scholarly journals Investigating ‘WhatsApp’ for Collaborative Learning among Undergraduates

Etkileşim ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (5) ◽  
pp. 24-50
Author(s):  
Silas Udenze ◽  
Barth Oshionebo
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Collaborative Learning ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
New Media ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use

The adoption of new media technologies is rapidly becoming a trend in educational environment. Given the growing popularity of social media, it has become pertinent to understand and adopt social media networks in developing future educational blue prints. This study investigates the extent to which WhatsApp platform could engender collaborative learning among undergraduate students in the University of Abuja, Gwagwalada, Nigeria. To achieve this aim, a dual research methodology was employed to drive the study. Both survey and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) were employed respectively. Surveying 400 undergraduates, data from the survey were analysed using Simple Percentage Table (SPT) and Microsoft Office tools, while data that emanated from the focus group were analysed thematically. The study incorporated ‘Technology Acceptance Model’ (TAM) to direct and guide it. Discoveries from the study found that “perceived usefulness” and “perceived ease of use” engender the use of WhatsApp among students. Also, it was discovered that students incorporated and domesticated class WhatsApp group for various purposes, particularly for learning. Overall, the study found that class WhatsApp group engenders collaborative learning to a large extent. However, it was discovered that the major challenge in class WhatsApp groups is the posting of irrelevant contents on the platforms. The study concluded that it is paramount to fully harness the potentials of WhatsApp in order to enhance learning in higher institutions.

Attitude toward social media reviews and restaurant visit intention: a Bangladeshi perspective

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nurun Naher Popy ◽  
Tauhid Ahmed Bappy
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Focus Group ◽  
Focus Group Discussion ◽  
Information Quality ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Content Type ◽  
The Relationship

PurposeWhile the usage of social media reviews has become increasingly popular in recent years, few studies in this context of Bangladesh have investigated its impact on restaurant visit intention. Therefore, this study aims to explain the role of attitude toward social media reviews in customers' restaurant visit intention from the perspective of Bangladesh. In doing so, predictors of attitude toward social media reviews were also ascertained and their indirect effects on restaurant visit intention were investigated.Design/methodology/approachA survey questionnaire was administered to 300 university students. A six-factor based measurement model was proposed, and structural equation modeling (SEM) was used in testing the hypotheses represented by the model. Furthermore, a focus group discussion with 12 respondents was also held to assess how negative reviews on social media affect the customers' restaurant visit intention.FindingsThis study reveals that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, trustworthiness and information quality of social media reviews are positively related to attitude toward using positive social media reviews for choosing a restaurant. Furthermore, attitude toward positive social media reviews directly contributes to the intention to visit restaurants. Besides, attitude toward social media reviews fully mediates the relationship of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trustworthiness with restaurant visit intention, whereas it partially mediates the relationship between information quality and restaurant visit intention. Besides, results from focus group discussion revealed that customers typically trust negative reviews which reduce their intent to visit restaurants.Research limitations/implicationsThe samples chosen for this study belong only to a particular stratum of the population (students from a specific institution/university). Hence, the outcomes should be generalized with caution.Practical implicationsThis study provides practical guidelines for the restaurant marketers to formulate improved strategic decisions by tracking the restaurant customers' attitudes, behavioral intentions, sentiments and share of voice on social media platforms. The results of this study will encourage the restaurant marketers to build sustainable relationships with influential food bloggers to spawn positive electronic word of mouth (e-WOM).Originality/valueThis is one of the first studies in Bangladesh that have covered up a timely and untouched research area, providing empirical evidence regarding the effects of attitude toward social media reviews on restaurant visit intent in the context of a South Asian country like Bangladesh.

scholarly journals Assessing Acceptance Toward Wiki Technology in the Context of Higher Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 18 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Panagiota Altanopoulou ◽  
Nikolaos Tselios
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Big Five Personality ◽  
Extended Model ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
Wiki Technology ◽  
Acceptance Model

