Postgraduate University Students Research Articles

Influence of Digital Divide and Experience on Nigerian University Students’ Attitude Towards the Use of Information Communication Technologies for Learning

Recent studies have shown that factors influencing technology use include, but are not limited to, accessibility and availability. Several studies in developed countries revealed that digital division and experience significantly influence students’ attitude towards ICT utilization. However, there is lack of empirical evidence to show that such variables do influence ICT utilization by Nigerian students. This study examined the influence of digital divide and experience on Nigerian university students’ utilization of information communication technologies. Two research hypotheses were formulated for the study. A self-constructed and validated twenty-five- item instrument was used to gather information from one thousand and five hundred randomly selected respondents in three public universities in Ogun State, southwestern Nigeria, while t-test statistical method was used to analyze the data collected. Findings revealed that there is a significant difference in the perception of digital native and digital immigrant students in attitude towards ICT utilization (t = 3.25, p<0.05). The findings of this study also showed that there is no significant difference in the perception of digitally experienced and less experienced students in attitude towards ICT utilization(t = 1.16, p>0.05). Based on the findings, it was recommended that postgraduate students in Nigerian universities should be further encouraged not to allow age to influence their perception towards ICT utilization negatively. Also, Nigerian Government should subsidize the cost of ICT devices in order to make them affordable to all students.

Challenges Associated with Utilization of Legal Information Resources by Postgraduate Law Students in Federal Universities of Northern Nigeria

The paper investigates the challenges associated with utilization of legal information resources in the faculty of law libraries in federal universities of northern Nigeria. The study employed quantitative research method using cross-sectional survey research design. The population of the study comprised of 1,348 postgraduate law students in the libraries studied. Simple random sampling equation (SRS-Equation) was used to select the sample size for the study. A total of 308 postgraduate law students was therefore the sample size chosen for the study. A self-developed questionnaire was used to collect data. A total number of 308 copies of questionnaire were administered personally by the author and 4 research assistants, out of which 271 were returned and found useful for further analysis. Data collected was analyzed using descriptive statistics with the aid of SPSS (v21). Findings revealed that, the printed legal information resources were highly utilized by postgraduate law students except e-resources and on-line legal databases that had low utilization. Some challenges associated with the utilization of legal resources were insufficient copies of books, inadequate reading facilities and defaced information resources; inadequate infrastructure for accessing resources electronically, insufficient computers and interrupted power supply, among others. The study concludes that, despite the technological advancement and globalization the world is experiencing, postgraduate law students in federal universities of northern Nigeria are yet to fully enjoy the vast electronic legal information resources, and this could significantly affect the quality of legal researches and academic excellence in legal profession. The study recommends among other things the need for the provision of adequate electronic legal information resources and regular subscription to online legal databases in the faculty of law libraries in federal universities in northern Nigeria.
 Keywords: Utilization, Legal Information Resources, Postgraduates, Law students, Libraries

Challenges Associated with Postgraduate Students’ Awareness and Use of Online Journals in Nigerian Universities

This study investigates the challenges associated with postgraduate students’ awareness and use of online journals in Nigerian universities. The study adopted the descriptive survey design. The population of the study comprised 10, 775 registered postgraduate students in federal and state universities in south-south zone of Nigeria. Based on the Krejcie and Morgan sample size determination table, a sample size of 370 postgraduate students were chosen for the study. The questionnaire was the instrument used for data collection. Copies of the questionnaire were distributed by hand by the researchers with the help of research assistants. Mean and standard deviation were used to analyse the data from the questionnaire. The major findings challenges associated with postgraduate students’ awareness and use of online journals were identified to include absence of enlightenment on online journals by lecturers (𝑋̅2.94,SD=.87), lack of knowledge of publishers of online journals (𝑋̅2.67,SD=.98), lack of user education on online journals from university libraries (𝑋̅2.80,SD=.93), inadequate computer systems in university libraries (𝑋̅3.58,SD=.73), frequent power outages in libraries (𝑋̅3.48,SD=.66), and slow internet connectivity in university libraries (𝑋̅2.96,SD=.94) among others. Respondents in the study proffered several strategies for enhancing awareness and use of online journals. Based on the findings, it was recommended that the cost of data bundle should be reduced by Internet service providers, particularly for postgraduate students to enhance the use of online journals. University libraries should engage in aggressive awareness campaign on online journals and their usefulness for effective research in universities. Additionally, university libraries should create a database of open access online journals to enable users search full text articles online from various publishers.
 Keywords: Online Journals, Awareness, Use, Universities, Challenges

