scholarly journals Leveraging Social Media in Higher Education: A Case of Universities in Uganda

2019 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 70-84
Author(s):  
Drake Patrick Mirembe ◽  
Jude T. Lubega ◽  
Martha Kibukamusoke

Abstract Social media platforms have transformed the way we live and work. These platforms have opened up new opportunities for service provisioning and business models. Therefore, this paper presents findings of how leading Ugandan Universities are integrating social media in the teaching and learning processes. The researchers adopted a multi-methodology research approach which involved; collecting, analysing and integrating quantitative (surveys) and qualitative (focus group discussions and interviews) research methods. A total of 300 respondents were targeted (students and lecturers) of which 250 responded (196 male and 54 female). The respondents from Makerere University, Uganda technology and Management University (UTAMU) and Makerere University Business School. The results of the study indicated that majority (94.8%) of the respondents use WhatsApp, 86.5% Facebook, 82.1% YouTube, 53.8% Twitter, 39.8% Instagram and 9.2% snapchat. It was observed that 225 about 91.1% of student’s use social media for learning purposes. A total of 238 respondents use smartphones to access social media. While majority of students on social media platforms use these platforms for learning purposes, majority of lecturers (37.6%) never engage students on social media. Therefore, there is a mismatch on social media usage between students and lectures and this calls for the development of social media policies at universities to promote and guide the integration of these platforms in the teaching and learning processes.

Author(s):  
I. A. Bogoslov ◽  
M. R. Georgescu ◽  
A. G. Pitic

Ensuring social educational processes does not only represent a trend in terms of the evolution of e-Learning systems, but also one of the main points of interest targeted by the developers of certain social platforms. In fact, raising awareness with respect to the importance of using Social Media tools in education leads to a two-way approach: both by integrating social tools into e-Learning systems and by integrating learning facilities into Social Media platforms. Over time, the social network Facebook has benefited from intense use at global level, including in e-Learning processes. In order to meet the current needs in terms of teaching and learning, Facebook has provided users with built-in opportunities to facilitate social learning processes. However, expanding the Social Learning features integrated in Facebook can be a challenge at present, because of the policies imposed for the social network. The present article outlines a proposed architecture for extending the Social Learning functionalities offered within Facebook Groups by ensuring the correlation with WordPress open-source CMS. Aspects related to how the correlation between the two platforms can be ensured, the necessary tools and the steps involved will be discussed. Also, the main implications and advantages offered by such an architecture and the identified limitations will be highlighted.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shaoyu Ye ◽  
Kevin K.W. Ho ◽  
Andre Zerbe

Purpose This study aims to clarify the effects of different patterns of Facebook, Twitter and Instagram usage on user loneliness and well-being in Japan. Design/methodology/approach Based on responses to a self-report questionnaire in Japan, 155 university students were separated into 4 groups: users of Twitter only, users of Twitter and Facebook, users of Twitter and Instagram and users of all three social media. The effects of social media usage on loneliness and well-being for each group were analysed. Findings No social media usage effects on loneliness or well-being were detected for those who used only Twitter or both Twitter and Instagram. For those using both Twitter and Facebook, loneliness was reduced when users accessed Twitter and Facebook more frequently but was increased when they posted more tweets. Users of all three social media were lonelier and had lower levels of well-being when they accessed Facebook via PC longer; whereas their their access time of Facebook via smartphones helped them decrease loneliness and improve their levels of well-being. Originality/value The findings reported here provide possible explanations for the conflicting results reported in previous research by exploring why users choose different social media platforms to communicate with different groups of friends or acquaintances and different usage patterns that affect their loneliness and well-being.


2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Medina Aguerrebere

Hospitals are facing a constantly changing context in which patients are becoming more demanding, public health education initiatives are regarded as increasingly important and hospital business models have to take account of constantly developing medical technologies. In order to better interact with internal and external stakeholders, hospitals try to reinforce their corporate communication strategies as well as their brand reputation by means that include using social media platforms. This literature review paper aims to better understand why health professionals have the potential to play a key role in hospitals’ branding initiatives through social media. First, I report the findings from studies of concepts related to corporate communication, branding and the connection between social media and personal branding; and, second, I propose a communication model – what I call the PMA branding model – to help hospitals build a brand reputation based on health professionals’ participation in corporate communication initiatives led by hospitals on social media. The paper concludes by showing that the PMA branding model consists of organisational tools based on a rigorous methodology that will help health professionals participate in branding initiatives led by the hospital through these platforms.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Werner Krings

The thesis aims to explore and explain how Social Media impacts the B2B-Business Development process in a global software environment. Mixed-methods uncover the leading media platforms applied in the Business Development process cycle. The thesis produced a model, illustrating two dimensions of Social Media Business Usage, four critical Business Development process phases, and their impact on Performance mediated by Social Capital. To extend generalizability, future research may focus on testing the model for New Business Development exclusively. Significant contributions are classifying relevant Social Media platforms, distilling the process phases with the greatest impact on performance. The creation of new indices advances the performance discussion, and the typology of Business Developers capitalises on optimising the process sequence.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 77
Author(s):  
Nila Sari ◽  
Agus Amroni

