Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Computers in Human Behavior
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh
Full length article
To use or not to use? Social media in higher education in developing
countries
Abu Elnasr E. Sobaih a, *, Mohamed A. Moustafa b, Parvis Ghandforoush c,
Mahmood Khan c
a
b
c
Hotel Management Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
Tourism Studies Department, Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, Helwan University, Cairo, Egypt
Pamplin College of Business at Virginia Tech, Northern Virginia Centre, Falls Church, VA, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
a b s t r a c t
Article history:
Received 2 September 2015
Received in revised form
4 January 2016
Accepted 5 January 2016
Available online xxx
This research is a response to the universal use of social media by students for academic-related purposes. It bridges a gap in knowledge in relation to the value and use of social media as effective teaching
and learning tool in higher education in developing countries. A pre-tested questionnaire survey was
self-administered to faculty members in the eight public Egyptian higher institutions offering tourism
and hotel management programs. The results showed that social media have a great value for academicrelated purposes, particularly as teaching and learning tool; however, the actual use by faculty was at a
minimal level. In-depth interviews were conducted to identify the perils, barriers and concerns for the
minimal use. Several barriers were identified with some specific to developing countries' context.
Nonetheless, there was consensus by faculty that if these barriers were overcome, social media could be
developed as an innovative and effective tool for teaching and learning. Implications for researchers and
policy makers are discussed.
© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords:
Social media
Social networking sites (SNSs)
Informal scholarly communication
Mobile learning
Higher education
Social learning
1. Introduction
Hundreds of millions of users are now contributing social media
contents using Web 2.0 and social networking sites (SNSs) such as
Facebook and Twitter. Social media are defined as the means of
interactions among people in which they communicate, collaborate
and share information online in a social dialogue as creators of
user-generated content in a virtual community (Grosseck, 2009).
Social media is a platform, where users can jointly investigate
network contents, share their experience and build up a relation for
different purposes, e.g., social or educational (Jiao, Gao, & Yang,
2015). Since its blizzard explosion, social media has drawn the
attention of scholars in many contexts. One of these issues, limited
but growing research, was the use of social media as a learning tool
in higher education (Davis, Deil-Amen, Rios-Aguilar, & Canche,
2012; Gupta, 2014; Tess, 2013) or as mobile learning in higher education (Bosch, 2009; Romero, 2015), but paucity of research was
found with regard to some particular disciplines, i.e., the use of
* Corresponding author. Faculty of Tourism and Hotel Management, 1 Abd-Elaziz
Al-Soaood Street, Elmanial, Cairo, 12612, Egypt.
E-mail address: abuelnasr@hotmail.co.uk (A.E.E. Sobaih).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.01.002
0747-5632/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
social media in hospitality and tourism higher education (Hajli &
Lin, 2014; Liburd & Christensen, 2013; Sobaih & Moustafa, 2016).
Universities, particularly public ones, in developing countries,
e.g., Egypt, often suffer from poor infrastructure and lack communication technology and formal electronic methods to connect with
their students, e.g., Blackboard, university email and student blogs.
In addition, they are still depending on the traditionally-based
learning management system (LMS) of one-way communication
inside classroom and do not use full capabilities of social media in
engaging students in virtual learning (Al-Rahmi, Othman, Yusof, &
Musa, 2015). The value of integrating social media in higher education rests on socio-cultural learning theories (Liburd &
Christensen, 2013). The socio-cultural learning theories (see for
example, Vygotesy, 1992) showed that students have different
learning styles; however, it was confirmed that interaction between students and educators is the key element in both classroom
and the virtual learning environment. Liburd and Christensen
(2013) said that the use of social media encourage students to
participate and create in-depth learning through interaction, critical thinking and collaboration. Therefore, Sobaih and Moustafa
(2016) argued that social media have a great potential to be used
as a communication platform for academic-related purposes,
A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
particularly in relation to teaching and learning in higher education
since students already use these networks. In addition, social media
could bridge the digital divide between developed and developing
countries, especially in Africa, where Egypt is located, which is
perceived to be the most vulnerable to such digital marginalization
(Tassiopoulos, 2010).
This research was empirically designed to investigate the values
and use of social media as a teaching and learning platform in
higher education in developing countries using the Egyptian institutions offering Tourism and Hotel Management as a case study.
This research identifies the different patterns of using the social
media as informal scholarly communication tool. It assesses the
extent to which social media can be used in different academic
settings as an informal scholarly communication tool. The potential
barriers that may exit around adoption of social media as informal
scholarly communication for teaching and learning purposes are
identified. It also contributes to the general body of knowledge in
relation to the use of social media as a platform for academicrelated purposes. More precisely, the guiding research questions
were as follows:
- What is the extent to which Egyptian higher institutions use
social media as informal scholarly communication?
- What are the barriers that may prevent faculty members to use
social media as informal scholarly communication? How could
these barriers be overcome?
- What is the impact of using social media as informal scholarly
communication on learning outcomes?
