 

Address for Correspondence: Dr Waleed Mugahed Al-rahmi, Department of Information System, Faculty of computing, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, 81310, Malaysia. E-mail: abumunir82@yahoo.com

Mohd Shahizan Othman, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Mohd Shahizan Othman, received his BSc in Computer Science with Specialization in Information Systems from UTM in 1998. He went on to Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) where he obtained his Msc in Information Technology. Shahizan holds a PhD from UKM in Web Information Extract Information Retrieval and Machine Learning. He is currently a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems, UTM. His research interests are information extraction, information retrieval on the web, web data mining, content management, and machine learning. 

Lizawati Mi Yusuf, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

Lizawati Mi Yusuf, received her Diploma in Computer Science from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (1998) and a BSc in Computer Science with Specialization in Information Systems from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia Malaysia, in 2000. She obtained her Msc in Information Technology (Industrial Computing), in 2005. She is currently a lecturer at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems, UTM.

Published

2015-11-02

How to Cite

Al-Rahmi, W., Othman, M. S., & Yusuf, L. M. (2015). The Role of Social Media for Collaborative Learning to Improve Academic Performance of Students and Researchers in Malaysian Higher Education. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 16(4). https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v16i4.2326

Issue

Section

Research Articles