A Negative Impact of the Social Media on the Student Performance - Research Paper Example

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The marketing research report entails the impact of the time spent by the students on Facebook and the respective performance of the students. The majority of students devote the face book chats at the expense of the academic devolution; there is a minimal consultation of the lecturers by the students. This is attributed to the poor reading culture among the students. There is a high preference of face book to other social networks. Students have a low valuation f the academic performance and high valuation of the social interactions. The university ought to organize guidance and counseling sessions for the students so as to improve on their organization skills. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive summary …...……………………………………………………………………………………2 1.0 Introduction…………………………………………………….………………………………………5 1.1Problem statement.....……………………………………………………………………………… …...5 Chapter 2………………….……………………………………………………………………………….5 2.0literature review ………………… ……………………………………………………………………..7 Chapter 3 3.0 Research methodology……...……………………….………………...…………………………….....7 3.1Sample plan ..............................................................................................................................................7 3.2Definition of sampling unit…………………………………………………………...…………………7 3.3Sample frame.………………...……………………..…………………………………………………..7 3.4Sample size calculation………………………………………………………………………………….8 3.5Sampling method…….………………………………………………………………………………….9 3.6Sample validation....………………..…………………………………….……………………………...9 4.0Research methodology…………………………………………………………………........................11 4.1 Proposed research method …………………………………………………………………………...11 4.2 Qualitative research design…………………………………..………………………………………11 4.3 In-depth interview design …………………………………….……………………………………….11 4.4 Qualitative research method …………………………………………………………………………..12 4.5 Data collection method…………………………...………………………………………………….. 12 4.6 General guidelines to be used to design the research instrument……………………………..………13 4.7 Overall quality of research instrument (questionnaire)……………………………………………..…14 4.8 The questionnaire ……………………………………………………………………………….…….15 4.9 Ethical consideration…………………………………………………………………………….…….15 5.0 Proposed timetable…………………………………………………………………………………….17 5.1 proposed budget…………………………………………………………………………………..…...18 5.2 Findings from in depth interviews…………………………………….………………………………19 5.3 Expected findings from qualitative study and possible implications and relevance to the university.19 5.4 References…………………………………………………………………………………………….21 1.0 INTRODUCTION The social media has a negative impact on the student performance. Most of the students spend time on the social media at the expense of academic devotion. 1.1 Problem statement The research is based on the impact of the social media on the performance of the students. The top management of the university strongly believes that the students spend most of their time chatting and communicating on face book. The report will find out the time spend by the students on the social media and the devotion to the university studies. The interviews o the student will assist to determine the opinion of the students in regard to the impact of the Face book on their performance. There have been massive cases of students performing poorly in the academic work. This is strongly attributed to the high time the students spend on the social media. The poor performance may be as a result of many factors some of which are within the control of the university administration. The university can guide and counsel the students on the value and importance of devotion to their academic performance. Social interactions do shape the discipline and performance of the students. Positive utilization of the Face book will see them exchange and share academic information which is the core of being in the university. It is appreciated I the research report that students are also social beings. There ought to be a striking balance between socialization over the media and devotion to the academic work for high performance. The research problems focus on the spending of too much time on Face book at the expense of academic devotion. This is a concern by the university administration. CHAPTER TWO 2.0 Literature review Institutions of higher learning intend to train students on the value of personal responsibility and effective time management in the type of activities the students engage in. research into productive issues is the core role of the students. Students ought to engage actively in the research of the wide range of issues that affect the community at large. The institutions are research centers for the universal use of all citizens in a country. There is a new trend of students spending most of their time in the social media. It is believed the time spent on the social media do compromise the quality of learning in higher institutions. Time management determines sense of responsibility among the student. It is clear to note that the students prioritize on the social factor at the expense of good grades. The socialization factor is crucial in the building of the complete personality of a student. Time management involves students drawing schedules and time tables for effective studies. Students ought to concentrate on discussion to promote their performance in the academic world. The allocation of time between the priority areas will determine the academic success of the student. Co-curriculr activities are crucial in the academic growth of the student. The overemphasis on the social media is detrimental in the performance of the student. The social media offers forum for communication and advertisement for most institutions and corporate world. The students use the social media to get updates on the most recent activities. The social media include Face book, Google, Yahoo, Twitter, My space and LinkedIn. It is observed that minority 0f students spend time on the professional media such as LinkedIn to link themselves with the professionals in their respective academic fields. The students have many friends on Face book. The high number f issues discussed on the Face book are the social issues. Organizational skills amongst the students will determine their academic performance. The