Moroccan Universities Research Articles

Multidimensional determinants of academic performance: Insights from undergraduate students in Moroccan universities

This research investigates the multifaceted determinants of academic performance in a large-scale study of 5,092 undergraduate students across diverse Moroccan universities. We delved into demographic, academic, psychological, societal, and lifestyle factors, providing a comprehensive analysis of potential influencers on academic success. These dimensions were identified as significant predictors of academic performance, as gauged by the students' Grade Point Average (GPA). The findings reveal the intricate and interconnected nature of these factors and their cumulative influence on a student's academic trajectory. Our study emphasizes the necessity for a holistic approach that integrates not only traditional academic strategies, but also psychological support, balanced lifestyle practices, and effective societal engagement. Our research underscores the rich interplay among these variables and offers a profound understanding of their collective impact on academic performance. The derived insights could be instrumental for educators, policymakers, and researchers striving to create strategies that amplify student success. While acknowledging the inherent limitations of the study, we believe the results serve as a pivotal guidepost in the ongoing quest to optimize student academic outcomes and overall well-being.

Target Language Culture Teaching and Learning in Moroccan Universities: Approaches and Challenges

The present study has two main purposes. The first purpose is to investigate students’ and teachers’ attitudes towards target language culture learning and teaching. The second purpose is to identify the challenges that may hinder the effective learning and teaching of the target language culture course. It was conducted with 200 students and 6 teachers from two Moroccan universities (Sidi Mohammed Ben Abdellah and Mohammed First Universities). To collect data, we made use of two data collection methods, namely the questionnaire and the interview. The major results of the study showed that both students and teachers had positive attitudes towards the target language culture course (U.S & British Culture course). The results also showed that the majority of students are not satisfied with both the content and the methodology used in the course. Based on the results, it was clear that the lack of technology and the lack of including some cultural aspects that students perceive to be important to know are among the most serious challenges that hamper achieving the effective learning outcomes of British and U.S Culture courses at the level of the university. It is hoped that the findings of this study will contribute to the improvement of the teaching practices related to target language culture teaching and learning in Moroccan universities.

ChatGPT in The Lab: Analyzing the Potential Pros and Cons for Research Professionals

ChatGPT is a natural large language model developed by OpenAI, which generates human-like responses to a wide range of questions and prompts. For researchers, ChatGPT can provide quick and accurate answers to academic questions. The study delves into the nuanced landscape and scrutinizes the benefits and pitfalls associated with the usage of ChatGPT among higher education researchers. Based on a convenient sampling, the study involves a mixed-methods approach that includes both qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis. One thousand ninety-nine researchers, who have used ChatGPT for various academic projects, are the subjects under study. The data was collected via online questionnaires and face-to-face interviews from four Moroccan universities and higher education institutions: Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Moulay Ismail University, and Al Akhawayn University. The research data is processed and analyzed through the SPSS software and analyzed to discern patterns and trends in ChatGPT usage. The findings of the study underscore the multifaceted impact of ChatGPT in academic research. The outcomes show that the benefits of ChatGPT include its ability to provide quick and accurate responses to queries, facilitate learning and information-seeking, and enhance communication skills. In contrast, the pitfalls include its potential to lead to an overreliance on technology, reduced critical thinking skills, and the risk of plagiarism. Such a result has significant implications for the integration of ChatGPT into academic research practices. While acknowledging its advantages, researchers are urged to approach its use with caution, emphasizing the importance of maintaining a balance between technological assistance and the preservation of essential cognitive skills. The study provides insights into the ongoing discourse on the role of Chatbots in higher education and underscores the need for researchers to incorporate strategies that harness the benefits of ChatGPT while mitigating its potential drawbacks.

L’égalité d’accès à l’enseignement supérieur dans les universités marocaines : défis et stratégies

This article examines the challenges and potential strategies for ensuring equitable access to higher education in Moroccan universities. It addresses how these strategies can contribute to the country's socio-economic development by improving inclusion. The first part identifies the main challenges faced by Moroccan universities, including regional disparities, funding, and socio-cultural barriers to education. The second part proposes improvement strategies such as increasing investments in educational infrastructure, implementing inclusive policies, and adopting modern educational technologies. The third part assesses the potential impact of these strategies on Morocco's socio-economic development, focusing on promoting educational equity and excellence. The discussions and results underscore the importance of inclusive and adapted educational policies to foster a more equitable and prosperous Moroccan society. This study contributes to the literature on higher education in Morocco and offers perspectives for future research.

