Chapter 8: Discussion of Research Question Two and Research Question Three
2. LITERATURE REVIEW 1 Introduction
2.15 Previous Qualification and Academic Performance
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performance and gender, and between academic performance in the MBA program and undergraduate GPA. They established that gender and undergraduate GPA have a significant impact on the academic performance measured by the GPA of the MBA graduates. By examining a variety of traditional attributes and the potential influence of GMAT Waivers on graduation GPA because there was some thought that students who waived this test might have lower graduation GPAs than those who took the examination.
In the France, González-Gómez et al. (2012) found that female students have a tendency to make the most of their Internet learning experience more than their male counterparts and report higher perceived achievement with the online learning programs.
Does gender predict academic performance of distance e-learners as reported above? This was one interest of the present study. Despite the numerous studies on the influence of socio-demographic characteristics on academic performance of learners, little is known about published studies on the academic performance of distance e-learners in developing countries like a Nigeria. This study intended to determine if socio-demographic characteristics influenced academic performance of distance e-learners in Nigeria.
As can be seen from above, there is an extensive literature on impact of gender on academic performance of students in an online learning environment in the developed world but none from Africa, especially Nigeria. This is related to the fact that online learning has been existence in developed countries for a long time due to their advancement in technology usage. However, these scholars did not to agree that gender influences academic achievement of students in an online learning environment. This has led the researcher to hypothesise that gender will influence academic performance of distance e-learners in an e-learning environment. The results of the of the study will show what the outcome was in a Nigerian setting (Chapter 6).
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though in physics there was no direct relationship. Acato (2006) contended that admission points, which are a reflection of past performance, are reflected in later academic performance.
Mutonga (2011) found that there was a relationship between student’s academic performance and their previous qualification. Alias and Zain (2006), Zezekwa and Mudavanhu (2011) revealed that there was a positive relationship between previous qualification and academic achievement in Tun Hussein Onn University College of Technology, Malaysia, and Bindura University of Science Education. Students with higher entry qualifications often perform better than those with low entry qualifications. In the USA, Moore and Kearsley (2005) reported that there was no correlation between student entry characteristics and academic performance for graduate students but it appeared that student entry qualifications have an impact on academic performance of undergraduate students. Does previous qualification predict the academic performance of distance e-learners as reported for conventional students? In Nigeria, Okunnuga et al. (2013) reported that some significant differences were seen as demonstrating that the higher the entry qualification, the better the quality of students and their performance on their programs. Lizzio, Wilson and Simons (2002) found that a higher entry qualification score is not an indication of better academic performance in a course of study in Griffith University in Australia. Adeyemi (2009) studied the mode of entry as a predictor of success in final year bachelor’s degree examination in Nigeria at the University of Ado Ekiti in Ekiti State and Adekunle Ajasin University in Ondo State.
Adeyemi’s study was conducted in a conventional university in Nigeria, unlike the present study.
Is entry qualification a predictor of academic performance in a course of study of students under an e-learning setting?
In Nigeria, Afolabi (2005) examined the entry qualification as a predictor of college students’
performance in micro-teaching and found that there was a low relationship between entry qualification and performance in academic courses. The study population consisted of all the 1,810 final-year students in the two universities offering education courses. Out of this population, 760 students with CGPAs of 3.50 and more in the 2007/2008 academic year in the two universities were chosen for the study. The instrument used was an inventory while the data collected were analysed using percentages, correlation matrix and multiple regressions. The result revealed that the pre-degree mode of entry is the best predictor of success in the final year Bachelor of Education degree in the universities. Apantaku (2003) conducted a comparative study on the performance of
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university students admitted through pre-degree and University Matriculation Examination (UME) programmes at the University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun State. The primary goal of the study was to learn if there was any relationship between mode of admission (pre-degree or UME) and academic performance of university students at their first year (100 level). The sample of the study comprised 516 first-year students who gained admission through pre-degree programme and 244 students that gained admission through UME. They were selected from all the first-year students of the College of Natural Science at the university for three sessions (1997–2000). Correlation design was used as the research design while the Pearson Product Moment statistic was used for data analysis. The outcome of the study indicated that students who were admitted through pre- degree performed better than those admitted through UME.
Okpilike (2011) researched the mode of admission of education undergraduates and their academic performance in a Nigerian university, using the students’ scores in the two semesters of the 2006/2007 academic session. A representative stratified random sample comprising 600 first-year education undergraduates was used. This number was comprised 300 participants were admitted on their successful completion of the pre-degree programme and another 300 who were admitted through the Joint Admission and Matriculation Examination. Data collected were the students’
scores in both education courses and teaching subjects in the first year’s two semesters of the 2006/2007 academic session. The data collected were subjected to an independent samples T-test analysis. Results showed that education undergraduates who were admitted through the pre-degree programme performed better than their counterparts who were admitted through the Joint Admission and Matriculation Examination in all courses combined in education at a 0.05 level of confidence. It was concluded that most UME candidates, unlike their pre-degree counterparts, are not good material for degree programmes. Almost all the studies above revealed that entry qualification was a determinant factor for academic performance of students. This may because entry qualification is a major requirement during the admission process. Is this applicable to distance e-learners in a Nigerian context? From the literature reviewed above, although the majority of the studies were done in Nigerian universities but concentrated on traditional students, the researcher observed that little research has been conducted on the influence of previous qualifications/entry qualifications on academic performance of distance e-learners in Nigeria. The present study focused on this, in order to fill the research gap. The previous qualifications for this study are Senior School Certificate (SSCE), National Diploma (ND), Nigeria Certificate in
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Education (NCE), Higher National Diploma (HND) and bachelor degrees. This study was also aimed at determining if previous or entry qualification is a major determinant of academic performance of distance e-learners as constructed in hypothesis H9. The results of the study will show what the outcome was in a Nigerian setting (Chapter 6).