organization skills include time management, interpersonal skills, and valuation of the academic work, priority lists, management of peer group influence and the allocation of tine to consult on academic success of the students. The high time students spend on the face book is a sign of poor organization skills among the student community. Students’ procrastination is detrimental in the performance. The student develop poor life skills and negative impression to life worth aspects more especially devotion to the good performance in the higher institutions. Study skills include group discussion, online research, sharing of new academic findings and regular consultations. Peer guidance and influence is another crucial factor in the students’ academic life. Students ought to allocate enough time in the development of their study skills. CHAPTER THREE 3.0 Research methodology 3.1Sample plan The study elements in this research are the students. The sample variables will include students, time, and social media. The population will constitute the entire student community. The sample will comprise of 50 students to represent the whole students in the institution of higher learning. 3.2 Definition of population The population defined as a group of the entire study elements. The aggregation of the individual study elements will constitute a population. The student fraternity will form the research population. It is advisable to include full time, part time and distance learning students in the definition of the population. Definition of the sampling unit A sampling unit represents the individual elements to be studied in the research. The students engaging in the social media especially Face book are our sampling elements in this research. The units ought to be random, representative and none biased. The random selection of the sampling units will promote objectivity of the research. 3.3 Sample frame The sampling frame refers to the source from which all the sample elements will be drawn from. The frame represents all those elements which can be sampled. The sample frame in this research will comprise all modes of learning in the higher institution. This will include part time students, full time students, open learning students and online students. The institution registers and academic record will be used to draw the sample frame. The complete list of the study elements will include students both serous with the academic performance and the students actively engaging in the Face book. The sample frame will have all students in the institution. 3.4 Sample size calculation The sample size represents the actual number of students to be studied in the research. We intend to determine the impact of Face book on the performance of the students. , where n is the sample size in the research, E is the margin of error, Is known as the critical value, the positive value that is at the vertical boundary for the area of in the right tail of the standard normal distribution. is the population standard deviation is the sample size. A 95% confidence level will be used with =0.025. The critical value will be 1.96.With a margin of error of E=1, standard deviation, SD= 6.95, the sample size will be calculated as follows; n= ((1.96*6.95)/1)2 = 186 students will be used as the sample size for our research purpose. 3.5 Sampling method The sampling methods will be both random and random sampling method. The random sampling will involve choosing of students randomly from the lecture rooms. The stratification method will also enable representation of all study elements the random sampling will eliminate the bias element in the sample. The strata will compose of students in different courses and duration o their studies. Cluster sampling will also aid in inclusion of the distance learning students in the research. The random sampling will entail the research personnel random visitation of the lecture halls and evaluate the student response using the designed questions. The clusters will have students in different modules of study. The strata will have students in different levels but in the same course. The random samplings of students will the main method of choosing the students to be interviewed for the purpose of our research. We will also open a Face book page for the students to add comments in relation tour study. This will be the most appropriate method of random sampling. Random comments from the students will be the basis of our research. It will be more appropriate our study elements frequently visit the Face book social media. Random sampling will eliminate the element of bias in relation to the student opinion in relation to the study. 3.6 Sample validation Sample validation will assess suitability of the tree structures to draw conclusions from the entire student population. The study sample of 186 students will be divided into 7 sub samples. The first 6 sub-samples will have 25 students and the 7th sub sample will have 36 students. The cross validation of the sample will aid in the generalization of the whole sample results for the whole population. The split sample validation of the sample will involve generation of the model with the help of a training sample. The dependent variable is the student performance and independent variable is the time spends on Face book. The results for both testing and training samples will be displayed for validation purposes. 4.0 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 4.1 Proposed research method 4.2 Qualitative research design Different data collection, analysis, and interpretation methods for the data in regard to data relating to the student performance will be used. Interviews, observations and focus groups will be used to collect data in relation to the academic performance of the students. Specific questions will be asked to particular group of the students. The selected data from the student will aid in the generalization of the impact of the high time spend by the students on the academic performance of the respective students. Focus groups will be used to analyze the students’ response to the Face book concentration among the students fraternity. Data validation will be used to eliminate of bias among the researchers. Beside interviews and observations, other qualitative methods to be used will include case studies, ethnography, documentary analysis and conversational analysis. The research team will engage the students to gather information on their opinion in relation to the impacts of Face book on the student performance. The data collected from the sample will not be used in wholesome to draw generalization about the whole student population. The findings will be used and transferred for other research purposes. Substantial amounts of data will be collected to avoid cumbersome and vigorous data analysis. 