Perceptions of University Teachers and Students on Hybrid Teaching in Morocco

This research aims to examine the perceptions of university students and teachers about hybrid teaching in higher education level in Morocco after the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the challenges that both parties face when providing or following this type of teaching. The research methodology is based on a qualitative and quantitative study. This will give us an overview on hybrid teaching in Morocco. A questionnaire was addressed online to teachers and students from various disciplines and different Moroccan universities. Following this, we were able to collect 439 responses. The data were processed using simple statistical analysis. The results of this study show that hybrid teaching is becoming, after the pandemic, increasingly popular in Moroccan higher education and highly appreciated by teachers and students. However, some students have difficulties to follow it. As a result, it can be said that this mode of teaching may provide a future solution to the problem of overcrowding in Moroccan open-access universities.

Inclusive Education in Moroccan Universities: Analyzing the Experiences of Rural Students

Inclusive Education in Moroccan Universities: Analyzing the Experiences of Rural Students

Blended Learning in the Digital Skills Module: Insights from Students’ Perceptions

Blended learning is emerging as a significant pedagogical innovation in higher education, integrating traditional and distance learning methods. There is limited research focusing on students’ perception of blended learning mode in the context of Moroccan universities. Therefore, this article aims to investigate the perceptions of undergraduate students majoring in physics at Ibn Tofail University regarding the digital skills module that integrates blended learning mode. To achieve this objective, we randomly selected a sample of 265 students from the target population to conduct a quantitative research using a questionnaire consisting of ten questions employing a 5-point Likert scale. The median scores of all questions ranged between 3.36 and 3.95. The obtained scores suggest that the surveyed students hold a positive perception of blended learning-based digital skills module instruction. Furthermore, the results of this article show that students’ perception of the pedagogical resources and the pedagogical activities offered in the context of the digital skills module positively correlate with their overall satisfaction with the learning experience. The study’s originality stems from its role in bridging the literature gap by providing new insights into students’ perceptions of blended learning in the context of higher education in Morocco.

STUDY OF THE DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION OF HIGHER EDUCATION ESTABLISHMENTS: THE CASE OF THE MOROCCAN UNIVERSITY

The aim of this research is to study the digitization of Moroccan universities. To achieve this objective, we adopted a qualitative approach, interviewing the administrators of the elearning system to find out how this training was organized at university level. The main findings of our study reveal that the main objective of digital learning was to digitize courses, without guaranteeing interactive learning spaces from which students can derive the same benefits as face-to-face learning. And that the organization of the e-learning service has an indirect effect on the perceived quality of the e-learning service. This indirect link is mediated by the variable pedagogy in its two forms: on the platform and face-to-face. Given that educational institutions need to design appropriate and effective content, implement an efficient delivery system and provide digital literacy training to their current faculty in order to achieve better learning outcomes

The Challenges Experienced by Visually Impaired Students in Moroccan Universities

The current study aims to investigate the challenges and the barriers that encounter visually impaired students in the educational environment, particularly in Moroccan universities. To find out these challenges and barriers, semi-structured interviews will be conducted with 15 visually impaired students from the majority of Moroccan universities through interviews to explain the challenges that these students experience in their studies mainly during the exam. Equally important, this research will examine the impacts of these challenges on the academic performance of this kind of population with disabilities in Morocco. The study found out that students with visual impairment experience four main challenges in Moroccan Universities including administrative, academic, environmental, and social difficulties. On the basis of these findings, a set of recommendations to Moroccan policymakers was made to respond properly to the needs of persons with disabilities, and to deal with these challenges that visually impaired students face when learning and taking exams in higher education regularly. Indeed, this research will play a crucial role in raising the awareness of Moroccan universities about the meaning of inclusive education and the importance of creating an inclusive and diverse environment where visually impaired students can lean equally as their non-visually impaired peers.

The Role of Performance Budgeting in Developing Management Control in Universities: Evidence from Morocco

Under the combined effect of performance budget reforms and reforms of the higher education sector, universities face a set of constraints but also opportunities. More than ever, they are called upon to engage in strategic thinking and to set up performance reporting mechanisms that promote a new governance style called “the entrepreneurial university”. Management control is the most suitable tool for ensuring consistency of actions towards the objectives pursued. In this paper, we tried to shed light on the role of budgetary reforms in the development of management control in universities. for this we have chosen to conduct a case study which will make it possible to detect the relationship between the performance budgeting devices and the development of management control in Moroccan universities. Results shows that results based budgeting has an important role on the development of management control in universities. Nevertheless, management control practices remain in an embryonic state and should be improved by university’s responsible.

