Available online at www.sciencedirect.

com

Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 67 (2012) 464 – 475

The 3rd International Conference on e-Learning

ICEL2011, 23-24 November 2011, Bandung, Indonesia

Student Engagement in Online Learning: Learners Attitude

Toward E-Mentoring
Norziani Dahalan @ Omara*, Hasmawati Hassana and Hanafi Atanb

a
School of Distance Learning, Universiti Sains Malaysia, Pulau Pinang, Malaysia

Abstract

People are looking for flexible learning to accommodate their needs for improvements. One option is through internet
based learning or online learning. Internet has provided people with unlimited access to information. Online learning
enables lifelong learning become more accessible. The development of online learning offer opportunities for
teachers to create mentor online as to support student engagement in learning. Online learning provides multimedia
and instructional information. Therefore e-mentoring becomes a viable tool to help student engage in online learning.
By using electronic communications, e-mentoring intends to develop and grow the skills, knowledge, confidence, and
cultural understanding of the lesser skilled individual. E-mentoring enables teachers interacting with students through
email, online chat and online bulletin board regardless of geographic location. Consequently, learners are capable to
build their own knowledge when they feel connected by the activity in which their engage. The purpose of this
research is to investigate learner’s factor toward e mentoring. The study aims to identify learner’s attitudes toward e-
mentoring. In fact understanding learner’s attitude toward e-mentoring is essential to ensure learners can reap the
benefits of mentoring. A survey analysis was carried out. A total of 205 participants were asked to answer a
questionnaire. A factor analysis and multiple regression technique were carried out. Factor analysis result indicated
there are two groups of learner’s attitude that is learner autonomy and teacher as assisted tutors. Finding shows that
learner’s attitudes play a role in predicting e-mentoring. To ascertain the successful of e-mentoring program, this
research provide evidence learner’s attitude are critical factors to ensure students would stay involve with their
mentor.

© 2012 The Authors. Published

Published by
by Elsevier
Elsevier Ltd.
Ltd. Open
Selection
accessand/or peer-review
under CC BY-NC-ND under responsibility of i-Learn Centre,
license.
Universiti Teknologi
Selection and MARA,
peer-review Malaysia.
under responsibility of i-Learn Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia

Keywords: Online learning; student’s engagement; e-mentoring; learner’s attitude

*
Corresponding author. E-mail address: kinyusof@tganu.uitm.edu.my

1877-0428 © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.
Selection and peer-review under responsibility of i-Learn Centre, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia
doi:10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.11.351
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466 Norziani Dahalan @ Omar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 67 (2012) 464 – 475

1. Introduction

Owing to the growing importance of lifelong learning, online learning has become a popular tool for
learning. Most universities have also incorporate online learning in their teaching to accommodate
diverse need in learning (Artino & Stephens, 2009). Recent development in teaching and learning have
demonstrated that many college student have experienced online learning either delivered completely
online or through hybrid models that combine face to face learning with an online component (Bradford
& Wyatt, 2010). The recent trend becomes a challenge to educator to support knowledge construction or
providing learning context that nurtures student engagement to learning.
Learning activity in online learning is based on learner autonomy and interactive learning actions
(Liaw, Huang, & Cheng, 2007). Interaction between teachers and students leads to students‟ satisfaction
and students learning outcome (Moore, 2002). The finding from Zhang, Gao, Ring and Zhang (2007)
showed that students also need teacher to facilitate online discussion forum in order to give direction,
which make students more comfortable about their discussion. To response to this challenge, the present
research believes that teacher needs to play a role as a mentor. Adam and Crews (2004) states that e-
mentoring or tele-mentoring is viable tools to help students to become involve in online learning.
Therefore this study examines how to facilitate student‟s engagement in online learning. Specifically
the researchers sought to explore learners‟ attitude toward e-mentoring. Learners in online learning
environment may need support and guidance from their teacher. Teacher needs to facilitate online
discussion to ensure knowledge building among students. Learner attitude enhance learning interest
which in turn enhance learner participation in online learning activity.

