Analysis of Social Media Utilization by Students in Higher Education: A Critical Literature Review of Ghana (original) (raw)
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Students’ Use of Social Media in Higher Education in Ghana
This study examined social media use among university students. An online survey was administered to a random sample of 311 sandwich students in the University of Education, Winneba in the 2012/13 academic year. The results revealed that majority of the students were aware of and use social media for a variety of reasons which included: connecting with old friends and family members, finding new friends, obtaining or sharing learning materials, receiving update of events, posting information and whiling away time. It was also found that students had concerns about joining or using social media which included concerns about personal privacy, limited computing skills, cost of Internet connectivity and time to use social media. The results of the study also indicated that students had positive views about the academic use of social media. Students believed that: it will be fun for their lecturers to use social media, their grades will be better if they could contact lecturers through social media and lecturers should hold some lecture hours on social media.
Modern education has now become student centered and our students are no more confined to the four walls of traditional classroom. Mobile technology and the web 2.0 have made today’s education synonymous with anywhere, anyplace, anytime learning coupled with the growing interest of social media in all spheres of our lives which higher institutions can tap into these emerging technologies to support and improve teaching and learning. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of social media technologies in teaching and learning at higher institutions of education. A blended approach was adopted as a research methodology with the use of survey questionnaires and interviews to gather data. The result of the study confirmed the researcher’s theory that social media is a very powerful educational tool that can be harness to improve teaching and learning in developing countries. It further revealed that students were using these technologies in learning and wanted authorities’ to incorporate these social media technologies into their teaching and learning. Participants showed a very high positive perceptions, readiness and strong attitude of adopting and integrating SNS in their education to benefits from these technologies which they strongly believed outweigh the draw backs. The study concluded that social media is a viable educational tool for anytime, anywhere, anyplace mobile learners and needs greater attention from stakeholders in the educational sector.
European Journal of Education and Pedagogy
The use of social media and IT application tools as an alternative pedagogical approach in higher educational institutions of learning cannot be compromised. Considering their incalculable advantages especially, in these times of the COVID-19 pandemic where closure of schools characterised some of the mitigating factors which wedged pedagogy. Nonetheless, quite a few institutions have taken advantage of these technologically inclined resources to facilitate teaching and learning. Therefore, this study explores the perceived usage of social media outlets and IT application tools in the University of Cape Coast (UCC) as a means of pedagogy by the Academic Staff. The study employed a cross-sectional survey as result of which 102 Academic Staff were sampled. The findings disclosed that the use of social media (i.e., Twitter), online collaborative tool (i.e., Google Hangouts) as a means of pedagogy is conspicuously absent among the teaching staff. Whiles some IT application tools (i.e., ...
The study sought to assess students' use of social media and its effect on academic performance of tertiary institutions students in Ghana with a focus on Koforidua Polytechnic students. Questionnaire was used for collecting data. Out of one thousand five hundred and seventy-eight copies of the questionnaire distributed, one thousand five hundred and eight were retrieved which represented a response rate of 95.5 %. The study revealed that majority of the respondents had mobile phones which also had Internet facility on them and had knowledge of the existence of many media sites. The study further confirmed that most of the respondents visit their social media sites using their phones and spend between thirty minutes to three hours per day. In addition the study revealed that the use of social media sites had affected academic performance of the respondents negatively and that there was direct relationship between the use of social media sites and academic performance. The study recommends among others that, students with mobile phones having internet facility should be encouraged to use it to supplement their research in the library rather than the usual charting with friends all the time. Students should be encouraged to limit the time they spend on their social media sites per day and advise them to rather substitute those hours to read novels to improve their knowledge. Since the use of social media sites had affected the academic work of students negatively there is the urgent need for the introduction of students to the availability of novels and other information resources or materials that can help them academically.