Translation and Multilingual Proficiency Between Pedagogy and Ideology in Higher Education: The English Alternative in a Postcolonial French-Tethered Morocco

This study investigates the possibilities of an English-oriented reform in Moroccan universities as far as the development of an English-dominated proficiency is manifest in translation classes. Two-hundred seventy-six students were surveyed to determine their attitudes and achievements in translating from and into English. The paper claims that this pursuit has been vulnerable to the premises of postcolonial pedagogy and language policies adopted in/by the Moroccan higher education system since 1960s. It concludes that the insufficiency of reading rates, limitedness of writing skills, and the postcolonial linguistic compulsions emanating from the French/English connection hinder faster education reform achievability in Morocco.

Rethinking the Teaching of English Literature (The Case of Moroccan Universities)

This paper analyses the situation of English literature and its teaching in Moroccan universities. The gap between students and literature is widening. The malaise is obvious. Some students no longer know how to approach literary texts. They have no clear strategy for reading, understanding and criticising a text. Moreover, a sense of the literary activity is also missing. Why read novels, plays and poems? What is the purpose of it all? These questions continue to resonate in the minds of our students without finding the courage to address them with their teachers. In order to be in a position to identify the problem and propose realistic and practical solutions, it was necessary to organise two different surveys. While the first dealt with methodology, the second focused on motivation and the meaning of literary activities. The results show that the problem exists and that the need to rethink the teaching of literature becomes more than significant.

South-South acculturation: Majority-group students’ relation to Sub-Saharan students in Moroccan universities

This paper explores the complexities of majority-group members’ acculturation in the changing culture-scape of Morocco within the larger framework of South-South acculturation and the mobilization of subalternity. Taking into account linguistic, cultural and epistemic hierarchies, this study explores the dynamics of majority groups’ acculturation and the manifestations that might confound, signal and/or deny acculturation among Moroccan university students towards Sub-Saharan students. In-depth interviews with Moroccan and Sub-Saharan university students and some auto-ethnographic accounts are used to account for the complexities in researching majority-group members’ acculturation and to understand participants’ subjectivities, ontologies and perspectives in greater nuance and depth. Findings revealed that Moroccan students’ discourses articulate strong support for the increasing presence of Sub-Saharan people on campuses, however, this positive rhetoric does not necessarily translate into ‘willingness’ to adopt their ontologies. While this could be mere hospitable recognition, the claims of majority group acculturation require a stronger foundation of the appeal of migrants from the Global South beyond the local society’s humanitarian hospitality. Implications of this study include developing the notion of ‘mobilization of subalternity’ which refers to the re-projection of the overlapping systems of privilege/subordination and the importance of sociopolitical framing that does not distance the geopolitical, racial and power-/image-laden from the very psychological factors that influence acculturation.

The Adoption of Blended Learning as an Emerging Mode of Learning among EFL Students: Current Challenges and Future Directions

Blended learning is one of the well-known concepts that has emerged as a result of the significant impact that technology has had on learning and teaching. The latter has created obstacles that have greatly influenced learning while also bringing new opportunities to learn from. In order to ascertain students’ perceptions of this type of learning and weigh the advantages and disadvantages to ensure best practices that support the quality of online learning, the current study was conducted among EFL students at three Moroccan universities (Dhar Mehraz University, Sais University, and Moulay Ismail University). 304 EFL students who successfully completed an online survey were included in the study. According to the quantitative and qualitative data collected, it was found that EFL students are thrilled with this approach to learning as they are prepared to switch from traditional learning to blended learning due to its benefits, such as self-paced learning, increased student engagement, flexibility, and cost effectiveness. The findings also indicated that EFL students encounter several difficulties while employing blended learning, which include procrastination, distraction, content overload, technical issues, and plagiarism.

The Effect of Parental Social Status in Academia: Comparative Case of the Public/Private University in Morocco

In the education system, the different parental resources of university students are linked to social inequality by distinct mechanisms, they are reproduced and legitimized. The socio-economic status (SES) of students assumed to be indexed, by the level of education, parental occupation, or family income, is a predictor of educational outcomes. The implementation of interventions that reduce the gap in the achievement of Socio-Economic Status (SES), can face significant ideological obstacles. In a purely sociological approach, our comparative study analyzes through a questionnaire survey, the socio-economic and cultural environment of the students of two Moroccan universities, the Faculty of Sciences Ben M'Sick (FSBM) of Casablanca, a public institution, and a private institution located in the same city but geographically in an upscale neighborhood. The results obtained attest that the social and cultural heritage of parents transmitted to students has effects on social reproduction, as well as the strong significant involvement of social origin in the learning process.