Postgraduate Distance Education in University of Cape Coast, Ghana: Students’ Perspectives

The study explored perceptions of postgraduate distance education students of University of Cape Coast (UCC). Specifically, associations between UCC postgraduate distance students’ characteristics and satisfaction, as well as students’ perceptions of physical facilities, staff-students relationship, facilitator quality, and student support services were examined. Determinants of students’ satisfaction regarding physical facilities, staff-students relationship, facilitator quality, and student support services were also investigated. A census was used for the study, whereby a questionnaire was used to collect data from 125 students. It was revealed that satisfaction was not dependent on age, gender, or programme of study but was significantly related to study centre location and semester of study. The students were generally satisfied with physical facilities, staff-students relationship, and facilitator quality but were unimpressed with student support services. The three domains that students were impressed with were deemed to be determinants of their satisfaction. It was recommended that those aspects of the programme that received satisfactory responses should be maintained but improved on with time. Those aspects with unfavourable responses, on the other hand, were to be critically considered for immediate improvement.

FACTORS AFFECTING PSYCHOLOGICAL WELL BEING AMONG POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS UNDER INDONESIAN MINISTRY OF EDUCATION SCHOLARSHIP

Issue concerning academic stress, coping and social cultural adaptation among university students has driven to the need of deep understanding about factors that affect their psychological well-being. A correlational research design was used in this study. The researcher used two softwares to analyze the study data, namely IBM SPSS Statistics 23 and SmartPLS 3 (Partial Least Squares). The numbers of respondents in this study were 424 people. The sample determination in this study was using a simple random sampling technique. This study identified the influence of academic stress factors, coping and social cultural adaptation on psychological well-being of Indonesian postgraduate students, as well as produced a conceptual model that correlates between independent variables and dependent variable in this study. Thus, it can be concluded that academic stress, coping and social cultural adaptation have a significant influence on the psychological well-being of Indonesian postgraduatestudents. Hopefully, the results of this study can significantly contribute to the management of higher education, educators and professional counselors to pay more attention to the issue of academic stress experienced by postgraduate university students.

VOCABULARY LEARNING STRATEGIES EMPLOYED BY POSTGRADUATE STUDENTS OF MATARAM UNIVERSITY IN ACADEMIC YEAR 2014/2015

Vocabulary is crucial to language learning in which lack vocabulary knowledge will make learner difficult to learn the language. Vocabulary knowledge is affected by the vocabulary learning strategies. The purpose of the present study was to identify the vocabulary learning strategies employed by postgraduate students and also try to explore the most and least vocabulary strategy used by Mataram university postgraduate students. The sample of this study was 40 postgraduate students of English department in FKIP Mataram University in academic year 2014/2015. Vocabulary learning strategies questionnaire was used in this study to identify students’ frequency of vocabulary learning strategies use. The result of the study showed that the research subjects used the vocabulary learning strategies in all five categories. The memory strategies (37.80) were the most frequently strategies by all subjects. Meanwhile determination strategies (mean=19.43) were determined as the second frequently used strategies followed by cognitive (mean=15.23), metacognitive (mean=13,26). The social strategies were determined as the least used strategies by all students with mean score of 11.00. In specific, looking at each item of category, the most vocabulary learning strategy used by postgraduate students was guessing from context (mean=3.33) which is part of determination category and the least vocabulary learning strategy used by postgraduate students was ask other people to discover the meaning of new vocabulary (mean=1.50)

Counselling Placements Caught up in the Mismatch of Standards And Realities: Lessons From COVID-19

As the fear of mortality struck humanity, a new age dawned in the relational styles, processes, and interactions amongst people. COVID-19 has caused a major shift in the educational landscape. While most teaching and learning activities moved online, field placement units which are fully invested in industry engagement, and once highly sought, came to a dramatic pause. For students, this produced uncertainty around completion of their degrees and for institutions who became entangled in the changing requirements of accrediting bodies as they grappled with the changing landscape. Our final year counselling and psychotherapy students on placement were instructed to retreat from their placements while some ‘lucky few’ joined the drifting warriors working from the safety of their homes with their assigned agencies. Crisis and contemporary times call for openness and innovation grounded in practical wisdom. But the tyranny of COVID-19 times highlighted a growing gap between professional standards and community realities. This paper alludes to the struggles of counselling postgraduate University students on placement who are caught up in the mismatch between professional standards of accreditation bodies and the emerging community expectations and practices. It draws on literature to highlight the impact of historic controversial discourses involving online counselling and face-to-face counselling on current practices. This paper aims to reflect on lessons dispensed by COVID-19 to the professional bodies and universities in order to work together in creating innovative, non-placement work-integrated learning (WIL) practices that reflect the realities within the current landscape.