2. Literature Review

2.1 Online learning

Over the past years, internet revolution has made online learning become popular tools for learning as
an alternative to face-to-face learning. The internet has become a medium of delivery for online teaching.
To date, online learning has received considerable attention as a means of providing alternatives to
traditional face-to-face, instructor-led education (Douglas & Van Der Vyver, 2004). Online teaching
offers vast opportunity to expand the learning environment for diverse student‟s populations (Keengwe &
Kidd, 2010). Pituch and Lee (2006) argue that students will get various instructional aid and
communication method from online learning. This is because there are a wide set of technology engage in
online learning including computer based learning, web based learning, virtual classroom and digital
collaborations ( Urdan and Weggen,2000). Further, online learning allowed students to participate
regardless of geographic location, independent of time and place (Richardson and Swan, 2003).
Online learning is used interchangeably with e-learning. Govindasamy (2002) states that elearning
includes instruction delivered via all electronic media such as the internet, intranets, extranets, and
hypertext/hypermedia documents. Although there is some debate about an exact definition of elearning,
or electronic learning, but is generally accepted that learning content can be offered in different formats,
such as text or video images, and electronically delivered via the internet, personal computer, personal
digital assistant (PDA) or CD-ROM (Sandars &Langlois,2005).
As noted by Liaw, Huan and Chen (2007), e-learning had the following benefits. First, it lowers costs.
Second, its content is more timely and dependable. Third, it is a just in time learning approach. Fourth, it
builds universal communities. And finally, it provides an increasingly valuable learner service
(Rosenberg, 2001). Govindasamy (2002) reported that e-learning is means for solving authentic learning
 Norziani Dahalan @ Omar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 67 (2012) 464 – 475 467

and performance problem. Furthermore, e-learning also creates benefits such as reduced costs,
regulatory compliance, meeting business needs, retraining employees, low recurring costs, and customer-
support costs (Barron,2002; Gordon,2003;Harun,2002;Ismail,2002). Sandars and Langlois (2005) through
their recent survey found out that the most commonly stated advantages of elearning were the availability
of up-to-date information, the speed and ease of access to a wide range of resources, and the opportunity
for the learner to work at their own pace Cantoni, Cellario and Porta (2004) asserted that e-learning is less
expensive to deliver, it is self paced (e-learning courses can be taken when they are necessary), it is faster
(learners can skip material they already know), it provides consistent content (while traditional learning
different teachers may teach different material about the same subject), it works from anywhere and
anytime ( e-learners can take training sessions when they want), it can be updated easily and quickly (on-
line e-learning sessions are especially easy to keep up to date because the updated materials are simply
uploaded to a server), it can lead to an increased retention and a stronger grasp on the subject (because
many elements that are combined in e-learning to reinforce the message such as video, audio, quizzes,
interaction) and can be easily managed for large groups of students.
Internet learning environment have change the way people learn. Learning, discussion, knowledge
sharing that usually happen in face-to-face learning is treated differently in online learning. Yang and Lin
(2010) mentioned that learner may perceive the internet differently when they use it. As a result, this
raises an issue of learner attitude to e-learning usage.

2.2 Learner Attitude

Sun, Tsai, Finger, Chen and Yeh (2008) define learner attitude as “learner impression of participating
in e-learning activities through computer usage”. In order to understand what make learner engage in
online learning, the present research believed that learner attitude play a significant role. This is because
online learning environment allow students to arrange their own learning. Students are required to take
more active role in their learning as online learning environment is not a teacher centered. Students may
engage in online learning, control the learning time and procedures by themselves (Liaw, Huang and
Chen, 2007). Ho and Kuo (2010) argue that learner‟s computer attitudes play a significant role in the
usability of online learning. Prior studies have shown that attitude and self efficacy have been identified
as important factors that affect learner‟s motivation, interest and performance i n internet based learning
environments (Peng, Tsai and Wu, 2006). Sun et.al (2008) cited Piccoli et al. (2001) finding stated that
when learner are not afraid of complexity in information technology (positive attitude), learner will
become more satisfied and effective in online learning. Their review also finds that attitude influences
learning interest (Hanaffin & Cole, 1983).
Learner attitude toward online learning also depend on system characteristic. Pituch and Lee (2006)
from their empirical studies indicate that learner have greater intention to use the system if the system is
user friendly. Their research also shows that system that enable learner to interact effectively and offer
access to course content at the time influencing student to use the system for their learning. As noted by
Selim (2007), learner attitude to engage in online learning is also related to student‟s previous knowledge
in using computer. In addition, learner attitude toward internet is also important to determine learner‟s
motivation, interest and performance in online learning environment (yang & Lin, 2010).
Following research from Liaw et.al (2007), there are three aspects of learner attitude that link to online
learning environment. First; online learning as self-paced learning environment as learner can control
their learning time and procedures. Second; online learning environment provides learners with various
assisted function such as teacher-made online instruction. This function offer opportunities for teacher to
be assisted tutor. Third; online learning provides multimedia instruction environment because it uses
multimedia to support online teaching. Previous research indicates that online learning methods are
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often less guided and self directed (Oh & Lim, 2005). According to the author, there are learners who
prefer direct and guided instruction, thus without proper guideline, the learner may get lost due to
incapability to adapt to online environment. This study raises the need to engage to mentor online as to
facilitate student in online learning environment.

