The impact of social media use in collaborative learning towards learning performance among research students

The use of social media for active collaborative learning and engagement to affect learning performance seems to be one of the examined topics in Information Systems domain compared to other technology adoption. However, social media uses distraction from studies and affects study habits, thus, using social media results in academic difficulties. Research students seldom use social media for educational purposes, also they do not use it interactively for collaborative learning and academic purposes. Previous frameworks and models of social media use have many significant negative impacts on student engagement, collaborative learning and learning performance. Thus, this research aims to determine the interactive factors for active collaborative learning and engagement as well as perceptual factors, and social media use for active collaborative learning and engagement to affect learning performance. This study proposes a theoretical model based on the theory of constructivism and theory of Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). A mixed method quantitative and qualitative was used to conduct a survey and interview of samples at five public universities in Malaysia. Data were analysed using AMOS, SPSS and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to investigate causal and mediating relationships between variables. Findings of the research revealed that interaction among research students, and interaction with lecturers or supervisors enhance active collaborative learning and engagement were significant at 60% and 73% respectively. It also indicates that active collaborative learning and engagement which affect the learning performance of research students achieved significant ratio of 74%. In addition, perceived ease of use and usefulness define a person’s social media use for active collaborative learning and engagement that enhances satisfaction and affect the learning performance of research students were 71% and 74% respectively. It is found that perceived usefulness and satisfaction of research students are insignificant because some students use social media on social purposes not for educational purposes. Hence, it is important to raise awareness by the universities and lecturers for students to use social media as an active collaborative learning purpose as it will positively affect the learning performance of research students. Finally, the results indicate that the use of social media is significant for active collaborative learning and engagement which positively affect learning performance of research students of Malaysian Higher Education