USING Whatsapp TO EXTEND LEARNING INTO UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS’ DIGITAL LIVES: MEASURING ITS EFFECTS ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE IN GENERAL STUDIES

Bawa Nura, Aisha Abdullahi Ibrahim

Abstract


This paper examined the impact of Whatsapp in extending learning into undergraduate students’ digital lives and how it influenced their academic performance in general studies (peace and conflict resolution). Quasi experimental design with a non-equivalent, non-randomized groups involving 2x2 factorial was adopted for the study. Intact classes of 78 and 82 (200 level) undergraduate students from Federal University Birnin Kebbi (FUBK) and Kebbi State University of Science and Technology (KESUSTA) were purposively selected as sample for the study respectively. The two institutions were assigned to experimental group 1 (Exp.1) and experimental group 2 (Exp.2) through balloting. In this study, two instruments were used: comprehensive GST dummy (CGSTD) and GST achievement test (GSTAT). Pilot study was conducted and reliability index of 0.87 was obtained for the GSTAT using Kuder Richardson (KR-21). Three hypotheses were formulated and tested using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) and z-test. Results showed that there was a significant difference in the academic performance of undergraduate students exposed to a comprehensive GST dummy and those treated in a blended setting (using Whatsapp), where those treated in a blended setting using Whatsapp performed better. No significant difference was found in the academic performance of the undergraduate students based on gender. In line with the findings of the study, it was recommended that lecturers should engage themselves to studying the best approaches that best suit the students of digital native, and should also endeavour to incorporate social media to supplement the conventional classroom teaching-learning process.


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