Influence of Various Factors on Students’ Academic Performance, Case of “vk.com”

The aim of the paper “Influence of Various Factors on Students’ Academic Performance, Case of ‘vk.com’” is to analyze the link between students’ activity on the Russian social network “Vkontakte” and their academic achievements. To meet this objective the following several tasks are accomplished: the analysis of the literature on the topic is conducted, the data is collected, descriptive statistics are analyzed as well as the regression analysis using multinomial models and generalized ordered logit/ partial proportional odds models for ordinal dependent variables. The research is highly relevant because social networks became a part of our everyday life relatively recently and have not been sufficiently studied. During the research data on 1670 students is collected, including their online activity on the site from November to June 2014-2015, their grades and other variables unrelated to online activity. Moreover, variables measuring peer effect are calculated. On average students spend 28.38% of overall time online (approximately 6.5 hours per day). This number varies from one department to another (sociologists spent the most time, while economists — the least). Regression analysis with multinomial and generalized ordered logit shows that increase in overall time online is associated with higher probability of getting grade higher than 7 in comparison to lower grades. However no connection is found between academic achievements and time online during classes or exams. Only some of the variables measuring peer effect appear significant.