Title: A snapshot survey of Saudi higher education students' perceptions of SNSs and Web 2.0 as a support learning tool based on the proposed social learning hub model

Authors: Suleiman Alsaif; Alice S. Li; Ben Soh

Addresses: Department of Computer Science and IT, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia ' La Trobe Business School, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia ' Department of Computer Science and IT, La Trobe University, Bundoora, VIC 3086, Australia

Abstract: The rapid growth in social network sites and Web 2.0 applications has changed the ways of communications, knowledge exchange and learning. However, there is a lack of educational research in relation to learning outcomes on utility of Facebook and other similar SNSs in terms of: 1) interactions of students; 2) academic communication; 3) cooperative learning; 4) student motivation. Based on our proposed social learning hub (SLH) model, we empirically examine the abovementioned four factors as a pilot survey on student perceptions of the use of Facebook as a learning tool, in the School of Engineering and the School of Computer Sciences and IT, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. Our findings indicated that the majority of the students had a hesitant perception of using Facebook in terms of the abovementioned four factors; and this negative perception needs to be rectified with intervention strategies.

Keywords: Saudi higher education; educational technology; Facebook; social networking site; SNS; Web 2.0; pilot survey.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSEM.2017.095453

International Journal of Services, Economics and Management, 2017 Vol.8 No.4, pp.287 - 310

Accepted: 12 May 2018
Published online: 04 Oct 2018 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article