This research is about Gen Y. Gen Y is born in a technologically generation and we want to know how much reliance does Gen Y have on technology and the way they communicate, their learning styles, their personal expectations and group interactions.
In this research, results have shown that Gen Y have high reliance on technology as they are born in such era. Besides, they also favor a lot on social media in their communication as many of them have a social media page like Facebook or Twitter. They prefer lecturer to get straight to the point and use digital equipment in a class and they also have high expectations of themselves as they are a group of people who are eager to work hard to get something they want. They prefer to work in a group rather than individually so that they can discuss about the problems or questions with others.
I have also found the main result for this research objective which is about how Gen Y Students approach their studies. They will be doing their own thing in the class instead of listening to the lecturer. They dislike traditional teaching methods as they find it dull. By using technology and digitals in the teaching methods, it is possible to motivate them to focus on the subject. They also prefer lecturer to get straight to the point instead of giving long explainations.
2.0 Acknowledgement
In this assignment, I became to learn how to conduct a proper research. Since I never conduct a research before in my life, I never really had an experience in it. Now I have understood the methods of conducting research and I began to realize it is quite fun and it helps me in increasing my knowledge.
First of all, I would like to thank my lecturer, Mr. Ragunathan A/L Ayyavoo for helping me when I have questions about this assignment. Besides, I would to say thank my family who is always there to support me when I’m having problems with this assignment. I would also like to thank my friends for completing this assignment together with me, without them completing this assignment will be impossible.
Table of Contents 1.0 Abstract…………………………………………………………………………………………………….1 2.0 Acknowledgement…………………………………………………………………………………….2 3.0 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………4 4.0 Literature Review………………………………………………………………………………………5 5.0 Methodology…………………………………………………………………………………………….6 6.0 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………………....7 7.0 Conclusion………………………………………………………………………………………………..12 8.0 Reference………………………………………………………………………………………………….13 9.0 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………………………………..14
3.0 Introduction Gen Y, also known as the millennial generation, is born between 1970 to 1990. Gen Y is the generation which comes after Gen X. They are born to live in a more culturally-diverse environment. They are known as the world’s first global generation as they have lived and grown among global terror threats. They are developed during the most expensive economies in the past 30 years. They are considered as the important market segment for businesses because they in the country’s economic boost. The personalities of Gen Y differ a lot compared to the preceding generation. They are technically literate as they grew up with technology and rely on it to perform their jobs better and faster. Most of them are armed with the latest smartphones and gadgets. They are family-centric as they are willing to trade high salary for flexible working hours and better work or life balance which older generations disagree on. They are team-oriented because most of them participated in sports or activities, they value teamwork and are loyal. The topic for my research is “Learning Preferences of Generation Y Students”. The objectives of this research is to investigate how Gen Y students approach their studies and to examine factors that will motivate Gen Y students in their studies.
4.0 Literature Review
I have studied 2 articles about Gen Y. As an overall summary for the 2 articles, Gen Y is born between 1970 to 1990 and they dominate 40% of the Malaysian population. They have both positive and negative personalities but are manageable with suitable strategies. They are a bunch of hardworking people and expect their work to be challenging. However, they are more demanding compared to the preceding generations, for example, they demand for a high salary job. Gen Y relies too much on digital technology. They are very socialized in the digital world and very isolated in the physical world. They got used to digitals and expect digitals in the studies field. Gen Y is an important generation for the world because they will decide the future of the world. The differences that appear in this 2 articles are article 1 states that Gen Y is born between 1981 – 2001 while article 2 states that it’s between 1978 – 1994. Article 1 said Gen Y lacks basic skills while article 2 said Gen Y are practical and education minded. Lastly, article 1 states Gen Y has high debt while article 2 states Gen Y is financially smart. The similarities that appear in these 2 articles are both articles said Gen Y are surrounded by digital electronics. Beside they said that Gen Y is tolerant but impatient. Lastly, they said that Gen Y has low percentage of commitment in politics.
5.0 Methodology To conduct this research about Gen Y, 10 questionnaires were handed-out for the students in APU. There are a total of 25 questions in a questionnaire with a choice of 3 answers (Disagree, Neither Agree or Disagree and Agree) for each question. The questionnaire was handed-out face-to-face instead of using online methods of survey. 8 of the APU students were able to fill in the questionnaire on the spot while 2 of them were in a rush, hence the questionnaire was taken back with them and they submitted it back to me on the second day.
6.0 Data Analysis
The tables and charts below show the final results of the questionnaire given out to the students of APU.
The first topic, Reliance on Technology. 60% of Gen Y prefers to search for information online rather than asking. 80% of Gen Y is updated with the latest technology. 100% Gen Y uses online search engines in their assignments. 50% of disagrees and 50% of agrees they always buy the latest gadgets. However, 50% of Gen Y prefers to read printed newspaper instead of online news.
The second topic, Communication. 60% of Gen Y prefers face-to-face communication instead of online communication. 70% of Gen Y spends at least 3 hours daily on social media websites. 50% of Gen Y relies on social media for learning. 60% of Gen Y updates their social media pages daily. 40% of Gen Y prefers to communicate through social media or texting instead of meeting their friends and 40% of Gen Y are unsure of it.
The third topic, Learning Style. 50% of disagrees and 50% agrees they do their own thing rather than listening to the lecturer in the class. 50% of Gen Y dislikes traditional teaching methods. 90% of Gen Y prefers lecturers using slides when teaching. 90% of Gen Y seeks direct information rather than long explanations from lecturer. 60% of Gen Y is unsure of whether if they will be distracted by people around them while doing their academic works.
The fourth topic, Personal Expectations. 40% of Gen Y prefers to make their own decisions rather than seeking advices. 60% of Gen Y is unsure whether if they prefer a good job environment or high salary job. 50% of disagrees and 50% of agrees they prefer making own decision compared to group decision. 40% of Gen Y disagrees that they must have a Master/PhD once they finished their Degree studies. 90% of Gen Y doesn’t mind being the leader in a group activity.
The fifth topic. Group Interactions. 100% of Gen Y is welcome to share their ideas with their friends. 100% of Gen Y prefers group assignment over individual assignment. 90% of Gen Y likes to mix with other races. 90% of Gen Y likes to discuss assignment questions even if it’s an individual assignment. 90% of Gen Y likes to share their knowledge with others.
6.0 Conclusion
In conclusion, Gen Y are born in an era of technology, They live in an environment filled with technology and digitals so eventually they are technically literate in many ways. They are an important generation due to their important segment for businesses as their population dominates half of the world’s population. Gen Y is one of the generations which we can’t deny because they will decide our future.
While conducting this research, some of the students were not serious and took a long time to complete the questionnaire so it took me some time to get all the 10 questionnaires to be finished. As a recommendation, I think it will be better to urge them to fill the questionnaire seriously and faster.
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7.0 Reference 1. Gen Y, Sally Kane [Online] Available at http://legalcareers.about.com/od/practicetips/a/GenerationY.htm [Accessed on 14th December 2012] 2. Malaysia’s Gen Y unplugged, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Lim Chin Han & Melody Wong, 2009. 3. Generation Y & The Malaysian HR Mindset, Nicholas Chan, November 27th 2012 [Online] Available at http://yellowshorts.org/2012/11/generation-y-the-malaysian-hr-mindset-part-1/ [Accessed on 14th December 2012] 4. Quality lure for Gen Y youths, Tashny Sukumaran [Online] Available at http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2012/10/6/nation/12132325&sec=nation [Accessed on 15th December 2012]
8.0 Appendix