scholarly journals The Potential for Facebook Application in Undergraduate Learning: A Study of Jordanian Students

10.28945/2283 ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
pp. 081-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ayman Alarabiat ◽  
Samer Al-Mohammad

The purpose of this paper was to explore the current and potential use of Facebook for learning purposes by Jordanian university students. The paper attempted to compare such use with other uses of Facebook. Further, the paper investigated Jordanian university students’ attitudes towards using Facebook as a formal academic tool, through the use of course-specific Facebook groups. To that end, quantitative data were collected from a sample of 451 students from three Jordanian public universities. Findings indicated that the vast majority of Jordanian students had Facebook accounts, which echoes its popularity amongst Jordanian youth compared to other types of online social networking sites. While both “social activities” and “entertainment” were the primary motivators for Jordanian students to create and use Facebook accounts, a growing number of them were using Facebook for academic purposes too. Further, Jordanian students had a positive attitude toward the use of “Facebook groups” as an educational tool for specific courses, and under specific conditions. Based on its findings, the paper provides suggestions for Jordanian higher institutions to invest in the application of Facebook as a formal academic tool.

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 14
Author(s):  
Majed Alharthi

The learning environment in 21st century schools has become the focus of attention for specialists in the educational field by equipping them with the right technologies to create an attractive and interactive learning environment. The purpose of this study was to find out university students’ attitudes toward technologies used in online courses and how employing these technologies benefit the learning environment. This paper reports the results of a quantitative research study examining university students’ attitudes toward technologies used in online courses. A total of 496 eligible students (268 male and 228 female) participated in the online survey through Social Networking Sites (SNS). This study found that, because of the complexity of the technologies used in these online courses, university students experienced difficulties using these tools and needed additional experience prior to their use in the online courses. The findings revealed that the most activities used in online courses in universities have largely focused on reading materials and online discussion forums, unlike other activities such as audio, social networking, online conferencing and games has not been widely used.


2014 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Juan D. Borrero ◽  
Shumaila Y. Yousafzai ◽  
Uzma Javed ◽  
Kelly L. Page

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to determine the beliefs that influence university students to use social networking sites (SNS) for expressive participation in social movements. Design/methodology/approach – The original technology acceptance model (TAM), a quantitative methodological approach, and a survey were used to collect responses from 214 university students in Spain. Structural equation modelling was used to test the proposed relationships. Findings – Results confirm that the perceived ease of use (PEU) and perceived usefulness (PU) of SNS significantly affect a student's intention to use SNS for expressive social participation in social movements, with use intention significantly affecting actual participation. There was no significant moderating effect of students' gender on these relationships. Originality/value – Although there is much discussion in the popular press about how people use SNS, there is no published empirical research on the determinants that contribute to a person's intention to use and actual use of SNS in the context of social movements. This paper is one of the first studies to investigate young people's perception of the SNS usefulness and ease of the use for participation in social movements.


2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 82-89
Author(s):  
Satish Kumar ◽  
Amit Sharma ◽  
Varinder Verma

Social Media is an important tool for sharing information and communication among the people. Mobile Applications enable these social networking sites (SNS) to send and receive info-content to the target audience. Especially, University students in the country today use SNS extensively for information and entertainment needs. Social media is playing a crucial role in social and political awareness for inclusive development. The study focuses on how social networking apps help in fulfilling the social needs of youth? What are the effects of social media on studies of university students? How do political parties use SNS apps for youth? And how mobile apps are contributing to the Digital India movement? A survey method was used for quantitative research methodology with a stratified random sampling of 100 university students of two state university of Haryana. The study reveals that students consider mobile apps help in socially connected with well known, to whom they are meeting personally and they feel happy for sharing their thoughts. It also explains the use of social media can create a negative effect on studies. Political parties and political leaders are targeting youth for their propaganda and agenda-setting through mobile apps. In the Digital India movement mobile apps are empowering youth for inclusive development.


2019 ◽  
pp. 676-691 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valeria Noguti ◽  
Sonika Singh ◽  
David S. Waller

This chapter investigates gender differences in motivations to use social networking sites (SNS), a subset of social media. The present research focuses on Facebook given its prominence among currently available SNS. Analysing a survey of university students in Australia, the results indicate that female consumers are more likely than male consumers to use Facebook to seek information (to research and learn new things and to discuss products and brands) and for convenience (to obtain things with little effort). Both of these reasons in turn relate positively to their degree of engagement on Facebook, where engagement is operationalized as cognitive absorption which is a state of deep involvement with an activity.


