The influence of ICT-based social media on Asian students’ collaborative problem-solving performance

This study aims to examine the influence of students’ usage and attitudinal factors related to Information and communication technology (ICT) social media on students’ collaborative problem-solving performance across five Asian countries. Variables concerned social media usage from different types, i.e., emails, instant-messaging software, social network sites, and for different purposes, i.e., recreational use and academic use within different contextual factors provided by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA). Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLMs) was applied to analyze this relationship between ICT-based social media factors and students’ collaborative problem-solving performance among Asian young teenagers. A total of 46,268 participants from 1,265 schools across five Asian countries were extracted from PISA 2015 database. Three significant findings were indicated as follows, (1) students’ usage and attitudinal factors related to ICT-based social media do have made significant contributions on their collaborative problem-solving performance; (2) the effects of ICT-based social media can be varied in terms of different types of social media and its usage for different purposes; (3) students with interests in ICT-based social media tended to have significantly positive influence on their collaborative problem-solving performance. These findings shed lights on the optimization and promotion of educational technology assist learning, creating greater access to quality education.