Assessing Barriers To Household Waste Recycling: A Case Study Of Coventry University Postgraduate Students

Assessing Barriers To Household Waste Recycling: A Case Study Of Coventry University Postgraduate Students

The Influence of Humor Styles on The Sense of Belonging among University Students

The sense of belonging is a strongly human desire, but it is less explored by past researchers. The sense of belonging exists when people in a group or community were taking care and supporting each others. In order to further explore the predictors of the sense of belonging, this study is conducted to identify the influence of humor styles behavior on the sense of belonging. A total of 108 local postgraduate full-time students in a public university in Malaysia were involved in the study. The instruments used were Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ) and Psychological Sense of Belonging (SOBI-P). The result from regression analysis shows that there are significant influences of humor styles behavior on the sense of belonging among postgraduate students. It was found that the self-enhancing humor will increase the sense of belonging, whereas the aggressive humor will decrease the sense of belonging among postgraduate students. Overall, this study support Martin’s theory about the role of adaptive and maladaptive humor in the social relationship especially in the context of educational environment.

SUPPORTING POST-GRADUATE STUDENTS WRITING SKILLS DEVELOPMENT WITH THE ONLINE MACHINE LEARNING TOOL: WRITE & IMPROVE

The current paper intends to describe the practice and analyze the results of using the website Write & Improve as an additional extra-class tool of developing writing skills in the course of preparation for the FCE exam for post-graduate students. The study has proven the hypothesis that the proposed algorithm for working with the service Write & Improve is effective for teaching FCE Writing for post-graduate students, and provided the experimental research of learners’ progress. Theoretical (analysis and synthesis), empirical (observation, testing, conducting pedagogical experiment) and statistical (calculating the Mean and the Standard Deviation) methods were used to achieve the stated aim. A significant difference was observed in the experimental group of 32 Kharkiv post-graduate university students where the experiment was carried out in 2017/2018 academic year. The obtained results of the experimental research demonstrate post-graduate students’ progress in the FCE Writing Test and can be regarded as the evidence that the service Write & Improve does have a positive impact on mastering post-graduate students’ writing skills. Furthermore, comparing the test results according to 5-band scale in four different criteria (Content, Communicative Achievement, Organization, Language) at the different stages of the course allowed to measure the development rate of the checked English writing skills. The resulting data confirmed the improvement in post-graduate students’ performance in all the criteria of Writing on average by 36.1%; the most significant progress has been in Language (vocabulary and grammar aspects) with the average increase from 3.0 to 4.5 scores (50 %) whereas the least advance to be claimed is in Communicative Achievement with the results ranging from 2.8 to 3.6 (28.6%); it proves the substantial increase. Provided that Write & Improve is implemented systematically with a careful consideration of post-graduate students’ problems and needs, the application of it can be said to have the obvious correlation with post-graduate students’ progress. The authors’ experience is significant in Ukrainian learning context as it proves the effectiveness of using innovative online instruments to teach English Writing to post-graduate students who aim to pass FCE exam.

University Postgraduate Research Programmes: Digitization (ICT), Innovations and Applications

Without advanced educational research, development will not occur and only technologically educated people can command the skills necessary for sustainable growth and development. However, the current generations of university postgraduate students are ushering in a new paradigm for research. Here, collaboration is made much easier, sharing of research knowledge is instant and the resultant synergies yield huge advances in research productivity and innovation. Therefore, this paper argues that ICT integration and digitization process will help university postgraduate (research) programmes to remain the same while at the same time is influencing it, determining and changing it. And giving that technological change is continuous and frequently disruptive, educational (research) policy planning should be dynamic and integrated within the framework of ecosystem innovation hub.

Transformational Leadership and Innovative Behavior: The Mediating Role of Knowledge Sharing in Indonesian Private University

Scholars have focused on exploration concerning issues affecting innovative behavior (IB). Of previous research finding reviews, transformational leadership (TL) is seen as the most influential factor to promote IB in the organization. TL helps followers to have a unique opportunity to develop learning competence and cooperation in improving IB. Besides, knowledge sharing (KS) is also supposed as the main trigger to build IB. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the mediating role of KS in the relationship between TL and IB. 210 postgraduate students in Indonesian private university are determined as samples. Multiple regression analysis by using SPSS software is applied to analyze the data. The results show that TL significantly affects KS and IB. KS further mediates the relationship between TL and IB.