- What is the potential of using social media in higher education
in developing countries
Notwithstanding this, developing countries such as Egypt, do
not have other technological communication to connect and
interact with their students and thus the social media remain a
good tool to rely on and develop for teaching and learning purposes
(Sobaih & Moustafa, 2016). Moreover, social media may be the
proper platform to bridge the digital divide between developed and
developing countries and also between institutions and their digital native students in developing country contexts.
2. Literaturereview
2.1. The use of social media in higher education
Although social media were established primarily for social
communication, it can be developed as an appropriate tool for
teaching and learning purposes, particularly to enhance interactions between academics and their students (Dyson, Vickers,
Turtle, & Cowan, 2015; Hamid, Waycott, Kurnia, & Chang, 2015;
Sugimoto, Hank, Bowman, & Pomerantz, 2015). Many studies
(e.g., Dyson et al., 2015; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) focus on the
integration of social media into higher education programs,
particularly at the undergraduate level. Sugimoto et al., (2015)
argued that relationships formed on Facebook or other social media tools between faculty members and students opened communication and resulted in an enhanced learning environment
whereby students become more engaged in the classroom.
Many higher education institutions are still depending on the
traditionally-based learning systems, which actually does not use
full capacity of social media to improve global participation of
students in learning through collaborative learning in social environment (Al-Rahmi et al., 2015). In addition, studies (see for
example, Michikyan, Subrahmanyam, & Dennis, 2015; Roblyer,
McDaniel, Webb, Herman, & Witty, 2010) showed that students
report more interest in the potential of social media, particularly
297
Facebook, as an instructional tool compared to faculty members.
Furthermore, Junco (2011) said that students use Facebook to create
contents and disseminate to others for social or educational purposes. Nonetheless, Davis et al., (2012) said that using social media
by institutions as a tool for engaging and involving students in
academic life is likely to yield more positive results and would help
institutions to fulfill their objectives. With particular focus on
tourism education, Liburd and Christensen (2013) said that social
media supports a more reflective approach to learning but also
offer the opportunity to make teaching more practical and
application-oriented. Hajli and Lin (2014) added that in an era of
social learning, social media can play an important role in developing tourism education and support online learning. Sobaih and
Moustafa (2016) added that establishing facultyestudent relationship on Facebook, and other social media enhances communication between students and faculty members; facilitates peer
and social learning; supports students; enhances self-confidence;
and builds strong connection and community.
Social media consist of several activities: communication with
friends; watching news; sharing photos, videos; involvement in
public topic discussion; adding instant message with real-time web
chat; and playing games. Theseare all user-generated content activities resulting in interactive social environment which is
appropriate for social and peer learning (Hajli & Lin, 2014). These
social platforms can also be a great tool for promoting learning
community; students engagement in courses; knowledge discussion; and student mentoring thereby facilitating social instant
learning and intelligent messages (Davis et al., 2012; Lan, Gou, & Xi,
2011; Sobaih & Moustafa, 2016) (See Fig. 1).
Social media have the potential to improve student learning,
facilitate educatorestudent and studentestudent interactions,
development of skills and level of satisfaction with new mobile
learning involvements (Romero, 2015). Many researchers (e.g. Alufi & Fulton, 2014; Hamid et al., 2015) have discussed the broad
benefits of social media in higher education. These include its
valuable use in connectedness, conversation, community and
improving student life satisfaction, trust and participation (Hamid
et al., 2015; Romero, 2015; Valenzuela, Park, & Kee, 2009); student motivation and effective learning (Mazer, Murphy, & Simonds,
2007); student involvement (Heiberger & Harper, 2008);
enhancing student learning and teaching engagement (Paul, Baker,
& Cochran, 2012); and offering self-study course materials (Dyson
et al., 2015); students' personal, emotional support and selfconfidence (Sobaih & Moustafa, 2016). In addition, social media
activities in higher education are valuable for improving academic
performance through collaborative learning (Al-Rahmi et al., 2015)
where learners and faculty use social media that are appealing to
them (Hamid et al., 2015). Hung and Yuen (2010) explored how
social networking technology can be used to supplement face-toface courses as a means of enhancing students' sense of community and, thus, to promote classroom communities of practice in the
context of higher education. They found that the majority of participants developed strong feelings of social connectedness and
expressed favorable feelings regarding their learning experiences in
the classes where social networking sites were used as a supplementary tool. Social media educational activities reduce students'
anxiety levels by using a wide range of social media tools rather
than raising queries or questions in front of their colleagues
(Wheeler, Yeomans, & Wheeler, 2008). Furthermore, for purpose of
scholarly communications, faculty can use a wide range of social
media tools for exchanging information and communicating with
other colleagues or with students for professional development
such as promoting each other's work and sharing new research
ideas (Al-ufi & Fulton, 2014). Moran, Seaman, and Tinti-kane (2012)
reported that faculty are selective about their choice of social media
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A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
AcƟviƟes
Friends
Student
Peer learning
Learning
outcomes
Course engagement
Fresh news
Request for details
Returneddetails
Knowledge discussion
Following
Sharing
Public issues
Tagging
SNSs
Learning community
Teaching and learning
l f
Student achievements
Request for details
Student mentoring
Returned
details
Instant learning
Instant message
Faculty
Games
Intelligent game
Fig. 1. The value of using social media for academic-related purposes in higher education. Adapted from Lan et al. (2011) and Sobaih and Moustafa (2016).
to match their needs, for instance, Facebook is most-visited for
personal use; LinkedIn for professional use; and Blogs and Wikis for
teaching and learning purposes. Liu (2010) found that the three
top-used social media tools as a learning resource are Facebook,
Wikipedia, and YouTube; with the top four reasons for using social
media tools being social engagement, communication, speed of
feedback and relation building.
