1. Richard Ng, PhD Open University Malaysia 14 - 15, Nov 2011, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Social Media and the Teaching of Mathematics in a Lifelong Learning Environment Prof. Dr. Latifah Abdol Latif Open University Malaysia

2. Overview of Presentation 2. Problem Statement 3. Conceptual Model 4. Research Methodology 5. Findings 6. Conclusion 7. Recommendations 1. Introduction Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 2 OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA ICLLL 2011

3. 1. Introduction:  At OUM courses are offered via Blended Learning  Minimum F2F, Online Discussion via MyVLE, and Self-Managed Learning OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 3 ICLLL 2011  Social Media such as Facebook, Blogs, YouTube and Slideshare were used: - to supplement learning - to engage learners - to hold informal discussion

4. 2. Problem Statement:  Most learners are working adults  Left school for more than 5 years  Math has always been a difficult subject  Difficult to do online discussion due to poor support for mathematical symbols  Limited F2F contact hours makes learning math more difficult  Cause high incompletion rate OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 4 ICLLL 2011

5. OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA 3. Conceptual Model: Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 5 ICLLL 2011

6. Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 6 ICLLL 2011 OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA 4. Research Methodology:

7.  Cross Sectional study using a 63-item survey  Administered on 100 learners  To measure rate of participation and how it correlates with the learners’ sense of community, satisfaction, intrinsic motivation and commitment to stay in their programmes OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 7  T-Test was carried out to find if there is a statistical difference in the level of learners’ sense of community, satisfaction, intrinsic motivation and commitment to stay between learners who have high level of participation rate compared to those who have low participation rate ICLLL 2011 4. Research Methodology … (cont…)

8. 5. Findings: 5.1 Demography: OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 8 ICLLL 2011 Gender MaleFemaleTotal 284068 Ethnicity MCIMCITotal 12972215368 Age Group 21 - 3031 - 4041 - 50> 50Total 21378268 Attend Pre-Tutorial Workshop? YesNoTotal 472168 No. of Hours Spent on FB & Blog < 1 hour1 – 2 hours2 – 3 hours> 3 hoursTotal 121631968

9. 5.2 Mean Scores and Standard Deviation of Sense of Community, Satisfaction, Intrinsic Motivation and Commitment to stay: OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 9 ICLLL 2011 MeanStd. Deviation Sense of Community3.7941.36849 Satisfaction3.5897.33015 Intrinsic Motivation3.6441.23269 Commitment To Stay3.7691.43888

10. 5.3 Level of participation: OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 10 ICLLL 2011  The median point was found to be between 2 to 3 hours per week 5.4 Spearman Correlation: Sense of Comm Satisfy Intrinsic Motivation Commit To stay Attend Workshop Hours Spent Attend Workshop Correlation Coefficient.686(**).481(**).356(**).440(**)1.000.797(**) Sig. (2-tailed).000.003.000. Hours spent per week Correlation Coefficient.746(**).554(**).418(**).527(**).797(**)1.000 Sig. (2-tailed).000.

11. 5.5 Independent Samples T-Test: OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 11 ICLLL 2011 Levene's Test for Equality of Variances t-test for Equality of Means FSig.tdf Sig. (2- tailed) Mean Diff. Std. Error Diff. 95% Confidence Interval of the Difference LowerUpper SCI Equal variances assumed5.444.0236.76866.000.4757.07029.33538.61605 Equal variances not assumed 7.43663.343.000.4757.06398.34788.60355 SAT Equal variances assumed.115.7355.07666.000.3529.06951.21408.49164 Equal variances not assumed 5.27764.673.000.3529.06687.21929.48642 IM Equal variances assumed3.900.0523.88666.000.2025.05211.09845.30655 Equal variances not assumed 3.66145.400.001.2025.05532.09111.31389 CTS Equal variances assumed1.383.2443.76966.000.3725.09884.17516.56984 Equal variances not assumed 3.98865.921.000.3725.09340.18602.55898

12. 5.6 Multiple Regression Analysis: OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 12 ICLLL 2011 ModelR R2R2 Adjusted R 2 Std. Error of the Estimate 1.801(a).641.624.26906 Model Sum of Squares dfMean SquareFSig. 1 Regression8.27232.75738.090.000(a) Residual4.63364.072 Total12.90567 Model Unstandardized Coefficients Standardized Coefficients tSig. BStd. ErrorBeta 1 (Constant)-1.255.518 -2.425.018 Sense of Community.328.122.2762.681.009 Satisfaction.439.134.3313.289.002 Intrinsic Motivation.604.204.3202.962.004

13. 6. Conclusions:  Results concurred with Lee and McLoughlin (2010) that with appropriate learning designs and pedagogical strategies, the social networking tool can OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 13 ICLLL 2011  Enhance  Enrich  Extend traditional distance education paradigms and  increase connectivity and engagement of learners  Concurred with the findings by Ng (2010) that increased in the level of Engagement of learners will increase their level of - Sense of Community, - Satisfaction and - Intrinsic Motivation and this has impact on their - Commitment to stay in their programmes

14. 7. Recommendations:  As suggested by Hoffman (2009), social networking tool has both its advantage and problems for usage in teaching and learning  Learners need to be exposed first on how to use social network  Instructors and tutors should capitalised on the emergence of freely available Web 2.0 and open access tools which provide greater ability to customize online learning. OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my Page 14 ICLLL 2011

15. OPEN UNIVERSITY MALAYSIA Email: richard_ng@oum.edu.my ICLLL 2011 Page 15