2.3 E-mentor

Bierema and Merriam (2002) defined e-mentoring as “a computer mediated, mutually worthwhile
between a mentor and a protégé that provides learning, advising, encouraging, promoting, and modeling,
that is often boundaryless, egalitarian, and qualitatively different from traditional face-toface mentoring”.
On the other hand, Singer and Muller (2001) described e-mentoring as the merger of mentoring with
electronic communications and has also been termed telementoring, cybermentoring, or virtual
mentoring. Similarly, Hamilton and Scandura (2003) defined e-mentoring as a method using electronic
means as the primary channel of communication between mentors and protégés. Acknowledging e-
mentoring used electronic communications, Stokes, Harris, and Hunt (2003) cited Perren (2002)
conclusion that the key feature of e-mentoring lies in internet, using e-mail and list servers and non-face
to face method of interactions. For the purpose of this research, considering learning occurs through
online discussion, the author shares Singer and Muller (2001) views of ementoring that is combination of
mentoring and electronic communications.
As noted by Singer et.al (2001) e-mentoring is a rapport set up between a more senior individual
(mentor) and a lesser skilled individual (mentee). By using electronic communications, e-mentoring
intends to develop and grow the skills, knowledge, confidence, and cultural understanding of the lesser
skilled individual. Besides, e-mentoring provides for synchronous “conversation” where students and
instructor are able to interact at their convenience. In addition, the telementoring do not limit their
connection to specific regional location, as such more mentor and protégé can join in (Hamilton et.al
2003).
E-mentoring offers numerous benefits to online learners. Price and Chen (2003) suggest there are six
benefits of telementoring. First, telementoring is available in a vast distance. On-line chats and online
bulletin boards allow mentors to “talk” to more than one mentee at a time (Adams and Crew, 2004).
Second, mentee has opportunity regardless of time and place. Third; a vast guidance and support available
through online. Fourth, mentees are able to contribute and share knowledge among participant in the
program. Fifth, it‟s creates a collaborative learning between teachers and learners. Sixth, organizations
that opt for telementoring can choose the communication methods that are suitable for their use.
Online learners usually experiences isolation in online learning environment because they are at a
distance. E-mentoring can be used to facilitate online learning where learners and teachers can interact
through e-mail, chat room, bulletin board, forum and discussion regardless of their location. Previous
research demonstrated that students reported confusion, anxiety and frustration due to lack of prompt or
clear feedback from the instructors, and from ambiguous instructions on the Web site and in e-mail (Hara
& Kling, 2001). However, the present research believe when mentor actively participate online the greater
student engage in their learning. Kaspirin, Single, Single and Muller (2003) suggested that there are three
element in measuring mentoring that is involvement, satisfaction and value. The author define
Involvement as “the frequency of contact between mentor and protégé”, and satisfaction as “level of
comfort and satisfaction for the aspect of the e-mentor”. For the purpose of this research value is define as
how much experience mentor contribute to learners learning.
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2.4 Research Hypotheses

The purpose of this research is to investigate learner‟s attitudes toward e-mentoring. Specifically this
research would like to answer how can learners attitude with pertaining to online learning environment
(self-paced, teacher as assisted tutor and multimedia instruction) influence e-mentoring. Given the fact
that learner attitude was associate with learning outcome, the researchers believes that learner attitude
also play a prominent role to facilitate e-mentoring. Thus, the present research hypotheses;