This paper examines social media tools as medium for knowledge sharing among students and academic staff of Nigerian universities: case study of students' and academic staff of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, Ogun state, Nigeria. The survey research method was adopted for this study because similar studies adopted this approach. A structured questionnaire was designed and used to collect data for this study. Population for the study comprises of Two hundred and fifty (250) academic staff and One thousand two hundred (1200) students. The data obtained were analyzed using simple percentages and frequency counts. Findings of the study revealed that students make use of social media tools than academic staff. It also revealed that majority of academic confirmed that they are strongly aware of social media tools which was supported with 158 (69%), while undergraduate students' supported with 690 (86%) and postgraduate students' supported with 289 (79.1%). Social networking sites are the most used by both students and academic staff and the main purpose of using social media tools by academic staff is for research purpose while students use social media tools mainly to keep in touch with friends and download applications. INTRODUCTION The development that social media tools have brought to our society at large cannot be over emphasized. It has made difficult task very easy at the click of a button and what anyone could not believe would be achieved in decades is now been achieved and actualized within split seconds. Social media tools has paved way for millions of people across the world to locate, connect, make friends, share ideas, solicit supports, and mobilize people with similar interest e.g. against unfavorable government policy, despotic or weak leaders, injustice etc. These tools have redefined the way news is presented to the public and the way people communicate across the world. The new media has eliminated the gate keeping mechanism of the traditional media, which were previously initiated by the government, politicians and journalists According to researchers, these tools have touched and affected all aspects of human lives and endeavors, which have gone a long way in enhancing the way we live and relate with one another globally. In Nigerian tertiary institution to be precise, social media tools have afforded both students and lecturers lots of opportunities of which they never dreamt of. Lecturers and students can better relate well online without visible contact, lectures can be conducted online anywhere and at any time at the lecturers convenience, assignments can also be submitted online without much ado, results is also checked online, students who lack self-confidence or feel shy to ask questions in class can better express him/herself one on one with the lecturer without any fear, stress of students registration is reduced, and there is a better forum for lecturer-student relationship. Sonja & Carina (2012) are of the opinion that Undergraduate students today learn in a different manner than most academics have. Active learning takes place where students change the channels when their needs are not being met. The reason why social media tools are not widely applied in today's curriculum is because many lecturers are not really interested in learning about social media techniques which is the pivot of knowledge sharing in this 21 st century. All these social media tools have pedagogical potentials and should therefore not to be neglected by academic staff in our higher institution of learning. It is obvious that students are more versatile in the use of these media tools (digital natives) than lecturers and are deploying various social media tools for social and academic purposes, therefore, lecturers need to be aware of the ongoing utilization thereof in order to be on the same playing field as their students. This awareness and consideration of these tools are necessary in order to meet students' needs, encourage knowledge sharing, to keep them interested and motivated during their studies.
Social media refers to the means of interaction among people in which they create, share, exchange and comment among themselves in different networks. Since the advent of social media sites, it is assumed in some quarters that the academic performance of students is facing a lot of neglect and challenges. There is a deviation, distraction and divided attention between social networking activities and their academic work. Social networking and their educational uses are of interest to many researchers. The aim of the study was to analyze the impact of social media on the academic performance of students of Adamawa State Polytechnic Yola. To achieve this, survey research method was used. Subjects were drawn from the institution, using the simple random sampling technique and purposive sampling. Four research questions guided the study. The research findings shows that a great number of students (96%) in Adamawa State Polytechnic, Yola devote more attention to social media than they do to their studies. Therefore, the academic performance of students suffers setbacks which lead to poor performance in the student's academics. Based on this, the researcher recommended that sites should be created for educational purposes as well, to create a balance between social networking and academic activities of students.
The extent to which social media has impacted education in Ghana
As social media sites continue to augment in popularity, it is our premise that technology is a vital part in today’s student success equation. This statement from scholars portrays that social media as part of today’s technological advancement cannot be kept hidden when issues of education is raised. This paper intends to investigate into the extent to which social media has influenced education in Ghana taken into account one of the reputable educational institutions in the country (Aggrey Memorial Senior High School).The outcome of the study would try to justify whether or not the recent poor performance of student in the West African Senior School Certificate Examination is caused by social media addiction to students as people suggested.