2.2. Perils and barriers of using social media in higher education
Faculty are very aware of social media and considerable number
of faculty use them regularly for personal, professional and learning
purposes (Moran et al., 2012), however, they have serious concerns
about the use of social media for academic-related purposes,
particularly as a learning tool (see for example, Au, Lam, & Chan,
2015; Davis et al., 2012; Moran et al., 2012). One of these concerns is the personal privacy on social media (Au et al., 2015; Boyd
& Ellison, 2007) since with today's advanced technology it is easy to
keep track of people's online activities which may put security and
privacy of its user at risk. In addition, faculty may not want their
students to get involved in their personal life and see their personal
profiles (Sobaih & Moustafa, 2016). Moran et al. (2012) found privacy among the top concerns by faculty members for using social
media as teaching and learning tool. Students, on the other hand,
are more likely to have private profile if they are active and often
connect with friends of same profile (Lewis, 2010). Another concern
from faculty's perspective is related to the effects of social media on
the time dedicated to studying (Davis et al., 2012). Faculty regards
social media as a source of entertainment and believes it serves as a
distraction and yet another impediment to academic achievement
and there is always doubt that social media can provide information and resources for its users beyond entertainment value
(Phillips, 2011). One of the key concerns regarding the use of social
media in higher education is related to the loss of control and
monitoring (Au et al., 2015). Despite educational institutions'
encouragement for collaboration among students and faculty to
facilitate positive learning outcomes, they are still concerned about
control and monitoring of quality of learning and teaching. As there
are many kinds of external open social media sources available, it is
hard for institutions to monitor each tool to ensure learners are
using them properly (Davis et al., 2012). Once again while sharing
information is an easy task using social media, the originality of the
work piece is difficult to be identified (Au et al., 2015). Moran et al.
(2012) said that the integrity of students' submission was the main
concern by faculty for using social media as learning tool. Another
challenge was related to the digital divide between students and
faculty members (Davis et al., 2012). Research (such as Sobaih &
Moustafa, 2016) has shown that the older the user of social media, the less participation in the use of social media. In addition,
students are sensitive to technology changes. Learning to use new
IT tools is an easy task for them. However, in students' perceptions
there is a lack of connection between using social media and their
academic learning (Au et al., 2015). Researchers found that students
have high activity level on social media for social purpose but are
A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
less motivated when it is connected to academic and learning
purposes (CCCSE, 2009). Moran et al. (2012) found that young
faculty use social media at rates much higher than the rates for
older faculty. Technical barrier for the use of social media in higher
education was related to the large variation of mobile devices. The
advancement of mobile technology makes online access more
flexible. However, social media tools may not fit into the configurations of all mobile devices. Some of the functions may be disabled
and frequent update of software is required (Au et al., 2015). In
addition, there are some limitations of mobile devices, e.g. memory
size, battery life, high line cost and small screen which can hinder
using mobile technology widely in learning (Alzaza & Yaakub,
2011). Hrastinski and Aghaee (2012) reported that although a vast
majority of campus students use social media frequently, a “digital
dissonance” existed because few of them feel that they use such
media to support their studies. The interviewees mainly mentioned
mail and instant messaging which are used to ask questions, coordinate group work and share files. Some of them mentioned
using Wikipedia and YouTube for retrieving content and Facebook
to initiate contact with course peers.
In spite of listed concerns, in a report by Moran, Seaman, and
Tinti-kane (2011) it was concluded that faculty believe that social
media offer value in teaching. An overwhelming majority of the
faculty in the survey believed that video, podcasts, and wikis are
valuable tools for teaching, and a majority reported that social
media sites can be valuable tools for collaborative learning.
The public higher education in developing countries depend on
the traditionally-based LMS of one-way information communication with little or no interactive learning and do not really reflect
the value of using social media and integrating the social media into
LMS (Al-Rahmi et al., 2015). Au et al. (2015) reported that when
embedding social media into teaching process, the faculty no
longer act as an instructor but as a facilitator and a mentor to guide
and encourage students' discussions. Therefore, another concern
about the use of social media as learning tool is that it requires
institutions to deploy new pedagogical approach and they may
need to re-evaluate their position as a knowledge provider in the
community and define new strategies, methodologies and tools (Au
et al., 2015) which may be costly for developing countries.
3. Methodology
3.1. Research population and sample
This research was conducted using faculty members in the eight
public Egyptian higher education institutions offering tourism and
hotel management programs. These institutions were spread all
over Egypt (Cairo; Alexandria; Fayoum; Suz Canal; Sadat City;
Minia; Mansoura and Luxor). These eight institutions have 403
faculty members at different ranks. According to the Egyptian
system of higher education these ranks compromise of 223 professors (assistant professor, associate professor and full professor)
and 180 teaching assistants who assist professors in teaching. There
were 52 professors holding administrative positions (heads of
department, vice deans, deans or vice presidents of universities).