<p class="3">This study investigated undergraduate students’ intention to use wiki technology. An extension of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used by taking into account not only students’ wiki perceived utility and usability, but also Big Five personality characteristics and two other variables, social norms, and facilitating conditions, as proposed in the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). Students’ beliefs before (pre-wiki scenario) and after (post-wiki scenario) the actual use of the wiki system were investigated, with 85 and 86 participants respectively. The hypotheses were tested using partial least squares analysis. For the pre-wiki scenario, 8/15 hypotheses were confirmed and 11/15 for the post-wiki scenario. The relationship between perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness was found to be of the highest magnitude. The most notable difference across the two scenarios was that the relation between perceived ease of use and attitudes towards use was significant only in the first scenario. The results demonstrate that the proposed TAM-extended model could predict students’ wiki acceptance.</p>

scholarly journals Aceptación y uso de los sistemas e-learning por estudiantes de Grado de Ecuador: El caso de una universidad estatal

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 548 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard Ramirez-Anormaliza ◽  
Ferrán Sabaté ◽  
Xavier Llinàs-Audet ◽  
Oriol Lordan
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Learning Systems ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
State University ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Validity And Reliability ◽  
E Learning

Purpose: The purpose of this research was to adapt the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to predict the use and intended use of e-learning systems among undergraduate students at a state university in Ecuador, with the intention of improving the understanding of those factors that could enhance the utilization of these systems and the implementation of policies to increase the benefits they bring to the process of teaching and learning.Design/methodology: The analysis has epistemological basis on the empirical-inductive, based on observation of perception. Based on the literature review on the evaluation and acceptance of e-learning systems, the model has been adapted to the case of Ecuador and a questionnaire with 52 items based on Likert scales was developed. The instrument was emailed to 600 undergraduate students from a state university in Ecuador, being 423 of them answered satisfactorily. We performed validity and reliability tests of structural equation model by partial least squares (PLS), with the support of statistical software SmartPLS.Contributions and results: The results indicate that all the hypotheses of TAM are met in the Ecuadorian context, when assessing the acceptance of e-learning systems among undergraduate students at a state university. The main contribution was to identify that the perceived enjoyment, social influence and computer self-efficacy have a direct effect on the two main constructs of TAM, perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived usefulness (PU). It was also found that satisfaction (S) is highly influenced by PU and S influences the use of e-learning systems, being the first a specific contribution of this study. Technical support showed no influence on the fundamental constructs of TAM.Limitations: The research was conducted to undergraduate students in one state Category B university of Ecuador, being the reality of this country more complex, as there are four categories with different characteristics. We haven’t considered neither age, gender, graduate students nor socioeconomic status, among other student characteristics that may affect the investigation.Practical implications: Identifying the factors that influence the acceptance and use of e-learning systems will help to create and improve teaching and learning environments for undergraduate students. Allowing exploiting the benefits of these technological tools more efficiently, adapting them to management policies of the institutions of higher education.Originality/value: This paper presents empirical data on the use and acceptance of e-learning systems for undergraduate students of a particular university in Ecuador. No similar studies are evident in the country and the model can be considered for future studies of national scope.

scholarly journals External Variables as Antecedents of Users Perception in Virtual Library Usage

10.28945/3450 ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
pp. 073-087 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olusola I. Akinbobola ◽  
Akinniyi A. Adeleke
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Survey Study ◽  
University Management ◽  
Virtual Library ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Grade Point ◽  
External Variables

Several studies extended the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) by examining the antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use; the present study looks at demographic aspect of external variables in virtual library use among undergraduate students. The purpose of this study is to identify the demographic factors sex, level of study, cumulative grade point average, and computer knowledge that act as external factors that are antecedents of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. The university management makes a large investment in the provision of a virtual library; investigation of the virtual library acceptance by students is important. TAM and theory of reasoned action (TRA) are utilised to theoretically test a model for the extension and to predict virtual library acceptance and usage. In a survey study, data was collected by using a structured questionnaire given to 394 randomly selected participants in a private university. Data were analysed by Pearson product moment correlation, multiple and hierarchical regression. The result of the study is consistent with TAM factors examined for explaining virtual library usage. The extension model accounts for 2.5% variance in perceived usefulness, 2.1% in perceived ease of use, 11.7% - 15.2% on intention to use and 7.2% on actual use of virtual library. Implications of the findings of the study on user’s virtual library training are discussed.

