Predictors of Academic Achievement in Online Peer Learning among Undergraduate Students in a Malaysian Public University

An online peer learning through social media tools such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram has been networking interrelated undergraduates as social groups in higher learning institutions. In that respect, it has become an emerging phenomenon in the academia. Yet, not much is known about the effect of social media on the undergraduates? academic achievement. Therefore, the main purpose of this study is to identify the relationship of students’ peer engagement, academic self-efficacy, social influence, peer feedback and collaboration with students’ academic achievement while practising online peer learning via social media and at the same time to predict the factors that influencing students’ academic achievement among undergraduate students in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM). The study was based on the quantitative method in nature with a correlational design using a set of the questionnaire as instrument adapted from previous studies and validated by a panel of experts. The sampling technique is stratified. A total of 376 responses were collected. The finding of regression analysis indicated that five of the variables have a significant effect while the only peer feedback has an insignificant effect. The most important factor is social influence, followed by collaboration, performance expectancy, peer engagement and academic self-efficacy. The model explained 38.9% of the variation in the academic achievement of undergraduate students at UPM. As a result, this study confirms that collaboration between peer in an online environment is valid and able to predict the academic achievement.