Constructive usage of WhatsApp in education sector for strengthening relations

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the key role of WhatsApp as WhatsApp-customer relationship management (w-CRM) for strengthening the relationship in the education sector. The paper is exploratory in nature.Design/methodology/approachA self-administered questionnaire was developed with 20 items for four latent constructs. The data were collected from the undergraduate and postgraduate students of Sri Sri University, Cuttack (Odisha), India, based on convenience sampling. The hypotheses were tested through regression and correlation analyzes.FindingsThe findings of the study unveiled that the relationships between students and teaching staff, students and non-teaching staff, and teaching and non-teaching staff can be strengthened by the adoption of w-CRM.Practical implicationsWhatsApp can be an inevitable tool to emerge with traditional CRM system to facilitating the advance implementation of w-CRM in the service industry.Originality/valueAlthough the present study is limited to one of the service sectors, i.e. education, it unfolds the scope of implementation of w-CRM in different services. Especially, small and medium enterprises can implement this tool hand to hand to maintain strong relationships with customers.

The Role of Higher Education Institutions in Preparing Youth to Manage a Sustainability-Oriented Future Workplace

Aim: This paper aims to highlight the different forms, levels and pathways of engagement with climate change and sustainability of young people living in different contexts of vulnerability and adaptability. It explores different perspectives and viewpoints of youth regarding complex and uncertain issues related to climate change and sustainability as well as their future role on the workplace.Research Methods: The critical interpretivist study was conducted in the Netherlands and South Africa, and participants were undergraduate and postgraduate university students from diverse socio-demographic and academic backgrounds in the two countries. The study applied various methods of data collection including focus groups, interviews, policy document reviews as well as participant-observation at several youth and environmental events and forums.Conclusions/Findings: Key findings highlight the importance of building resilience and empowering academic and civic platforms that enhance young people's competences to manage sustainability-oriented lifestyles and workplaces through critical, creative, and collaborative processes.

Confiabilidad y validez de un instrumento para medir la inteligencia emocional en estudiantes de posgrado

Objective: Calculate the reliability and validity of the Genos Emotional Intelligence instrument concise version, as a reliable self-assessment instrument model for applied research applications in postgraduate students of a public university in southeastern Mexico. Methodology: The research has a quantitative approach, with a non-experimental cross-sectional design, 332 master's and doctoral students participated. The reliability of the instrument was calculated through the Cronbach's alpha coefficient α = 0.93. For the validity an exploratory factor analysis was performed with the maximum likelihood method with direct Oblimin rotation, the adequacy of the KMO sample was 0.927 and the Barlett sphericity test was significant (p = .000) that explained 53.89 % of the variance. The factorization of the instrument merged two of its dimensions and an instrument with the same number of items in six dimensions was obtained. Contribution: The results allowed confirming the reliability and validity of the Genos Emotional Intelligence instrument, which contributes to an instrument that adds to other existing tools to self-assess emotional intelligence.

Exploring Dimensions of Corporate Social Performance as a Strategy for Attracting Quality Job Seekers

The main objective of this paper is to explore job seekers’ perception of an organisation’s corporate social performance (CSP) credentials as a plausible consideration in the employment decision-making process as suggested by existing literature. Similarly, the paper provides a contextual extension of previous studies that were conducted in different cultural work environments. The paper developed a conceptual model based on a literature survey in order to achieve its objectives. A survey of 515 final year undergraduate and postgraduate students in a public university in Gauteng, South Africa, was conducted to empirically determine the relationship between various dimensions of CSP in relation to a job seeker’s attractiveness to an organisation. The economic responsibility dimension of CSP was found to have the greatest influence on organisational attractiveness to job seekers. Previous studies used organisational level as the unit of analysis in arriving at conclusions, without corresponding evidence at the individual level of analysis. Our analysis in this study was conducted at an individual level, thus filling an existing gap in the literature. This paper further extends the work of some previous scholars on job pursuit intention. The study is, however, limited by our assumption that all participants would enter the labour market immediately after graduation, withoutÂ

An empirical study among science education majors in postgraduate students of an Australian university

AbstractThis study aims to investigate the science education majors' experiences of employment, vocational self‐awareness, and self‐expectation, as well as the relationships among these variables in the university context based on the developmental‐contextual model of career development. Data were collected from a questionnaire survey of 815 science education majors in the selected universities. Through the use of regression analysis and statistical computation, we investigate the relationship between students' experience of finding employment upon graduation and a series of related variables and identify those factors that serve as boosters to self‐expectation. The results of this study found that the science education majors' experiences of employment directly and indirectly influenced their self‐expectation vis‐à‐vis the effect on their vocational self‐awareness. Findings point out to the increasingly important role university can play in developing and enhancing sufficient and appropriate employment and vocational information for science education majors. The science education departments of universities in Postgraduate students of Swinburne university may offer more sufficient vocational information about the occupations which the science education majors will enter after graduating to promote their vocational self‐awareness, such as occupational characteristics, occupational fringe benefits, occupational qualifications, and occupational ethics.

