Perceptions of Dammam University Preparatory Year Students' about the Uses of Social Networking to Support and Enhance Teaching and Learning Processes (original) (raw)
The goal of the present research is "To study for the introductory year students at Dammam University the Perceptions of the contribution of social networks to support and enhance teaching and learning processes". The research has been conducted during the academic year 2014/2015 on a sample of (281) introductory year students at Dammam University who correctly responded to the research tool. The final research sample has been sorted according to gender: (97 male students representing 34% and 184 female students representing 66%). The results revealed that 91.6% of the student sample uses the social networks, 40.5% of which uses it to communicate with relatives and friends, 7.6% to exchange views and ideas with others and to discover other cultures while 9.5% are using it for leisure and entertainment, while only 2.2% of the sample under study uses it, for the time being, as educative assistance. The study has also handled the mental image of the introductory year students (first year in university) towards the uses of the social networks and its applications in education. The results revealed the existence of positive mental images of the introductory year students in the following axes: a) support the interaction between the teachers and students and among the students themselves; b) content and education activities support; c) support to the learner-based education strategies with a high scoring on a scale of (5 points). The results revealed as well the existence of statistically indicative differences in the mental images of the introductory year students towards the use of social networks and implementation thereof in the education process according to gender (males and females) for the benefit of male students. Based on the study results the two researchers have presented a number of recommendations and pedagogic applications and more of the future suggested studies.
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