Although it was not easy to access all faculty members, 50% of the
overall population was contacted.
3.2. Research method and data analysis
A mixed method approach was used to achieve the aims of this
research into two phases. In the first phase, a pretested questionnaire (in English) was used as a survey instrument to investigate
different aspects as perceived by faculty members at the eight
public institutions of tourism and hotels in Egypt. As shown in
299
Table 1, 90 instruments were distributed to professors; 90 to
teaching assistants; and 22 to administrators. Out of which 90 instruments were collected from professors; 86 from teaching assistants; and 20 from administrators. Only 84 instruments were
found to be valid for analysis from professors; 86 form teaching
assistants and 20 from administrators (see Table 1) due to incomplete information. Before distributing the instruments, details of
the research were discussed and voluntary consent was achieved
from participants. The instruments consisted of five main parts.
Part one collected demographic data, e.g. gender, age, position. In
part two, faculty were asked questions about their use of social
media, e.g. whether they use social media or not; how often they
use them; types of social media often used and reasons of use. In
part three, the questions were asked about faculty members' perceptions of using social media for academic and learning purposes.
The particular focus of this part was to assess the value of using
social media in four main specific areas: teaching and learning (8
items); student support (6 items); community building and
networking (4 items) and program marketing and promotions (4
items). Questions (items) in this part were based upon the scales
developed by Davis et al. (2012). Respondents were invited to state
their views regarding each statement using a 5-point Likert scale
(where 1 ¼ no value and 5 ¼ great value). In part four, respondents
were invited to state their views regarding same items that were
included in part three using a 5-point Likert scale (where 1 ¼ no use
and 5 ¼ great use). In a sense, part three and four have similar items
with one side focusing on the value and the other part on the use of
social media as shown in Table 3. In the final section of survey (part
5), respondents were asked to add any opinion or comment about
the use of social media for academic-related purposes mainly in
hospitality and tourism higher education. The reliability of item and
measures used was assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient.
This instrument yielded an alpha high level of .94 for 44 items
compared to the acceptable reliability level of .60 (Nunnally, 1978).
In the second phase of the survey, an in-depth interview was
conducted with participating faculty members to supplement the
study regarding their use of social media for academic-related
purposes. Twenty seven faculty members were interviewed.
Semi-structured interviews were conducted to further explore the
potential for use of social media as well as barriers for teaching and
learning purposes and to probe the results of the questionnaire.
With regard to questionnaire data analysis, Statistical Package
for Social Sciences (SPSS, version 21) was used. Frequencies were
used to analyze the respondents' profile and descriptive statistics
were used for perceptions of respondents towards the value and
use of social media. Descriptive statistics (i.e. Mean and Standard
Division) were used to analyze the value and use of social media by
the faculty members. Paired-samples t-test was used to compare
the value and use of social media responses from faculty. Effect size
statistics using Eta Squared was used to provide an indication of the
magnitude of the differences between the value and use. Interview
data were analyzed manually using content analysis.
4. Results
4.1. The Respondent's profile
The proportion of males in this study was almost equal to females (Table 2) with only higher percentage of males (60%) than
females (40%) holding administrative position. The vast majority of
teaching assistants (90%) were less than 30 years old and the rest of
them (10%) were between 30 and 40 years old. However, the majority of professors were between 41 and 60 years (85%) and the
rest of them (15%) were between 30 and 40 years old. All professors
holding administrative positions were between 41 and 60 years.
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A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
Table 1
The research sample.
Instruments distributed
Instruments collected
Instruments valid for analysis
Total
Teaching assistants
Professors
Administrators
90
90
84
190 (.94% response rate)
90
86
86
22
20
20
Table 2
The profile of respondents.
Gender
Age
Use of social media
Frequency of using social media
Devices used to connect to social media
Social media used
The purpose for using social media
Male
Female
Less than 30 years
30e40 years
41e60 years
Over 60 years
Yes
No
Daily
Weekly
Month
Yearly
Computer desktop
Laptop
Tablet or IPad
Smart phone
Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
LinkedIn
YouTube
Instagram
Others
Connecting with friends
Connecting with family
Connecting with other university colleagues
For academic and learning reasons
Updating new whether local or international
Express myself and my voice
Others
This is because according to the Egyptian system, administrators
should be full professor and cannot hold administrative positions
while they are above 60 years old unless there is no available
qualified candidate.
Interestingly, all the respondents stated they use social media
(Table 2). The vast majority of them (96% of teaching assistants; 94%
of professors; 70% of administrators) were active daily on social
media whereas the others were active on weekly basis. All respondents agreed they are active on social media using their smart
phones. Respondents were also using other devices to keep connected to others on social media. Next to smart phones the tablets
and/or IPads were the most used (Table 2). Only a small proportion
of the teaching assistants (8%) reported their access to social media
via their desktops.