Author(s):  
S. Thanuskodi

Social networking sites over the years have changed from a few user-based sites into a phenomena that has become a platform for a huge number of users. However, the growth and development of social networking sites have brought great concerns on parents and educational authorities with respect to potential risks that are facing the university students as they use online social networking frequently for gathering information. The risk associated with social networking sites when used for oral communication rather than face-to-face communication results in damaging interpersonal communication among the users. The results obtained from this study have shown that a reasonable number of university students use the social networking sites. Therefore, the popularity of the social networking usage by university students of Tamil Nadu and the benefits it has on the student-users have been confirmed from the findings of this study. There are also various purposes for which the students use the social networking sites to achieve and that have been investigated. Technology is a double-edged sword. Its power for bad and good resides in the users. Based on this, it is instructive to note that the relevant government authorities have to take good measures to ensure that they (student) are made to be aware of how and why they use the social networking sites.


Author(s):  
T. Balamurugan ◽  
M. Aravinthan

Social networking sites over the years have changed from a few user-based sites into a phenomena that has become a platform for a huge number of users. However, the growth and development of social networking sites have brought great concerns on parents and educational authorities with respect to potential risks that are facing the university students as they use online social networking frequently for gathering information. The use of social networking sites among the university students requires much attention with increasing number of students creating profile and feeding their personal information into the sites. The increasing activity on the sites by student community can negatively impact the normal activity of students' lives. This can also become a hindrance to the academic development as well as social engagement of students. Therefore, there is a need to study, assess, and evaluate the issues revolving the usage of social networking sites among the student community. The study shows that the distribution of respondents according to their influence of SNS. It shows both section-wise distribution and their composite scores. Also, the table shows the respective mean scores and standard deviation. It may be inferred that 77.50% of the respondents have stated that the influence of SNS are high, 18.55% of the respondents have stated that the influence of SNS is moderate, and 3.95% of the respondents have stated that the influence of SNS is low. However, the composite mean score (2.72), standard deviation (0.530) depicts that the respondents have stated that the influence of SNS is high.


2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Godfred Matthew Yaw Owusu ◽  
Rita Amoah Bekoe ◽  
Dorothea Sekyiwa Otoo ◽  
Akua Pokuaa Essah Koli

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to examine the views of university students on social networking sites (SNSs) adoption for educational purposes and investigate the factors that motivate students to use SNSs for academic purposes.Design/methodology/approachA survey method of research was adopted and questionnaires were administered to the respondent group. A total of 522 valid responses from the University of Ghana Business School Students were used in the empirical analysis. Regression analysis was used to examine the relationship among the key constructs of the study.FindingsThe results of this study suggest that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, the existence of facilitating conditions and the purposes of SNSs are the key factors that motivate students to adopt SNSs for academic purposes. However, the influence of other people in society and the desire to be identified with social groups were found not to be important predictors of SNSs use by students for educational purposes.Research limitations/implicationsThe data examined in this study are based on sample responses from only one university, which may limit the extent of generalization of the findings.Originality/valueThis paper provides some useful insights into the key predictors of SNSs adoption for educational use by university students from the perspective of a developing country.


2017 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 360
Author(s):  
Mohd Shoaib Ansari ◽  
Aditya Tripathi

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p><span>Information communication technology playing a major role in transmitting idea, thought and information between one to another. Social networking websites are a good example of communication network and it is a social structure that lets the user interact and work collaboratively with other users. WhatsApp is a free instant </span><span>messenger application that allows users to send text messages and multimedia files. In this paper, an online survey </span><span>was conducted to measure usability of WhatsApp for service delivery in the libraries and information centres. A random sample was selected from social networking sites from all over India and an online questionnaire was used to gather information from respondents. Findings indicated that respondents showed a positive attitude toward getting services over WhatsApp. Most of the respondents believe that use of WhatsApp can improve alert services (CAS, </span><span>virtual reference, notifications) and libraries can utilise their potential for providing better user services. </span></p></div></div></div>


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