The use of instant messaging for group project discussions by students of Nanyang Business School.

Abstract

This research was carried out to investigate the potential and use of instant messaging (IM) as a medium for school group project discussions by Nanyang Business School (NBS) students. The research hypothesis is that given the popularity of IM as a social tool, the use of the communication medium as an academic tool could possibly aid undergraduates in their studies, especially for the discussion of school group project discussions. This research sets out to find out the frequency and reasons for use, and students’ perception of the importance of IM features in facilitating these discussions.

An exploratory approach, taken to determine the aims and direction of the study, was done in the form of individual interviews with ten Accountancy and ten Business third year NBS students. A survey was then conducted on 82 Accountancy and 80 Business third year NBS students. The results of the survey reveal the students’ use of IM for the academic purpose of school project discussions. Two hypotheses were tested: Correlating frequency of use of IM with the number of reasons for its use and students’ perceived importance of the IM features, video conferencing and voice chat.

This research has identified several areas of interest. Half of the entire survey group uses IM for the purpose of school group project discussions more than 30% of the time. Students also perceive the file transfer functionality offered by IM service providers most important for their use of IM for school group project discussions.