Effect of facilitating conditions on the use of social networks as pedagogical tool in higher education

Abstract

As internet connectivity gains ubiquity and social network sites emerge as the most popular venue for gathering of people of all ages, the government and educationists can think of putting social networks to better use by using it as a pedagogical tool, especially for higher education. Although some studies have been conducted in this regard, the findings often seem to lack proper scientific and statistical validation. Moreover, majority of these research works having been conducted in the Western countries, may not hold true in case of developing countries like India. The current research work focuses on this need and attempts to explore the present status of usage of social media in Indian institutes of higher education. Taking cue from the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology, proposed by Venkatesh et al. (MIS Q 2(3): 425–478, 2003), we have checked whether there is a significant difference in perception among faculty members, students and administrators of higher educational institutions regarding availability of facilitating conditions to use social network sites for educational purposes. Appropriate statistical techniques have been used on a random sample to empirically validate the findings, which indicate that the expectation of faculty members, students and administrators in institutes of higher education vary regarding use of social media for academic purposes.