It has been reported that WhatsApp, a social media application, had approximately 1.6 billion active users globally as of July 2019, almost one-fifth of the total world's population. Thus, research about WhatsApp's influence in general and especially its influence in education was relevant and significant. While there was much research involving WhatsApp and learning, it was not conclusive about the effects of WhatsApp on student learning. Specifically, research focusing on collaborative learning using WhatsApp was lacking, including research instruments for measuring collaboration on WhatsApp. Consequently, the paper's research problem was the lack of research instruments for measuring collaboration on WhatsApp in relation to academic achievement. To address the research problem, the study followed the important initial and conceptual steps of the instrument development process to develop a research instrument to measure collaboration on WhatsApp in relation to academic achievement. The result of the paper was a developed instrument that provides researchers with a basis to measure the explanatory constructs involved in mobile collaborative learning (MCL) processes on WhatsApp and potentially other social media platforms. Therefore, the paper made an appropriately theoretical contribution, which was grounded in the scientific literature. The study facilitated positivistic research and epistemology for acquiring objective and precise scientific knowledge. Such deductive research promotes theory testing and development and presents educators and students with scientific evidence about learning with MCL applications such as WhatsApp from which both curriculum and learning design can be informed and benefited. In the age of connected mobility this is a necessity.
Can WhatsApp be used as an educational computer system? This question had not been answered conclusively by current research and was a global imperative for the computers and education research and practice communities given that over a quarter of the entire world's population used WhatsApp. To advance the field, educational theory and practice and to give meaning to WhatsApp in education, empirical quantitative evidence was gathered with a questionnaire to measure mobile collaborative learning on WhatsApp. The results indicated that increased collaboration on WhatsApp improved academic achievement and improving other key aspects such as active learning, trust, support, formality, interaction and interdependence enhanced collaboration and, in turn, improved academic achievement. The study advanced educational computer theory and mobile collaborative learning theory and provided evidence-based learning design guidelines for incorporating WhatsApp into learning programs for improved academic achievement.
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