Moroccan EFL public university instructors’ perceptions and self-reported writing practices

In previous research, the majority of university students seemed to lack proficiency in many areas of writing (e.g., grammar, vocabulary, organization, and sentence construction). This illustrates the challenging nature of writing (as a skill) and the frequent focus on the product rather than the process of writing instruction. Previous research focused on primary and secondary education; only a few studies investigated and compared the perceptions and self-reported practices of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) university instructors in relation to the product- and process-based writing approaches. Therefore, this study aims to examine this issue by surveying Moroccan EFL writing instructors' responses and comparing the findings with those of previous empirical studies from diverse educational levels. The following research questions guided our study: 1) What are the instructors' perceptions of product- and process-based writing? 2) What are their self-reported practices regarding these writing approaches? 3) Is there any alignment between their perceptions and their self-reported practices of product- and process-based writing instruction? For this purpose, a questionnaire was developed to collect data from 51 instructors. Since the questionnaire items regarding perceptions and practices were identical and covered five subscales under the two overall approaches, comparisons could be performed. The findings showed that the instructors agreed on the value of the subscale of Engagement in the writing revision process more than the other subscales. They also indicated that the two subscales of Engagement in the writing revision process and Writing as a final product were their most frequently reported writing practices. Based on the comparison between their perceptions and self-reported practices, consistencies were found in all five subscales. This study not only validated the questionnaire on the two approaches to teaching EFL writing in Moroccan universities but also showed the extent to which instructors’ perceptions and self-reported practices matched one another.

New Pre-Processing Approach Based on Clustering Users Traces According to their Learning Styles in Moodle LMS

Nowadays, many Moroccan universities and institutions start offering training and online courses "E-learning". Which accumulate a vast amount of information that is very valuable for analyzing students’ behavior and could create a gold mine of educational data. However, handling the vast quantities of data generated daily by the learning management systems (LMS) such as Moodle has become more and more complicated. This massive data can be used to improve decision making and management, which requires a proper extracting and cleaning methods.
 The purpose of this paper is to suggest a new approach for the preprocessing of the execution traces generated during the interaction of learners with the Moodle LMS and especially the educational content in SCORM format. 
 In this study, we built two experimental corpus with the learning platform Moodle. Using the data generated by the experimental corpus, we applied the Clustering data mining technique as a preprocessing step in our process discovery. Hence, students with similar learning styles or performance levels are grouped together which should help us to build a partial process model (learning process) that are easier to understand for the decision makers.

University 4.0: Digital Transformation of Higher Education Evolution and Stakes in Morocco

Facing the challenges of the new industrial revolution, the deep coupling between universities and industry 4.0, the integration of information and communication technologies in education, and the enhancement of the ability to serve society on the basis of internal and external synergy should become the common choice of different types of universities. The university plays an important role in the n development in any advanced economy. In the age of knowledge and globalization rapid technological changes involve new disruptive processes. In this permanent challenge, it is necessary to adapt to the digital transformation, in order to better respond to the needs and challenges of a constantly changing environment. It is necessary to pay attention to technological advances, to a total transformation in the new university, University 4.0, In order to face the challenges of the technological development and the efficiency of universities in Morocco, it is necessary to introduce modern technologies, blockchain technology, artificial intelligence, chatbots..... into the sphere of Moroccan universities.

Real-time Twitter Sentiment Analysis for Moroccan Universities using Machine Learning and Big Data Technologies

In recent years, sentiment analysis (SA) has raised the interest of researchers in several domains, including higher education. It can be applied to measure the quality of the services supplied by the higher education institution and construct a university ranking mechanism from social media like Twitter. Hence, this study presents a novel system for Twitter sentiment prediction on Moroccan public universities in real-time. It consists of two phases: offline sentiment analysis phase and real-time prediction phase. In the offline phase, the collected French tweets about twelve Moroccan universities were classified according to their sentiment into ‘positive’, ‘negative’, or ‘neutral’ using six machine learning algorithms (random forest, multinomial Naive Bayes classifier, logistic regression, decision tree, linear support vector classifier, and extreme gradient boosting) with the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) and count vectorizer feature extraction techniques. The results reveal that random forest classifier coupled with TF-IDF has obtained the best test accuracy of 90%. This model was then applied on real-time tweets. The real-time prediction pipeline comprises Twitter streaming API for data collection, Apache Kafka for data ingestion, Apache Spark for real-time sentiment analysis, Elasticsearch for real-time data exploration, and Kibana for data visualization. The obtained results can be used by the Ministry of higher education, scientific research and innovation of Morocco for decision-making process.

National University performance: towards a new ranking system for Moroccan universities

National University performance: towards a new ranking system for Moroccan universities