The potential for retronasally delivered olfactory stimuli to assess psychiatric conditions

Recent research has linked the ability to identify odours to parts of the brain that, when impaired, are associated with mental illness or disease. The link between impaired odour perception and some psychological disorders has led to the suggestion that standardised assessments probing smell be routinely adopted in the clinical environment. Odour tests currently on the market utilise the orthonasal route, though the retronasal route is a viable, but overlooked, alternative. In this study, a flavour delivery system has been developed which quickly dissolves in the buccal cavity, rapidly releasing flavours that reach the olfactory system by the retronasal route. We tested seven different types of retronasal flavour stimuli (peppermint, aniseed, liquorice, coffee, orange, lemon, and valeric acid) on 171 undergraduate and postgraduate university students and related perceptual measures with psychological wellbeing scores. Olfactory measures included odour identification, pleasantness, intensity, and familiarity. Psychological measures of schizotypy (SPQ-B), depression, stress and anxiety (DASS-21), and autism spectrum disorder (RAADS-R) were obtained to represent psychological wellbeing. A battery of hierarchical multiple linear regressions were run to determine the relationships between odour perception and the psychometric measures. After controlling for age and gender, significant negative associations were found between odour identification and the stress (β = −.347, p < .001), anxiety (β = −.376, p < .001), depression (β = −.318, p < .001), schizotypy (β = −.473, p < .001), and RAADS-R (β = −.285, p < .001) scales. Additionally, both overall pleasantness (β = −.203, p < .01) and intensity (β = .194, p < .05) ratings were negatively correlated to the RAADS-R. Our findings indicate that retronasal stimuli present a feasible alternative to olfactory assessment of psychological states and further reinforces evidence indicating a correlation between olfactory and psychological measures.

Factors Affecting Acceptance and Use of Educational Wikis: Using Technology Acceptance Model (3)

Background: Wikis are web-based tools and educational technologies that enable students and educators to access general and professional information and knowledge at the national and international levels. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify factors affecting acceptance and use of educational wikis by post-graduate students of University of Tabriz using Technology Acceptance Model 3 (TAM3). Methods: This correlational study was conducted among 285 post-graduate students of University of Tabriz, who were selected through the random stratified sampling method during 2018 - 2019 academic year. For data collection, a researcher-made questionnaire with 32 items rated based on a 5-point Likert scale was used. Also, for data analysis, structural equation modeling (SEM) via smart PLS 3 and partial least squares (PLS) were used. Results: The results indicated a positive correlation between wiki’s characteristics (P = 0.001, beta = 0.50), performance expectancy (P = 0.001, beta = 0.285) and self-efficiency (P = 0.001, beta = 0.182) and students’ behavioral intention. However, there was a negative correlation between effort expectancy (P = 0.001, beta = -0.241) and behavioral intention. We did not find a significant correlation between social influence, perceived playfulness and self-management learning variables and students’ behavioral intention to use educational wikis. Conclusions: In order to provide a more effective teaching-learning environment in higher education, the use of new technological tools such as educational wikis is necessary for university students in Iran to perform classroom activities.

English

The study investigates the use of electronic resources by postgraduate students in University of Cape Coast (UCC). It specifically targets first year postgraduate students of UCC. Awareness, usage, training, and access were explored. A survey method was employed and a structured questionnaire was utilized to solicit data. The findings revealed that, though students are aware of electronic resources, they do not fully utilize them to support their academic pursuit due to poor level of information literacy skills. However, few students had not participated in all information literacy skills training organized by the library. Results from the study showed that, significant number of postgraduate students do access electronic resources when on campus and mostly use electronic devices such as laptops, ipad, desktop computers, and mobile phones. The findings indicated that students use the electronic resources to complete assignments, write project work, to update lessons note, for research, and up-date themselves on new information in their fields of study. It was recommended that a structured curriculum should therefore be established as part of postgraduate students’ normal lecture periods where time is allocated on their time table for electronic resource training, and if possible, credited to their academic performance ratings or grading. Key words: Awareness, electronic resources, postgraduate students, training.