The results also showed that faculty were subscribed to several
social media such as Facebook and WhatsApp. Facebook was the
highest used SNS by both teaching assistants and professors.
Moreover, WhatsApp was the second highest used site by both
teaching assistants and professors and the top used one by administrators. LinkedIn came at the third position for both teaching
assistants and professors (Table 2). Other social media that were
commonly used by respondents were YouTube, Twitter and Instagram. Some respondents also used other social media sites that
were not on the list, mainly mobile applications, e.g. Line. Only two
respondents said they use blogs and wikis.
Teaching assistants
Professors
Administrators
43 (51.19%)
41 (48.81%)
76 (90.48%)
8 (9.52%)
e
e
84 (100%)
0
81 (96.43%)
3 (3.57%)
e
e
7 (8.33%)
30 (35.71%)
45 (53.57%)
84 (100%)
84 (100%)
16 (19.05%)
81 (96.43%)
72 (85.71%)
76 (90.48%)
19 (22.62%)
15 (17.86%)
84 (100%)
80 (95.24%)
81 (96.43%)
70 (83.33%)
67 (79.76%)
77 (91.66%)
15 (17.86%)
44 (51.16%)
42 (49.84%)
e
13 (15.11%)
73 (84.88%)
e
84 (100%)
0
81 (94.19%)
5 (5.81%)
e
e
e
36 (41.86%)
40 (46.51%)
86 (100%)
82 (95.35%)
12 (13.95%)
80 (93.02%)
75 (87.20%)
30 (34.88%)
5 (5.81%)
10 (11.63%)
83 (96.51%)
84 (97.67%)
81 (94.18%)
64 (74.41%)
54 (62.79%)
43 (50%)
12 (13.95%)
12 (60%)
8 (40%)
e
e
20 (100%)
e
20 (100%)
0
14 (70%)
6 (30%)
e
e
e
9 (45%)
12 (60%)
20 (100%)
18 (90%)
2 (10%)
20 (100%)
20 (100%)
7 (35%)
3 (15%)
2 (10%)
20 (100%)
20 (100%)
16 (80%)
3 (15%)
17 (85%)
3 (15%)
9 (45%)
Although respondents were using social media for more than
one reason (Table 3), connectivity was the core purpose for using
social media. For example, the main reasons for almost all respondents for using these social media were to keep connected
with either friends or families. Teaching assistants (96%) and professors (94%) are more likely to use social media to connect with
other university colleagues than administrators (80%). They (83% of
teaching assistants and 74% of professors) also are more likely to
use social media for academic-related purposes than administrators (15%) reflecting that younger faculty use social media more
than older faculty. Other reasons for using social media by faculty
members included getting updated news and information and
expressing view points (see Table 2).
4.2. The value and use of social media in higher education in Egypt
The results of descriptive statistics (Table 3) showed that all
participants agreed that social media has either great value or at
least substantial value for use for academic-related purposes in
hospitality and tourism higher education, particularly in relation to
teaching and learning. However, their actual use of social media for
academic-related purposes was at a minimal level. Table 3 shows
higher mean values for all items regarding the values of social
media versus their actual use.
A paired-samples t-test was conducted to compare the value
A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
301
Table 3
Descriptive statistics of the value and use of social media by faculty members.
The value of using social
media
m
Items
The actual use of social media
s
Teaching and learning
4.2053
.67845
4.2105
.66499
4.2000
.63579
3.9526
.65293
3.9421
.61016
4.2211
.71535
4.3053
.61848
4.2789
.65148
Student support
4.3105
.58499
4.1737
.70248
4.1895
.70964
4.2263
.62263
4.2105
.62394
4.1053
.67414
Community buildings and connection
4.2000
.63579
4.1947
.64157
4.1895
.67133
4.1737
.70998
Program marketing and promotion
4.0421
.77549
4.1053
.75556
4.0947
.74285
4.1684
.67695
m
s
Communicate with and engage students in their courses
Students can check class assignment and receive course announcements
Create stronger learning communities
Download lectures posted by academics
Post useful academic links for students for checking
Facilitate class discussions and assignments or projects work
Post students' academic accomplishment or achievements
Students post their comments and enquires on academic issues
2.7474
2.7474
2.6316
2.7053
2.5368
2.6105
2.5421
2.4474
1.03350
.96465
.99259
1.03253
1.03699
.99517
1.01617
.99993
Provide student support on social networking sites
Offer workshops on students financial aid
Resolve issues related to students
Offer orientation regarding the college and the programmes
Provide mentoring to students
Help to navigate the students registration process
2.4842
2.4842
2.5263
2.4316
2.4895
2.4632
1.00647
.96897
.95221
.94452
.94695
.98465
Build and strengthen campus community
Facilitate students involvement and participation in activities
Encourage students to share their social activities in campus
Connect students with alumni (graduates)
2.3842
2.4263
2.4105
2.5000
1.01040
.98794
1.04395
1.05284
Promote college programmes inside and outside Egypt
Recruit students into specific academic programme or courses
Advertise new programmes and courses
Post the seminars, conventions and workshops
2.3789
2.4895
2.4105
2.5789
1.06089
1.05780
1.07885
1.07476
and use of social media in hospitality and tourism higher education
in relation to four main factors: teaching and learning; students'
support, community building and connection; program marketing
and promotion (see Table 4). There was a statistically-significant
difference between the value and use of social media regarding
the four main factors. For teaching and learning the value of using
social media decreased from (m ¼ 33.16, s ¼ 4.09) to the actual use
[m ¼ 20.97, s ¼ 6.75, t(189) ¼ 21.51, p < 0.000]. For students' support
the value of using social media decreased from (m ¼ 25.22, s ¼ 3.38)
to the actual use [m ¼ 14.88, s ¼ 5.47, t(189) ¼ 23.001, p < .000]. For
community building and connection the value of using social media
decreased from (m ¼ 16.76, s ¼ 2.49) to the actual use [m ¼ 9.72,
s ¼ 3.87, t(189) ¼ 22.38, p < .000] and for program marketing
promotion the value of using social media decreased from
(m ¼ 16.41, s ¼ 2.76) to the actual use [m ¼ 9.85, s ¼ 3.97,
t(189) ¼ 20.25, p < .000]. The eta squared statistic for all factors was
about .7 indicating a large effect size between the value and actual
use of social media in hospitality and tourism higher education in
Egypt.
