An Empirical Investigation of Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Social Media in Omani Higher Education

Author(s):  
Noor Al-Qaysi ◽  
Norhisham Mohamad-Nordin ◽  
Mostafa Al-Emran
2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-218
Author(s):  
Ilham Mansour ◽  
Azza Mansour

Social media has increasingly been used in higher education classrooms as educators lean on technology to mediate and enhance their teaching and learning process. This study aims to explore students’ perceptions and attitudes towards the use of social media as an effective academic tool. 149 Undergraduate Saudi female students, enrolled in four courses at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, were surveyed about their attitude towards the use of Twitter in classroom interactions, as well as, their perceptions regarding the use of social media in teaching practice. Findings indicate that, in general, students have positive attitudes toward using Twitter for academic purposes. Additionally, students favorably perceive that Twitter facilitates knowledge sharing, collaborations, and interactions in the classroom but to a lesser extent enhancing their sense of learning. This study sheds light on the potential opportunities of the use of Twitter in the classroom, and what benefits could it bring to the teaching and learning process in higher education that may affect the quality of the students’ learning experience.


Author(s):  
Kirsten Forkert ◽  
Ana Lopes

This article examines unwaged posts at UK universities, using recent examples of advertised job posts. While unpaid work is common in the UK higher education system, unwaged posts are not. The posts under scrutiny in this article differ from traditional honorary titles as they target early career academics, who are unlikely to have a paid position elsewhere, rather than established scholars. The article contextualizes the appearance of these posts in a climate of increasing marketization of higher education, entrenching managerialism in higher education institutions, and the casualization of academic work. We also discuss resistance to the posts, arguing that the controversy surrounding unpaid internships in the creative industries created a receptive environment for resisting unwaged posts in academia. We analyze the campaigns that were fought against the advertisement of the posts, mostly through social media and the University and College Union. We explore the tactics used and discuss the advantages and limitations of the use of social media, as well as the role of trade unions in the campaigns against these posts, and we reflect on what future campaigns can learn from these experiences.


Author(s):  
Liezel Cilliers ◽  
Willie T. Chinyamurindi ◽  
Kim Viljoen

Orientation: The rapid development of information communication technology (ICT) has changed much of contemporary society. ICT’s influence extends to the working context with ramifications not only for employees but also for the entire organisation.Research purpose: The primary purpose of this research was to investigate the behavioural intention of a sample of employees at a traditional higher education institution to make use of social media within the workplace.Motivation for the study: Social media has become a common tool within society for communication and networking purposes. An understanding of the factors that influence behavioural intention to use social media within the workplace can assist the organisation to better manage social media usage within the workplace.Research design, approach and method: The research adopted the positivism paradigm with a quantitative research approach. The data were analysed making use of exploratory factor analysis and multiple regression analysis. A traditional higher education institution was chosen as the research site for the study, relying on a convenience sample (n = 134) and data gathered using the work-related social media scale and behavioural intention to use scale.Main findings: Although most employees make use of social media for problem-solving and communication purposes already in the workplace, organisations should allow their employees to help manage their reputation on social media.Practical and managerial implications: An understanding of the factors that influence behavioural intention to use social media within the workplace can serve as a useful precursor for both employee and organisational-specific interventions. This study has specific relevance to the use of ICT platforms, such as social media, in traditional higher education institutions in South Africa. The study’s results are therefore useful to both employees as end-users and managers as drivers of such interventions in the workplace.Contribution: This study is one of the first within a South African work context to investigate social media usage in a traditional higher education institution and proposes a workplace social media usage framework (WSMUF) that helps not only employees but also the entire organisation to predict intention to use social media in the workplace.


Author(s):  
Laura Aymerich-Franch ◽  
Maddalena Fedele

Social media is principally used by students in the private sphere. However, its implementation for educational purposes in higher education is rapidly expanding. This chapter looks into undergraduate students’ perceptions of using social media in the university context. In particular, it examines students’ privacy concerns regarding faculty use of social networks to support classroom work and video calling or online chats to meet for work discussion. Two-hundred-forty-four undergraduate students completed a survey and four focus groups were carried out. The results reveal that although students generally accept using social media in the instructional arena, privacy concerns can easily emerge. Educational institutions are encouraged to take these concerns seriously. Using applications specifically created for learning purposes and developing some guidelines for a correct implementation of these resources for the faculty to follow might contribute to alleviate these concerns.


2015 ◽  
pp. 830-850
Author(s):  
Anabela Mesquita ◽  
Ana Ramalho Correia ◽  
Diana Aguiar Vieira

Social media tools are being widely used. Every day we witness new tools appearing or new features being added to already existing tools. Their characteristics allow us to communicate and collaborate without time and space constraints. Moreover, they also help us in the development and creation of new content as well as in the sharing and publishing of it. Since they are so popular, can it be that researchers are also using them in the research workflow process? If they use them, what are the most commonly used tools and their reasons for use? These are some of the questions addressed in this chapter. The authors analyse responses given by a higher education institution to a questionnaire on the use of social media tools. These findings contribute to a greater understanding of the importance of these tools for research purposes.


Author(s):  
Ann M. Simpson

Social media use is prevalent throughout the world and is now commonplace in higher education. The devices, support technologies, and social media applications used in higher education are in a constant state of change. Using social media in education creates new and sometimes challenging issues for institutions, instructors, and students. This chapter attempts to address some of the considerations and potential issues that impact our use of social media in the higher education classroom. It examines social media as an educational tool in higher education, possible pedagogies for social media use, potential educational contexts, and privacy concerns raised by social media use in educational environments. This chapter also provides a possible definition for social media and introduces some themes that will be explored in further detail in the following chapters.


Author(s):  
Dora Simões ◽  
Sandra Filipe

This chapter reports on the use of social media marketing by pre-adults, setting off from a case study of pre-adults of different courses at a Portuguese higher education school. Data were collected through a questionnaire available online and analyzed with descriptive statistical techniques. Based on the pointed outlines, the aim is to evaluate longitudinally the types of social media used by pre-adults, the contexts in which they use each social media type, their opinions about the intentions of social media marketing and the influences of social media marketing on their brand knowledge, attitude and behaviour. Tendencies around concepts, tools and levels of attraction by the audiences, with focus on relationship marketing in the 2.0 era are revisited. Furthermore, the chapter presents the perception of pre-adults about social media marketing, and contributes with critical information that might help cast light over recent theories and practices of social media marketing.


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