4.3 In-depth interview design The optimal number of students to be used in the in-depth interview analysis will depend on the entire student population, variations of the course modules and financial resource. The number of students to be use will be 100 students. The students are readily available for the interview. Face-face interviews will be conducted for the 100 students due to their availability. The timeline for the interview is one month. The number will ensure that clear, unambiguous answers are not provided during the interview. Questions in relation to the time spend on face book and impact of the face book on the academic performance will be extensively being covered in the interview. The interviewees will be required to provide detailed information in relation to the two questions for further analysis. Clarification, repeat of questions and other probing techniques will ensure accurate and complete information is provided. Research findings will aid to determine the source of variation and similarity of the data. The interviews will form a basis of developing research findings for conclusion. The emergence of new aspects will be captured during the focus group discussion to enlarge the scope of the study. There will immediate analysis of the responses from the respondent before the next respondent is interviewed. This will boast the reliability levels from the collected data. We will analyses the date with the purpose of developing concrete research findings for the report. 4.4 Quantitative research 4.5 Data collection method Quantitative data collection method will include questionnaires, pretests, post tests, existing data bases and statistical analysis. Self administered questionnaires will be used for the collection of quantitative data. The respondents for the self administered questionnaires will be chosen at random to promote fairness. The statistic methods such as regression analysis, correlation analysis and residual difference determination will be used to analyze data and make concrete conclusions. The analysis of the sample data will then be used to draw conclusions about the whole population. The student population will found common similarity in the time spent in the Face book. The student performance will be regressed on the time spend in the Facebook. Student performance will be measured in percentages on a scale e of 100 and time will be in hours. The student performance will be the dependent variable while the time spends on Facebook is the independent variable in the regression model. The regression coefficient will be determined to assist in the interpretation of the relationship between the two variables. A positive coefficient will be interpreted to mean a positive correlation between the time spent in face book and positive performance by the student. A negative coefficient will imply the more the time students spend on face book, the worse the student performance. 4.6 General guidelines to be used to design the research instrument The main research instrument to be used in the research will be the questionnaire. The questionnaire is clear and simple to understand. Ambiguous questions will be avoided. We start from simple to complex questions in the design of the questions. A simple but clear language will be used in the questionnaire. Avoid leading questions. The questions ought not to be repetitive in nature. Repetition of the questions will raise doubts from the student community. The questions should be clear and clearly defined objective. The objective is to determine the time spent in Facebook and impact on the academic performance of the students. The questions ought t be in a logical order to facilitate the easy of the respondents answering the questions with fluency. Personal questions will jeopardize the research process. Some of the personal questions to be avoided will include the issues the individual students discuss on the social media and the rationale for the discussion. The students will perceive this very negatively. Exercise care and caution in the use of language. Provocative language is to be avoided. Ensure the questions in the questionnaire are not with very many words, the wordiness of the questions sill introduce monotony to the respondents. 4.7 Overall quality of research instrument (questionnaire) The questionnaire is the main research instrument in the research. The questionnaire will cover aspects relation to time management, social media impact of the social media and other factors affecting the student performance. 4.8 The questionnaire 1. please indicate your degree course below ………………………………………………………………………………… 2. Are you an active member of face book? Yes () No ( ) 3. How many social networking sites do you know? (Please indicate the answer in the blank space below………………………. 4. Are you an active member of all the sites? Yes( ) no( ) 5. Which is you preferred social Network? (A)Facebook (B) Twitter (C) Google (D) MySpace (E) others ………………………………………………. 6. Why do you prefer Facebook over the other social network sites? ……………………………………………………………….. 7. How much time (hours) do you spend per day chatting with friends on Facebook? ………………. 8. Do you share Academic information while on face book? Yes ( ) no ( ) 9. How many hours do you spend reading o doing your academic work? ……………….. 10. Have you ever failed to do your assignment simply because you were on face book? Yes ( ) No ( ) 11. How do you scale your academic performance over the recent past? (Poor, below average, average, fair, good, very good, satisfactory, excellent) ………………………………………. 