4.3. Perils and barriers of social media in higher education in Egypt
Since the results of statistics showed significant differences
between the value and actual use of social media among hospitality
and tourism faculty in Egypt, it was imperative to conduct in-depth
interviews with a sample of participants to identify their concerns
and barriers for using social media for academic-related purposes,
particularly as a teaching and learning platform and how these
barriers could be overcome. Supporting the results of the questionnaire, all interviewees agreed that they use social media mainly
for connecting with friends and families but to a lesser extent with
their students for teaching and learning purposes. Faculty agreed
that they use social media regularly in their personal lives and to
some extent for professional purposes but using it for learning and
teaching purposes was not among their choices. There was an
agreement among all interviewees that Facebook (and Facebook
groups) is the top used tool to connect and interact with students.
In addition, Facebook and WhatsApp are the most common tools to
communicate with other university colleagues. Patterns of using
social media for teaching and learning purposes include: changing
the time of lecture; posting some useful information/links for
Table 4
The results of paired samples t-test statistics and Eta squared.
Pair 1
Pair 2
Pair 3
Pair 4
Teaching and learning value (a ¼ .90)
Teaching and learning use (a ¼ .92)
Student support value (a ¼ .95)
Student support use (a ¼ .95)
Community building and connection value (a ¼ .93)
Community building and connection use (a ¼ .96)
Program marketing and promotion value (a ¼ .96)
Program marketing and promotion use (a ¼ .94)
m
n
s
t
df
p*
h2
33.3158
20.9684
25.2158
14.8789
16.7579
9.7211
16.4105
9.8579
190
190
190
190
190
190
190
190
4.08576
6.75255
3.37604
5.47250
2.48898
3.87108
2.76024
3.97423
21.510
189
.000
.70
23.001
189
.000
.73
22.378
189
.000
.72
20.258
189
.000
.68
a ¼ Cronbach's Alfa; m ¼ mean; n ¼ number of respondents; s ¼ standard division;t ¼ paired t-test; h2 ¼ etasquared.
*
value < .000.
The formula for eta squared is: h2 ¼ t2/t2 þ n e 1.
302
A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
students related to their filed or their courses; posting portion of
the lecture, e.g. PowerPoint presentation; updates on assignment
requirements and deadlines. However, it is worth noting that
communication with students is almost one-way communication
where faculty post information and do not facilitate interactive
communication with students as they often do not facilitate class
discussion or answer students' enquires on social media and prefer
to have interactive communication inside the classroom. Social
media have become only a mean to deliver a message to students.
Since faculty argued that there is a great value for using social
media as a teaching and learning tool, they were asked about the
major perils, barriers or concerns for their minimal use. They stated
eleven main concerns or barriers (Table 5). The first eight concerns
were the same as cited in the literature; however, faculty added
three new barriers for their use of social media. Starting with the
same barriers identified in the literature, the first concern for using
social media for teaching and learning was related to the privacy
and security. Many faculty members (18 out of 27) were concerned
about privacy and thus they do not want to share their personal
profiles with students. For example, once student is accepted as a
friend by faculty on Facebook, s/he can view and comment on her/
his full profile. Faculty also were concerned that students may track
their personal activities and put their privacy at risk. Faculty argued
that they use social media in their personal lives to connect with
friends and families but very little with their students as learning
tool. The second barrier was related to the perceptions of some
faculty (9 out 27) that social media serve as a source of entertainment and socialization. This perception made such faculty argue
that time dedicated to teaching and learning on social media is time
wasted. In addition, few faculty (5 out of 27) believe that it will take
time from them to learn the full functions of social media as
teaching and learning platform. They argue this time can be used
for traditional teaching/learning approach, e.g. face-to-face lecture.
