Chapter 8: Discussion of Research Question Two and Research Question Three
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Introduction
2.7 Factors Affecting Academic Performance of On-Campus Students and Distance Learners Distance Learners
Considine and Zappala (2002) reported that parent’s income or social status positively affects students’ scores in examinations. According to Minnesota (2007), higher education performance is dependent upon the academic performance of graduate students. Many studies have been conducted in the area of students’ performance and these studies identify and analyse the number of factors that affect the academic performance of the student at school, college and even at university level. Their findings reported the students’ effort, previous schooling, parents’
educational background, family income, self-motivation of students, age of student, learning preferences and entry qualification of students as important factors that have an effect on the student’s academic performance in different settings. The current study is aimed at determining the factors that affect the academic performance of distance learners under an e-learning setting in a Nigerian university.
The investigation of Oregon State University (2003) on final-year admissions stated that ordinary measures of educational potential and academic performance such as secondary school GPA scores indicated that just 30% of the deviation in the beginning of the first year at school. It is vital to note that even these studies do not concur with the previous studies which investigated whether previous academic performance influences the future performance of the students in schools. They found that the admission scores are identified with academic performance at university level but to a minimal or insignificant extent. Jeynes (2002) reported that the socioeconomic status of the parent, parents’ education, professional qualification, family income and occupational affiliation influence academic performance of students. The outcomes of numerous studies affirmed that the academic achievement of students depended on the parent’s socioeconomic status. Students from higher socio-economic backgrounds will perform better than other students from low socio- economic backgrounds. Jeynes (2002) noted that social and economic status of a student is generally determined by combining parents’ qualification, occupation and income. Is academic achievement of distance e-learners dependent on parents’ socio-economic status as found in the above study? The current study provides specific findings to the above question.
35
Considine and Zappala (2002) in their study on the effect of social and economic problems in the academic performance of school students stated that students from parents who have social, educational and economic advantages recorded higher levels of success than those without.
Considine and Zappala (2002) observed that children of parents with a low income are found to have a low literacy level, low retention rate, problems in school behaviour and show a negative attitude towards studies and school. According to Eamon (2005), students who come from low financial status families scored lower compared to their counterparts from high financial status families. It was expected that youngsters’ academic performance is unequivocally influenced by the standard and kind of educational institution in which students get their training. The educational environment of the school attended sets the parameters of students’ learning results.
These studies led the researcher to investigate if educational environment determines the academic performance of distance e-learners who were trained in Nigerian institutions. The outcome of the results is explained in detail in Chapter 6.
Considine and Zappala (2002) demonstrated that school environment and instructor expectations of their students have a strong impact on student performance. The majority of the educators working in poor schools or schools having run short of basic facilities often have low performance expectations of students, which directly resulted in poor performance by the students. Kwesiga (2002) contended that the performance of the students is influenced by the school in which they studied, yet he additionally said that the number of facilities a school offers dictate the quality of the school, which in turn affects the performance and accomplishment of its students. Sentamu (2003) contended that schools influence the educational process in content, organisation, teacher and teaching-learning and eventual evaluation. Educationists and researchers concurred with the rule that schools have a high influence on academic performance and educational achievement of students.
Students from world-class schools are relied upon to perform well because these schools are extremely rich in resources and facilities. Crosne and Elder (2004) noted that school facilities, procurement of premises and accessibility of assets in a school are an essential part of the school.
Private schools, because of the better financing, small class sizes, standard of teachers and access to learning resources, for example PCs, perform better than government-funded schools.
36
Contrary to the above, Pedrosa, Norberto, Rafael, Cibele and Benilton (2006) conducted a study on educational and social economic background of undergraduates and academic performance at a Brazilian university, and found that students coming from disadvantaged socioeconomic and educational homes performed relatively better than those coming from higher socioeconomic and educational backgrounds. They referred to it as educational elasticity. It is obvious and true that the criteria for categorising socioeconomic standards in different nations are different, depending of their norms and values. The criteria for low socioeconomic status for a developing country will be different from the criteria for developed nations and the same will be the case in developing and under-developed countries. The researcher is in agreement with the above authors because the criteria for low socioeconomic status in Nigeria as a developing country are different from other developing nations. Escarce (2003) pointed out that due to residential stratification and separation, the students belonging to low-income backgrounds usually attend schools with lower funding levels, and this situation reduced achievement motivation of the students and high risk of educational malfunction in future life endeavours.
Garzon (2006), Kahlenberg (2006) and Kirkup (2008) observed that students with high level of socioeconomic status (SES) perform better than the middle-class students and the middle-class students perform better than the students with a low level of SES. The achievement of students is negatively correlated with the low SES level of parents because it hinders the individual in gaining access to sources and resources of learning (Duke, 2000; Eamon, 2005). Low SES strongly affects the achievement of students, dragging them down to a lower level (Sander, 2001). Rouse and Barrow (2006) observed that the economically disadvantaged parents are less able to afford the cost of education of their children at higher levels and consequently they do not work at their fullest potential. Krashen (2005) concluded that students whose parents are educated score higher on standardised tests than those whose parents were not educated. Educated parents can better communicate with their children regarding the school work, activities and the information being taught at school. They can better assist their children in their work and participate in school activities (Fantuzzo & Tighe, 2000). The academic performance of students heavily depends upon the parental involvement in their academic activities to attain the highest level of academic success (Barnard, 2004; Shumox & Lomax, 2001). The low SES causes environmental deficiencies which resulted in low self-esteem of students (US Department of Education, 2003). The relationship between gender and the academic achievement of students has been discussed for decades (Eitle,
37
2005). A gap between the achievement of boys and girls has been found, with girls showing better performance than boys in certain instances (Chambers & Schreiber, 2004). Gender, ethnicity and father’s occupation are significant contributors to student achievement (McCoy, 2005). These researchers identified many issues that must be tackled before distance learning can be successful.
These issues are: problems with technology (Andrusyszyn, Soeren, Laschinger, Goldenberg, &
DiCenso, 1999); feelings of isolation (Rodger & Brown, 2000; Swisher & Mandich, 2002); lack of effective communication (Ali, Hodson-Carlton, & Ryan, 2004); lack of face-to-face interactions (Rovai & Barnum, 2003); insufficient technology support (Lee, 2002); and faculty time commitment (Ali, Hodson-Carlton & Ryan, 2004). Previous studies on distance learners’ academic performance have attempted to determine if there are any student characteristics that may influence academic performance (Cheung & Kan, 2002; Alstete & Beutell, 2004). This study is similar, but the above studies were conducted in Canada, Hong Kong and the USA.
The researcher observed that studies were conducted on distance learners in general education courses, professional courses and healthcare courses. Also, gender, entrance examination results and previous academic achievement are some of the variables that had been studied to determine what type of students perform better in the distance learning environment. Some of these researchers found that women performed better in a distance learning setting when compared to men (Cheung & Kan, 2002; Alstete & Beutell, 2004), while other researchers found that there was no relationship between gender and academic performance (Barakzai & Fraser, 2005). Cheung and Kan (2002) found no relationship between student age and academic performance. In contrast, Alstete and Beutell (2004) found a significant positive relationship between students’ ages and grades received in online courses offered in a Master’s in Business Administration program. In contrast to Alstete and Beutell’s study, this study cuts across all disciplines, and includes both undergraduate and postgraduate students.