scholarly journals The influence of system interactivity and technical support on learning management system utilization

2017 ◽  
pp. 50-68 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Management System ◽  
Structural Equation ◽  
Learning Management System ◽  
Technical Support ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Learning Management

In recent years, there has been a growing increase in using Learning Management System (LMS) by universities. However, its utilization by students is limited in Malaysia. The main purpose of the present study is to develop and test a model that predicts LMS utilization by Malaysian higher education students. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model, the study investigated the relationships among six constructs (system interactivity, technical support, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, behavioral intention to use and LMS use) through structural equation modelling. The participants were 216 undergraduate students from a local university in Malaysia. The result of the study revealed that system interactivity had a significant effect on perceived usefulness, but not on perceived ease of use; technical support had a significant effect on perceived ease of use, but not on perceived usefulness.

scholarly journals Teacher’s Perception towards Usage of Social Media To Enhance Teaching Performance

2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shazia Shahab Shaikh ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Public Universities ◽  
New Technology ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Partial Least Square ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Least Square ◽  
Teaching Performance ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use

The study directs to analyze the perception of teachers towards the adaption of social media as a new technology for the enhancement of teaching performance. The collected data contains a sample of n=130 faculty members of two public universities of Sindh province of Pakistan. Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been used in the framework of the study. The data were analyzed by the Smart Partial Least Square (PLS) software version 3. The aggregate response from the teacher's rate is 94.7% for the current study. More than an average social networking source, Whatsapp mostly used 58.46% by the teachers of public universities. The teachers of public universities use 92.31% of Facebook and 67.69% of Whatsapp less than four hours per day. Acceptable scores of Cronbach’s Alpha through reliability values appear greater than 0.70 up to 0.987. Moreover, both AVE and CV are indicating acceptable scores. A value of SRMR below 0.08 is a depiction of good fit. The study confirmed all the established hypotheses indicating the factors including Perceived Usefulness and the Perceived Ease of Use and towards teachers’ performance and satisfaction are significantly affected by the use of social media. Therefore, the study finds a stronger association of social media use to Perceived ease of usefulness. It is also observed that the Perceived Usefulness and Perceived Ease of Use appear crucial factors to make a significant prediction about teachers’ performance after using social media in Pakistan.

scholarly journals Perceived Usefulness and Ease of Use of Social Media among Pre-service Teachers in Ghana

2020 ◽  
pp. 69-78
Author(s):  
Daniel Paa Korsah ◽  
Issah Bala Abdulai ◽  
Daniel Gbormittah
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Study Data ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Education In Ghana ◽  
Use Of Social Media

The study examined the level of Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEOU) of social media within the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) in order to ascertain the usefulness of social media among Pre-service Teachers in Ghana. Stratified random sampling was used to select 391 Pre-service Teachers for the study. Data was collected using a questionnaire and analysed based on descriptive statistics and an Independent sample t-test. This study found that majority of the Pre-service Teachers use two social media platforms; WhatsApp and Facebook. The study further established a significant difference between Pre-service Teachers whose usage of social media sites specifically affect their perceived usefulness and those that specifically affect their perceived ease of use. The study encouraged teachers to integrate e-learning applications like Blackboard, Google Classroom and Edmodo in their courses (using the blended learning approach) as they have social media-like features that students have already embraced. This study contributed to research on the possibility of integrating social media into teaching and learning in Colleges of Education in Ghana.