H1a: Learner’s attitude pertaining to self-paced learning will influence involvement with e-
mentor
H1b: Learner’s attitude pertaining to teacher as assisted tutor will influence involvement with e-
mentor
H1c: Learner’s attitude pertaining to multimedia instruction will influence involvement with e-
mentor
H2a: Learner’s attitude pertaining to self-paced learning will influence satisfaction with e-
mentor
H2b: Learner’s attitude pertaining to teacher as assisted tutor will influence satisfaction with e-
mentor
H2c: Learner’s attitude pertaining to multimedia instruction will influence satisfaction with e-
mentor
H3a: Learner’s attitude pertaining to self-paced learning will influence value of participation
with e-mentor
H3b: Learner’s attitude pertaining to teacher as assisted tutor will influence value of
participation with e-mentor
H3c: Learner’s attitude pertaining to multimedia instruction will influence value of participation
with e-mentor

3. Methodology

3.1 Participants
The study was conducted at the School of Distance Education, Universiti Sains Malaysia. The School
of Distance Education was chosen due to the nature of their learners are adult, who are geographically
dispersed and have conflicting schedules. Students meet their teachers both on-line and face –to-face
during intensive weeks.
E-portal was designed to cater teaching and learning processes at school of distance education. The
purpose of e-portal is to help students in learning processes. E-portal enable students to access learning
material, e-mail, live chat sessions, online discussions, forums, quizzes and assignment at any place at
any times. All students are required to use e-learning portals for their discussion, which allows teachers-
students, and students-students asynchronous interaction. The teachers will act as a mentor to the student
that is facilitating the course and get students connected online. Data was gathered through self-
administered questionnaires.
A total of 500 questionnaires were distributed to the students with different program namely
humanities, social sciences, management and sciences. The overall response rate was 41% (205
students).Table 1 reports the demographic information.
470 Norziani Dahalan @ Omar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 67 (2012) 464 – 475

Table 1. Demographic Information

3.2 Instruments

In measuring learner‟s attitude pertaining to online learning environment, the researchers adopted a
questionnaire from Liaw et.al (2007). These items measures respondents‟ attitude pertaining to online
learning that is self-paced learning, teacher as assisted tutor and multimedia instruction. Respondents
indicated on a 5-point likert scale, with 1= “strongly disagree” to 5= “strongly agree”.
E-mentoring was measured by adopting a questionnaire from Kaspirin and Single (2005). These items
measured e-mentoring from three perspectives that is involvement, satisfaction and value. Respondents
indicated on a 5-point likert scale, with 1= “not at all” to 5= “very much”.

3.3 Data Analysis

The data analyzed using SPSS version 18. Factor analysis was used to identify the underlying
construct to assess learners‟ attitude and e-mentoring. Following Parker, S.Endler ang Bagby (1993) the
following criteria were used in order to determine what items should be retained: (a) items had to load
significantly (>.35) on a given factor and lower than .35 on the other factors, and (b) following the
rational approach to scale construction, an item was eliminated if it lacked conceptual coherence with its
factor. Reliability analyses were run to look for the robustness of the scale following Nunnaly (1978).
 Norziani Dahalan @ Omar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 67 (2012) 464 – 475 471

4. Result and Discussion

4.1 Factor Analysis

Learner‟ attitude was composed of two factors accounting for 63.57 % of the variance. Two items
were eliminated because they loaded >0.35 on more than one factor. The factors were renamed as learner
autonomy environment and teacher as assisted tutor. The coefficient alpha for “learner autonomy
environment” was 0.88, and “teacher as assisted tutor” was 0.82. The factor analysis for e-mentoring
produced two factors namely involvement with mentor and value of participation. The variance explained
for the two factors are 64.43%. Five items were eliminated because they loaded >0.35 on more than one
factor. The coefficient alpha for “involvement with mentor” was 0.82, and “value of participation” was
0.87.

4.2 Bivariate correlation

The means, standard deviations, reliabilities, and intercorrelations of all study variables are listed in
Table 2. As can be seen from the zero order correlations, the predictor variables (learner‟s attitude)
generally show moderate relationships with outcome variables (e-mentoring).

