Whatsapp Messenger Among Higher Education Students: A Study on Whatsapp Messenger Usage for Project Learning

Teaching learning process at universities and other higher educational institution have advanced from traditional lecturing or one direction learning to group work and project learning which involving technologies. In recent years, educational institutions have modified its learning processes by using networking technologies in conducting their group or project learning. This research is aimed to investigate the usage WhatsApp Messenger among higher education students for Project Learning. Several factors will be measured such as student’s attitudes and competencies towards WhatsApp for project learning. This study was conducted in higher education institutions which applies project learning and students who used WhatsApp. This study adopted a quantitative approach. Researcher will employ survey for this study in which the researcher will gather accurate information and generalize definite research results. A questionnaire was designed to collect information to a sample of population. .


Introduction
The extensive use of social media in project learning by higher education students has gained attention from the researchers. The necessity to explore Whatsapp Messenger applications are utilized in higher education by focusing on project learning. This research was intended to investigate educational benefits of WhatsApp Messenger for Project Learning in Higher Education.Some studies investigated the extensive use of Whatsapps Messenger by students for project learning in higher education. Some investigations have resulted on the benefits of WhatsApp Messenger for the potential to improve students result of learning (Apeanti & Danso, 2013).
This research was aimed to measure technology proficiency in project learning for higher education students. In addition, this research studied students' attitudes towards WhatsApp Messenger. This research also aimed to expose students' knowledges of using WhatsApp Messenger for educational purposes. This study aimed to investigate the implementation of utilization of WhatsApp Messenger for project learning.
Researcher also attempted to investigate the use level of WhatsApp Messenger among university students who have project learning. Numerous questions related with students' accessibility in

Research questions
The questions below have guided this study: 1. What are the students' attitudes on the use of whatsapp messenger for their project learning? 2. How can Whatsapp Messenger help the students' performance in their project learning?

Significance of the Study
Finding of this study will empower higher education institutions to frame and increase the policy of social media on schools. The findings will benefit educational institution, educators and learners to improve learning by utilizing of WhatsApp Messenger for project learning. This research will also encourage other scientists to contribute research on the practical usage Whatsapp messenger for project learning in any level.

Scope of the study
The research investigates the implementation of WhatsApp Messenger for Project Learning in higher institutions in South Jakarta. The research was conducted in South Jakarta Universities in which project learning has been practiced and random sampling technique was utilized for this research.

The implementation of Whatsapp Messenger in project learning
The practices of WhatsApp Messenger for teaching and learning process have been highlighted for higher education especially when it comes to Project Learning. The implementation of numerous technology devices into classroom becomes have been applied in many higher educational institutions. Project-learning is a model that arranges learning through projects. It is actually complex tasks which are based on stimulating questions or problems. Project learning requires students to design, problemsolving, decision making, or investigative activities. These activities provide students the opportunity to work autonomously over extended periods of time; and culminate in realistic products or presentations (Jones, Rasmussen, & Moffitt, 1997;Thomas, Mergendoller, & Michaelson, 1999). Whatsapp messenger are very popular in society as well as in higher education students. Beside its function to communicate among the individuals, teachers are taking steps to show students the use of social networking sites (Gardner, 2009). Some educators believe there is significant benefits of Whatsapp Messenger for project learning in higher education students. A positive educational impact has been shown on students' learning outcomes for higher education students. These students have been exposed to project learning by utilizing Whatsapp Messenger.

Method
This research utilized quantitative research and developed questionnaires as the instrument to collect data.
In order to answer research questions, data collected was analyzed. A large sample size is used in the quantitative research to obtain statistically meaningful data. The data gathered using research tools that are objective helps to generate accurate research findings (Mugenda & Mugenda, 1999).

Research design
Researcher applied quantitative where researcher get accurate data and generate definite research finding. A questionnaire was designed to gather data to a sample of population. Based on survey conducted in this research, this survey provided descriptive research study related with hypothesis and testing. In general the survey conducted in this research is a method of collecting information using various research instruments such as questionnaires, interviews and observations from the representative samples of that population (Mugenda & Mugenda, 2003).

Population, samples and sampling
In order to develop and design appropriate strategies to generate the systematic research finding, researcher needs to understand the population, samples and sampling techniques as the important elements in this research. In this research, it was set that higher education students in South Jakarta which utilize WhatsApp and has project learning are allowed to participate in this study.

Result
30 students from South Jakarta univertsities which have Project Learning and utilized WhatsApp have been chosen randomly to participate in the survey. All respondents have completed online questionnaire and there was 100% responses from the participants and descriptive analysis was conducted. Researcher also reviewed the validity and reliability of the questionnaire. Based on this research, it indicates students possess positive attitudes towards WhatsApp Messenger for project learning. The finding of the result is in line with research conducted by Capan (2012) in which point out WhatsApp is a friendly user since it is easy to use therefore students do not need to put much effort in utilizing it.
Other finding indicates students experienced of WhatsApp Messenger provides various educational benefits for project learning. Based on the investigation there are different advantages students obtained from using WhatsApp messenger such as enhancing proficiency, promotes collaborative learning. This finding is supported by study conducted by Brennan (2001)    Based on the figure 3 above, there is 66% of students think Whatsapp Messenger is beneficial for their project learning while 27% of students think that it is not useful and 7% stated Whatsapp Messenger somehow they don't think that it has benefits

Conclusion
This research investigated students' attitudes on the use of WhatsApp for Project Learning in the higher education institutions. Results of this research shows a positive attitude towards the use of WhatsApp Messenger for project learning in higher education and it provides positive impact such as enhancing proficiency, promotes collaborative learning. Therefore, it can be suggested that