The relationship between the technology acceptance model and preference for ebooks at a large research university

2019 ◽  
Vol 36 (3) ◽  
pp. 13-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Lynn Smith ◽  
Allyson Rodriguez ◽  
Erin DeWitt Miller ◽  
Lu Xu
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Self Efficacy ◽  
Research University ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Large Research ◽  
Large Research University

Purpose This study aims to uncover factors related to students’ preference for ebooks with hopes that understanding what drives these preferences will help librarians to figure out how to increase students’ use of ebooks. Design/methodology/approach Based on the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology, researchers developed a model of ebook preference and a survey including constructs related to perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Respondents were undergraduate students from a core political science course at a large research university in the USA. Findings Ebook performance expectancy and ebook self-efficacy have indirect effects on ebook preference by way of ebook attitude. Ebook attitude and social influence both have direct effects. Research limitations/implications One of the limitation include respondents being of a similar age and having a similar experience of technology and ebooks. Prior use of ebooks may partially explain the results. Practical implications Librarians should help students develop ebook self-efficacy. Vendors should consider how interfaces may impact ebook self-efficacy. Ebook attitude may be positively influenced by tapping students’ desire to utilize technology. Originality/value This research adds to the understanding about ebook preference while expanding research in libraries by applying a theory and model from another research discipline.

Predictors of Nigeria's Premier University Undergraduate Students' Online Shopping Adoption

2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 19-35
Author(s):  
Adeola Omobola Opesade ◽  
Omotola A. Fabowale
Keyword(s):  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Undergraduate Students ◽  
Quantitative Research ◽  
Online Shopping ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Internet Technology ◽  
Survey Method ◽  
Research Approach ◽  
Perceived Ease Of Use

Online shopping is one of the dividends of the Internet technology. Online shops give shoppers the privilege of getting some benefits that cannot be offered in a physical store. Despite this, many potential customers have not embraced the technology, due to varying factors. The present article adapts the Theory of Reasoned Action and Technology Acceptance Model to investigate factors affecting the adoption of online shopping by Nigerian undergraduate students, using the University of Ibadan as a case study. Employing the quantitative research approach with survey method, it was discovered that a perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness significantly influence students' attitude to online shopping. Attitude, trust and subjective norm were found to influence behavioural intention to adopt online shopping, which in turn affects students' adoption of online shopping.

Users' attitude and intention to use mobile financial services in Bangladesh: an empirical study

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Md. Tanvir Alam Himel ◽  
Shahrin Ashraf ◽  
Tauhid Ahmed Bappy ◽  
Md Tanaz Abir ◽  
Md Khaled Morshed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Focus Group ◽  
Technology Acceptance ◽  
Focus Group Discussion ◽  
Financial Services ◽  
Group Discussion ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
Perceived Usefulness ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Study Results ◽  
Mobile Financial Services

PurposeWhile the usage of mobile financial services (MFSs) is increasing rapidly in developing countries, research on users' attitudes and behavioral intention to adopt MFS is limited. Thus, this study aims to investigate customers' attitudes and intentions to adopt MFS from a Bangladeshi perspective.Design/methodology/approachA mixed research design was employed to conduct this study. Data of 196 respondents were analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling. For the quantitative part, data collection was conducted using non-probability sampling through a structured survey questionnaire. A focus group discussion with ten MFS users from divergent backgrounds was conducted to validate the quantitative findings.FindingsThis paper integrated both the technology acceptance model (TAM) and innovation resistance theory (IRT) to validate the results. The authors found that perceived usefulness (PU), perceived ease of use (PEOU) and perceived trust (PT) positively contribute to customers' attitudes toward MFS adoption. Besides, barriers to acceptance had unfavorable effects on users' attitudes and usage intentions. Furthermore, a focus group discussion revealed valuable insights on the constructs used in this study.Practical implicationsThe study results have implications for both MFS providers and researchers. The outputs and recommendations presented in this paper will encourage the MFS practitioners to stimulate users' attitudes and behavioral intentions by ensuring useful, easy to use, credible and risk-free mobile payment platforms.Originality/valueThis is one of the very few studies in Bangladesh that have taken a contemporary and emerging research topic, providing theoretical, methodological and practical contributions regarding the determinants and consequences of attitude toward using MFSs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document