Comparison between students’ and instructors’ perceived use and effectiveness of online social technologies

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Larian Nkomo

Abstract

With the massive growth in internet user numbers, the use of social technologies has also grown over the past decade and it has changed the way people conduct their business and studies. Today, online social technologies have become part of education which are mainly used to improve learning experiences and facilitate communication between students and instructors. Therefore, instructors consider integrating social technologies such as Facebook and synchronous communication channels in their educational activities based on the fact that students spend lots of time on such social technologies. However, perceived use of social technologies of students and instructors as well as their aims of using them might be different. This study compares students’ and instructors’ perceived use and effectiveness of online social technologies to fully comprehend the viability of online social technologies in universities. Independent-sample t-test is applied to data collected from 370 students and 106 instructors to find the similarities and differences in perceptions and effectiveness between students and instructors.
 
Keywords: Online social technologies, social media, higher education, student perceptions, instructor perceptions. 

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