The Effect of Demographic Factors on Students’ Virtual Environmental Support in Learning

Abstract

The virtual environment provides the platform where a learner acquires knowledge, attitudes and skills, leading to lifelong learning. This research aimed to determine the level of students’ virtual environmental support for their learning, mainly taking into account demographical factors that affect students’ virtual environment for their learning. The design of this study is a survey and a questionnaire instrument used for data collection. A total number of 1350 secondary school children has been selected based on a stratified random sampling technique. Data are analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 23. The descriptive such as mean, standard deviation and inferences analysis such as MANOVA used to analyse the data. The descriptive research shows a moderate level of virtual-environmental support ( mean = 3.467, S.D = 1.022) for student learning. The results demonstrate that the virtual environmental support was at moderate levels. The inferences analysis show significant differences in virtual platforms based on gender, mother’s education and parent income. Accordingly, the analysis shows that virtual environmental support significantly decreases while parental income and the mother’s educational level decrease. The implications of the study show that the Ministry of Education can provide tablets and mobile devices for needy students and Internet facilities for the lower classes of society. Parents should maximize their earnings to provide the necessary devices that can improve their children’s wellbeing. Parents and teachers can encourage students to use devices for education.