The third barrier was related to the control and monitoring of information and student activities. Faculty (19 out of 27) argued that
it is very difficult to control and monitor the blizzard activities of
students on various social media, e.g. posts and comments. Another
problem of control was the originality of the work which is very
difficult to be identified. The fourth barrier was related to the digital
divide between students and faculty, including the variation of use
in social media between students and faculty. Faculty(21 out of 27)
agreed that they cannot follow the fast pace in students' use of
technology in general and social media in particular. The fifth
barrier was related to the variation of mobile devices used by faculty whereas social media tools may not fit into the configurations
of all mobile devices as well as the limitations of mobile devices,
e.g. battery life, and screen size. The sixth barrier was related to the
grading and assessment. Faculty (16 out of 27) said that there were
no rules on how to mark students' activities and/or to add this to
the final grade of students. The seventh barrier was related to the
lack of integration of social media into LMS. Faculty(22 out of 27)
said the traditional learning method of one way communication,
e.g. lecture is the most common methods (and the only method for
most faculty) for teaching students. It is difficult to turn learning
style from faculty-centered to student-centered without proper
methodologies and rules. The eighth barrier was related to the
support from the management of institutions and integrating the
use of social media into the learning system. Faculty members
agreed that they cannot apply new learning style which integrates
social media in teaching or learning as it needs approval by policy
makers in public higher education.
The ninth barrier for the use social media was the poor infrastructure including limited or no internet access in campus and
absence of information communication technology (ICT) support
and ICT policy. The use of social media requires many facilities,
including equipment and internet which were not supported by the
management of institutions in Egypt. The tenth barrier was that
students do not follow the ethics and often make improper comments or posts that do not meet the teaching and learning needs. In
some cases, students were posting improper posts about faculty
members with false account. The eleventh barrier was the lack of
awareness by many students on the use of social media as a
Table 5
Barriers and recommendations for the use of social media for academic-related purposes in higher education.
Barrier
Examples
Privacy and
- Personal life
Security
- Tracking activities
Time Commitment - Source of entertainment
- Time to learn and/or use
Loss of Control and - Monitor the quality of teaching and learning
- Originality of the work piece
Monitoring
- Shifting from faculty- centred to student-centred
learning
Digital divide
- Different sites
- Age barriers
- Faculty and technology trust
Variation in mobile - Configurations of mobile devices
services
- Limitation of mobile devices
Grading and
- Lack of rules and policy to integrate into Learning
assessment
management system (LMS)
Integration with
- Design of the environment
- One way communication
LMS
- Faculty development
Institution Support Infrastructure
Ethical issues
-
Awareness
-
Recommendation
-
Closed group for student/faculty with an assigned admin (i.e. teaching assistant).
Develop faculty account for teaching and learning.
Speak the language of digital natives.
Organize workshops/seminars on how to use social mediafor teaching and learning.
Faculty monitor student communication on social mediawith assigned admin/s support
(i.e. teaching assistant).
- Faculty should act as facilitators or mentors and not as instructors
- Specify a number of social mediasites to be used for teaching and learning purpose.
- Arrange workshops to identify the importance of new technology, social mediaand
mobile learning.
- Availability of computer devices within campus with internet facilities to access the
social media.
- Establish clear mobile learning methodologies, rules and policies for integrating student
activities on social mediainto their final grades.
- Involvesocial mediain teaching and learning with currentLMS and encourage
interactive learning.
- Training sessions and workshops for faculty members on how to use social media as
learning tool.
Social media are not a high priority by colleges and - Establish a policy to integrate IT as a priority in today's higher education including the
faculty
use of social media.
- Establish IT mobile learning policy.
IT policy
- Improve internet access in campus with Wi-Fi hotspots.
Internet access
- Establish student mobile learning support unit with qualified IT person.
IT support
Improper post and/or comments by students
- Establish ethical code for using the social mediain learning and teaching.
- Publish the code among students.
Lack of awareness by students on how to use social - Training session and workshops by colleges on how to use social mediafor learning
mediaas teaching and learning tool
purposes.
A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
teaching and learning tool. Faculty said that although students use
social media for personal issues they do not know how to fully
make the best use of social media as learning and teaching tool.
Despite these concerns faculty agreed that if these shortfalls of
social media as were resolved, then the social media could be used
as effective and innovative teaching and learning tool. As Table 5
shows the interviewees provided solutions and recommendations
to meet their concerns about the use of social media in hospitality
and tourism education which are also applicable to other higher
education context in developing countries.
5. Discussion
This study is a response to the explosive use of social media by
the digital natives or net generation for academic-related purposes
in higher education using institutions offering hospitality and
tourism in Egypt as the case study (Hajli & Lin, 2014; Liburd &
Christensen, 2013), particularly in developing countries (Al-Rahmi
et al., 2015; Pimmer, Linxen, & Grohbiel, 2012; Sobaih &
Moustafa, 2016). Social media is an emerging interactive learning
tool in higher education and have a unique advantage in communication and connecting students and faculty in virtual community
(Lan et al., 2011). However, there is a paucity of research on the use
of social media as learning tool in hospitality and tourism higher
education. This study investigates the value and use of social media
in higher education with particular references to hospitality and
tourism in one of the developing countries- Egypt. Agreeing with
Moran et al. (2011), the results of the faculty survey showed that
faculty were effectively active on social media using various electronic devices, e.g. smart phones, tablets/IPad or laptops. It was
worth noting that all respondents agreed they use several social
media sites which vary between the web/mobile application, e.g.