12. Facebook has negatively affected the academic performance of most students. (A) Strongly disagree (B) disagree (C) neutral (D) agree (E) strongly disagree 4.9 Ethical considerations (during both the qualitative and Quantitative research stages) Ethics is the guiding principle in the process of research. Research ethics will ensure accurate and reliable data from the research. Students tend to be very sensitive on the type and nature of questions one is asking them. It is wise to clarify to them that the research is not intended to victim any students. This is a general research to aid in the academic performance of the students. The safety of the research participants is always paramount. A risk benefit ratio will always be conducted in the process of doing research. The research assistant/participant should seek written or formal consent from the respondents before engaging him/her in the research process. We will prefer written consents to the oral consents in our research. Oral consents are sometimes risk to believe in. High standard of privacy and confidentiality concerns ought to be enumerated by the researcher. This will enable subsequent research by the research assistant .sensitive and personal information will be kept confidential and will not be relayed to the authorized persons. Injury to the study elements will be taken into consideration by the researcher. Respect for all the students personalities and opinion is determinate in the research. Full disclosure of the objectives o the study to the students will ensure cooperation from the respondents. Researchers need to express interdependency to promote harmony in the entire research process. Just and equitable selection of the students to respondent t the question in the questionnaire is ethical. The researcher ought to profess understanding, voluntariness’, competence, honesty and keenness in the process of carrying out the research. The topic under discussion is a social issue which should be handled with care. 5.0 Proposed timetable Time Week one Week two Week three Week four Events seeking permission to carry out the research conducting face-face interviews spelling out the objectives of the research to the student community finalizing the face-face interviews preparation for the in-depth interviews assigning research members the focus groups for interrogation actual conduct of the in-depth interviews Focus group discussion compiling of the data presentation and analysis of the data report writing by the research team Submission of the report to institution administration 5.1 Proposed budget The success for the research process will require sufficient resources for the entire research process; the research items will include stationary, travelling allowance, provision for meals, caution money, salaries for the research team, printing expenses, group discussion materials, accommodation, security, report writing expenses. The budget items with the respective revenue requirements are given as follows: Research item $ stationary 100 travelling allowance 50 provision for meals 100 caution money 150 salaries for the research team 500 printing expenses 50 group discussion materials 50 accommodation 200 Security 100 Report writing expenses 100 TOTAL 1400 5.2 Findings from in-depth interviews The in-depth interviews did involve use of self administered questionnaires, focus group discussions to obtain detailed information regarding the impact of spending a lot of time on Face book on academic performance. The response from most of the students admitted that he high portion of their time is devoted to the social media. There is minimal time devoted to the academic work. There is high preference of Facebook to other social media like twitter, Google and my space. Students spend up to 6 hours per day chatting on the face book with the friends. There is low incidence of the students exchanging academic material on face book. The majority of the issues discussed are the love issues, emerging trends in the fashions industries, celebrities, breaking world news and imaginations by some perceived creative students. The interviewed students admit that low focus is assigned o the academic performance. A poor performance is not a major issue among majority of the students. There is a worrying trend of the students skiving classes to attend to the social media commitments. Students do not participate in group discussions but participate in face book chats. It is only 24 out of the 186 interviewed students were sparing time to go and consult their lectures. Even the24students were doing it on irregular basis. 5.3 Expected findings from quantitative study and possible Implications and relevance to the university Quantitative study did involve use of questionnaires, pretests, post tests, correlation and regression analysis. The findings reveal that out of the186 students interviewed, it is only 24studentswho often consult from the lecturers. The majority of the students spent least 10 hours chatting with friends on Facebook. The regression results depict a negative regression coefficient of the regression equation Y=box+b1, where Y is the student performance (in %), x is the time students spend on Facebook. Bo is the regression coefficient, b1 is the regression intercept. The expected regression equation is given as follows; Y=5.43-2.45X, this means a one hour increase in time students spend on Facebook will lead to a 2.45% decline in the academic performance of the student. There is a negative correlation between the student performance and time spent on face book. The university needs to conduct guidance and counseling sessions for the students. The session will cover time managements, study skills and social skills. The university will assist the students to develop priority list for the different aspects of life. The focus on face book will impact negatively on the student performance. The students ought to positively use the social site for the exchange of academic materials. The students need t engage in constructive research. References Buchanan, Elizabeth A. Readings in Virtual Research Ethics: Issues and Controversies. Hershey, Pa. [u.a.: Information Science Publ, 2004. Print. Cheal, Catheryn, Shaun Moore, and John Coughlin. Transformation in Teaching: Social Media Strategies in Higher Education. Santa Rosa, Calif: Informing Science Press, 2012. Print. Cohen, Eli B. Growing Information, Part I. Santa Rosa, Calif: Informing Science Institute, 2009. Print. Danesi, Marcel. Popular Culture: Introductory Perspectives. Lanham, Md: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012. Print. DeRenzo, Evan G, and Joel Moss. Writing Clinical Research Protocols: Ethical Considerations. 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