A review of academic performance factors in the context of e-learning : theories and empirical studies

Abstract

There are currently more than 500 commercial e-Learning software packages and 300 educational e-Learning software packages, and their benefits to their users are well documented. For instance, with e-Learning, the rigidity of teaching and learning timetables can be overcome. Shockingly, high education still witnesses intolerable levels of academic failure even in this e-Learning era. This study will therefore attempt to examine the impact of e-Learning on academic performance based on the perceptions of academics. It is a literature review of thirty-four (34) studies. Its findings reveal that according to the perceptions of academics, the impact of e-Learning on academic performance depends on: the demographics of the learners; their intensity of use of e-Learning; their self-efficacy and learning approach; their sense of community and interactivity; their perceptions on the suitability of e-Learning; and their motivation and pride. This study also recommends more research on the validation of its proposed theoretical framework, and its identified factors, because the reviewed literature is not unanimous on their perceived effect on the impact of e-Learning on academic performance. The main contribution of this study is to broaden the scope of academic performance factors in the context of e-Learning compared to similar past reviews with a limited pre-defined scope of academic performance factors.