The aim of this research was to motivate students by using social media to teach writing hortatory exposition text. The researcher chooses two media such us Instagram and Facebook. The application of teaching writing of hortatory exposition text at eleventh grade of SMAN 1 Ngadiluwih by using social media Instagram and Facebook to hold the interesting and enjoyable learning activity. This research was quantitative research approach, whereas the research design used true experimental. This research chosen randomly in Instagram class (social one class) and Facebook class (social two class). The instrument used in the research was writing test. The procedure lasted 4 meeting and 1 meeting to do test. The result of t-test showed that: the mean score of Instagram class (M= 68.79) is lower than Facebook class (M= 77.07), and independent sample t-test which values of the sig-2 tailed is 0.000 and 0.000<0.005. Thus, it can be concluded that Facebook is more effective than Instagram in teaching and learning English Hortatory Exposition Text.


Author(s):  
Ernest Redondo ◽  
Isidro Navarro ◽  
Albert Sánchez ◽  
David Fonseca

This chapter discusses the impact of using social media resources and new emerging technologies in teaching and learning processes. The authors of this chapter focus on Spanish architecture-education framework by analyzing three case studies carried out by students finishing architecture and building degrees. Students’ interaction with this resources is assessed, as well as their derived academic results, and the degree of satisfaction from students and teachers using these resources and technologies. To conduct the study, the authors worked with Web based freeware applications, such as Dropbox, blogging systems, Moodle, YouTube, Wikipedia, and Google Maps. Mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets PCs, were used to test QR-Codes (Quick Response Codes) and Augmented Reality technology based applications as Junaio and Ar-Media Plugin.


Author(s):  
Norsiah Abdul Hamid ◽  
Mohd Sobhi Ishak ◽  
Syamsul Anuar Ismail ◽  
Siti Syamsul Nurin Mohmad Yazam

Social media are playing an increasing role in today’s living. The social media platforms allow users to search, create, share, collaborate, and organise contents among them, and at the same time provide virtual self-presentation and self-disclosure of oneself. Social media were also claimed to give implications to human beings with regards to personality, yet these variables have not much been emphasised in previous studies. Thus, it is important to highlight the implications of social media on users’ personality. Given the issues and challenges faced by the country in profiling the adoption of social media and its implications in view of the perspective of personality, it is timely and significantly important to undertake this research in Malaysia. The objective of this chapter is to discuss a research conducted recently to determine the relationships between social media and personality traits. The specific objectives of this study are to identify the profile of social media adoption among students in Malaysia, including duration, frequency of use, purpose, and person/s that introduced the social media, and to determine the relationships between social media and personality traits.


Author(s):  
Stephen Asunka

Against the backdrop that universities are required to generate and disseminate relevant and applicable knowledge for the general good, and with the understanding that social media can be an effective vehicle for such knowledge sharing practices, this study explored the use of social media for knowledge sharing by academics at a university college in Ghana. The study thus examined how instructors use social media for sharing academic knowledge, the factors that promote such knowledge sharing practices, and the barriers to effective knowledge sharing in the academic environment. 47 instructors participated by completing an online questionnaire, whilst 7 participated in focus group discussions. Findings reveal a regular, though not daily, use of social media platforms for academic knowledge sharing. Personal, technological and institutional factors were determined to be contributing in fostering as well as hindering such activities. Implications of these findings as well as suggestions for future research are accordingly discussed.


Author(s):  
Şükrü Oktay Kılıç ◽  
Zeynep Genel

A handful of social media companies, with their shifting strategies to become hosts of all information available online, have significantly changed the news media landscape in recent years. Many news media companies across the world have gone through reorganizations in a bid to keep up with new storytelling techniques, technologies, and tools introduced by social media companies. With their non-transparent algorithms favoring particular content formats and lack of interest in developing solid business models for publishers, social media platforms, on the other hand, have attracted widespread criticism by many academics and media practitioners. This chapter aims at discussing the impact of social media on journalism with the help of digital research that provides an insight on what storytelling types with which three most-followed news outlets in Turkey gain the most engagement on Facebook.


Author(s):  
Christina Olin-Scheller ◽  
Patrik Wikström

In this chapter the authors discuss and informal learning settings such as fan fiction sites and their relations to teaching and learning within formal learning settings. Young people today spend a lot of time with social media built on user generated content. These media are often characterized by participatory culture which offers a good environment for developing skills and identity work. In this chapter the authors problematize fan fiction sites as informal learning settings where the possibilities to learn are powerful and significant. They also discuss the learning processes connected to the development of literacies. Here the rhetoric principle of “imitatio” plays a vital part as well as the co-production of texts on the sites, strongly supported by the beta reader and the power of positive feedback. They also display that some fans, through the online publication of fan fiction, are able to develop their craft in a way which previously have been impossible.


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