Table 2. Descriptive Statistics, Cronbach‟s Coefficient Alpha, and Zero-order Correlations of All Study Variables

4.3 Hypotheses Testing

To determine whether learners‟ attitude will influence e-mentoring, multiple regression analysis was
conducted. Regression analysis was used to predict the independent variable learners‟ attitude (selfpaced,
teacher as assisted tutor and multimedia instruction) and dependent variables of e-mentoring
(involvement with e-mentor, satisfaction and value of participation). However based on factor analysis
there are two types of learners‟ attitude that is learner autonomy environment and teacher as assisted
tutor. There are two types of e-mentoring measurement that is involvement and value of participation.
The results from regression analysis are shown in Table 3 and table 4.
472 Norziani Dahalan @ Omar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 67 (2012) 464 – 475

Table 3 shows the result of learners‟ attitude and involvement with e-mentor. The results of this
analysis shows that there is a moderate linear correlation between variables, R =.22 with R =0.049,
indicating approximately 5% of the variance of learners‟ attitude contribute to involvement with ementor.
It Was found that learner autonomy environment predicted involvement with mentor (ß=.237, p<0.5),
while teacher as assisted tutor is insignificant. Thus, with one unit change in learner attitude pertaining to
learner autonomy environment, there is approximately .24 increased in students‟ involvement with e-
mentor. Therefore hypothesis 1a is supported and hypothesis 1b is rejected. Table 3 summarizes the result
of regression analysis.

Table 3. Regression Results Learners‟ Attitude and involvement with mentor

Table 4 shows the result of learners‟ attitude and value of participation. The result of the regression
indicated the two variables explained 22.4% of the variance (F= (28.798, p<0.01). It was found that
learner autonomy environment predicted value of participation (ß=.405, p<0.00), as did teacher as
assisted tutor (ß=.143, p<0.339). Thus, with one unit change in learner autonomy environment, there is
.405 increased in students valuing of participation in e-mentoring. So does teacher as assisted tutor in
predicting valuing of participation. Therefore hypotheses 3a and 3b is supported. When there is one unit
changes of learner attitude pertaining to teacher as assisted tutor, there is .143 increased in students
valuing of participation.

Table 4. Regression Results Learners‟ Attitude and Value of participation

 Norziani Dahalan @ Omar et al. / Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 67 (2012) 464 – 475 473

5. Conclusion

Learning is a social process. Many researchers and educator have highlighted the importance of
network technology as education expands to help students „learning (Liu & Tsai, 2008). The internet has
created more opportunity for continuous learning such as online learning. This situation increases the
need to create virtual mentoring or e-mentoring (Bierema & Hill, 2005). Future trends have shown that e-
mentoring has became more popular (Kaspirin, Single, Single & Muller, 2003). This paper aimed to
examine the relationship between learner attitude pertaining to online learning environment and learners‟
engagement in e-mentoring.
In this study, it was found that there is a positive and significant correlation among variables (learners‟
attitude and e-mentoring) except for teacher as assisted tutor and involvement with the mentor. This fact
implies that learners‟ attitude pertaining to online learning environment is influential to students‟
engagement in e-mentoring. Learners‟ who are able to control their own learning and utilized various
assisted function in online learning engage more to their mentor. Yang and Lin (2010) state that students
with more positive internet attitudes tend to participate more in the online forum.
In testing the hypothesis, it is noted that learners‟ attitude pertaining to learner autonomy environment
is contribute to learners‟ involvement with e-mentor. Learners who take charge of their own learning are
engaging more to their mentor. They tend to contact more with the teachers as they appreciating the
flexibility of online learning. Further, learners who are taking charge their own learning are responsible to
their own learning (Chang, 2005).
Another important finding was learners‟ attitude pertaining to online learning environment also
contribute to learners‟ value of participation. Learners who perceived that their mentor have many
experience engage more in e-mentoring. This is possibly true for learners‟ who control their own learning
as they can see that their mentor is a valuable source for knowledge. Experience teacher demands high
quality work from students (Young, 2010). From learners‟ perspective, effective teachers give
challengers work and more work to students (Marsch, 2001 in Young, 2010). This study also shows that
learners‟ perception that teacher act as assisted tutor also engage to their mentor.
When learners are comfortable with teachers help, there are willing to share more with their mentor.
Further, it also removes barriers between learners and teacher when learners feel that they have given
considerable attention in their learning. This study provide insight for institutional to consider learners‟
attitude in designing mentor online. Mentor online is a great help for learners who are geographically
disperse. Online learners need teachers to initiate the discussion to collaborate in online learning. Some
student may get lost without teachers assistance and help. Therefore, online teachers need to build a
relationship with their learner to increase participation.

6. Acknowledgement

The authors acknowledge the fundamental research grant that has resulted to this article

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