Effect of Self-Paced Learning on Students’ Academic Achievement at University Level

Abstract

This research is an investigation on the interactions among self-paced learning, self-efficacy, and academic achievement within a self-paced learning program. The initial objective of the study was to learn the effects of these factors on the academic performance of students and to find the relevance of the relationships. The sampling technique was simple random sampling and sample size was 180 students. Students were chosen from undergraduate level from IIUI and NUML, and both the descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. Regression analysis showed that there was a positive and statistically significant association between self-paced learning and self-efficacy as well as academic achievement. To be more exact, a rise in self-paced learning has been observed to trigger the rise of academic performance. Equally, the better the academic performance, the higher the level of self-efficacy. It was found that self-paced learning and self-efficacy are related to academic performance, as they explained 10.6% of the variance in the academic achievement, which implies that other variables might also be involved in the academic performance of students. The research is very helpful to teachers and learning institutions where encouragement of self-efficacy and facilitation of self-paced learning are emphasized to improve the outcomes among students. The implications of these findings in practice are that they could be used to improve self-paced learning conditions, especially in terms of motivating students and boosting their academic performance. The limitations of the study, including sample size and cross-sectional research design, indicate that more studies should be conducted to understand other variables that influence learning outcomes and determine the long-term effect of self-paced learning on school performance.