Effects of Mobile Instructional App on Undergraduate Students’ Academic Performance in Economics in Sokoto State, Nigeria

Abstract

Mobile instructional app (MIA) is a set of instructions put together as a program usually installed on mobile devices to facilitate learning and improve academic performance. MIA helps to motivate students for the enhancement of positive academic performance, thus, it could be utilized in an individualized or in a blended learning environment to supplement traditional teaching-learning process. This study investigated the effects of mobile instructional app on undergraduate students’ academic performance in economics in Sokoto State. The study adopted quasi experimental with a pre-test and post-test, non-equivalent comparison involving 2x2 factorial design.All undergraduate students in Sokoto State formed population of the study. A total of 61 undergraduates formed the sample for the study, 34 for experimental group one (23 males and 11 females) from Sokoto State University (SSU) and 27 for experimental group one (22 males and 5 females) from Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto (UDUS). Pilot study was carried out at Federal University Birnin Kebbi using twenty 100 level undergraduates. Economic Principles Test Instrument (EPTI) was used for data collection. Reliability coefficient of 0.78 using Kuder Richardson 20 (K-R, 20) was obtained. Research hypothesis one was tested using analysis of covariance (ANCOVA), while hypothesis two was tested using t-test statistics. The study found among other that the app was academically effective. There was significant difference in the achievement of the undergraduate students exposed to mobile instructional app and those taught using blended approach (F (1, 58) = 13.649, p<0.05) in favour of experimental group 2. There was no significant difference in the academic performance of the undergraduate students taught in a blended learning environment based on gender. The study concluded that the mobile instructional app (MIA) enhanced the academic performance of undergraduates from the two universities (UDUS and SSU) irrespective of gender. It was established by the study that the undergraduates taught in a blended learning environment out-performed those exposed to MIA alone. The study therefore recommended that lecturers should endeavour to develop and utilize mobile instructional apps that are in line with new NUC benchmark to supplement teaching process.

Gender difference in undergraduates’ micro-teaching performance using Telegram and WhatsApp platforms in collaborative learning settings

“…This was due to the fact that since the students on the WhatsApp platform generally performed better by displaying high engagement and interaction, male and female students performed at the same levels in the achievement test because they both demonstrated some high levels of interaction, discussion and prompt response to questions. This finding agrees with Bawa and Ibrahim (2016) whose study revealed no significant difference in the achievement of undergraduate students exposed to instruction using blended WhatsApp instruction. It also tallies with Jafari and Chalak (2016) who reported no significant difference in the performance of male and female students taught vocabulary using WhatsApp platform.…”

“…Jimoh et al (2018); Kareem et al (2018) and Dambo and Kayii (2018) found no significant difference in the achievement of male and female students exposed to mobile blended learning. Ilobeneke et al (2018a); Bawa and Ibrahim (2016) and Omar (2021) reported no significant gender difference in achievement when exposed to WhatsApp. Bataineh et al (2018) discovered a significant difference in favor of female when WhatsApp was used to teach English in Iran while Safitri (2021) discovered a significant difference in favor of male students when exposed to WhatsApp.…”