Facebook and mobile only application, e.g. WhatsApp. It is interesting that the top used SNS by faculty was Facebook which was
also the top used site by the same college students in Egypt (Sobaih
& Moustafa, 2016). WhatsApp and LinkedIn were among the top
used social media by the faculty. However, very few faculty report
their use of blogs and wikis for teaching and learning, despite
Moran et al. (2012) said that these are the proper social media tools
for teaching and learning purposes.
Reflecting the work of Romero (2015), hospitality and tourism
faculty agreed that social media has either great or at least substantial value for academic and learning purposes, particularly as a
learning tool. However, the actual use was at minimal level. Reasons for limited use of social media as teaching and learning tools
despite its approved value by faculty were identified via in-depth
interviews. In addition to the eight main perils or concerns identified in the literature, faculty added three others barriers to their
limited use of social media as a learning tool. These concerns and/or
barriers for the use of social media for academic-related purposes
are all linked to each other. Some of these concerns are related to
faculty members, while others are related to students. Others were
related to institutions and their management. It is the case that
these concerns are all interlinked and are all associated with
common mistaken beliefs that social media are developed only for
social purposes and they cannot be used for academic-related
purposes (see Fig. 2).
The results of interviews showed that social media can be used
effectively for academic-related purposes as a technological tool for
improved online communication and interaction between students
and faculty members if the barriers to social media use are overcome. The three main barriers added by the faculty were specific to
the context of developing countries. First, poor IT infrastructure
including limited or no internet access on campus, absence of ICT
policy and ICT support. Higher education institutions, i.e.
303
hospitality and tourism institutions need to invest in technology to
be able to meet the requirement of net generation and improve the
quality of learning and learning styles. Otherwise, no interactive
communication between students and their educators will be the
outcome, since one-way lecture communication from the lecturer
is the norm of these institutions inside the classroom. This will also
have an ultimate impact on learning outcomes and quality of these
education institutions. Second, rules and ethical code should be
established for the use of social media as learning tool. Third,
raising both faculty and students' awareness on how to use social
media as a teaching and learning tool as both faculty and students
use the sites for personal lives but they do not know how to make
the best use of social media as learning and teaching tool.
Policy makers of public higher education in developing countries should realize the value of ICT and integrate ICT with LMS;
however, since formal ICT used in universities, backboard and
university emails are costly to them, social media can play the
alternative effective role in teaching and learning (Sobaih &
Moustafa, 2016). The adoption of social media in teaching and
learning will be a supporting tool; facilitate the two-way communication; encourage students to interact with their colleagues and
faculty which are critical to today's learning style (Liburd &
Christensen, 2013). Agreeing with Liburd and Christensen (2013)
the results showed that the use of social media could improve
the learning outcomes (knowledge, skills and attitude) since it will
shift from teacher-centered to student-centered. The integration of
social media in hospitality and tourism higher education leads to
paradigm shift in the basis of viewing knowledge as process and
activity and viewing learning as participation. Liburd and
Christensen (2013; 107) reported that “social media supports a
more reflective approach to learning but can also offer the opportunity
to make teaching more practical and application-oriented.” Social
media can also be a great tool to interact with classes with very
large number of students. For example, in Colleges of Commerce in
Egypt where number of students are in thousands and the only way
of communication between students and their educators is the
lecture inside the classroom. If social media, i.e. blogs and Facebook
groups, are properly managed, it could be a great tool for supporting students and enhance their learning environment.
6. Conclusion
The growing use of social media by digital native students in
higher education requires more attention from both researchers
and policy makers. Faculty are very aware of social media and use
them regularly in their personal lives. They also see a great value of
using social media for academic-related purposes but their actual
use for teaching and learning was at minimal level. Many faculty
were unaware of social media tools that are more appropriate for
teaching and learning, e.g. Blogs and Wikis; and use other social
media tools, e.g. Facebook or WhatsApp. Several barriers were cited
by faculty for their limited use of social media for academic-related
purposes, particularly for teaching and learning. However, faculty
argued that if barriers to social media were controlled, the social
media will prove as an effective tool for hospitality and tourism
teaching and learning, particularly in developing countries. It could
bridge the digital divide between institutions and their new generation of digital native students. It also could be further developed
as a proper platform to bridge the digital divide between developed
and developing countries.
Supporting the socio-cultural learning theories and the work of
Liburd and Christensen (2013), social media encourage students to
communicate, collaborate, participate and create in-depth learning
through interaction. Social media provides the opportunity for
personal reflection and collaborative learning, which are the
304
A.E.E. Sobaih et al. / Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305
Students
Faculty
Time
commitment
Awareness of
social media as
learning tool
Technology &
SNSs trust
Digital divide
Control &
mentoring
Privacy &
security
Ethical
consideration
Grading &
assessment
Integration
with LMS
Infrastructure
Institutional support
Institutions
Fig. 2. The barriers to the use of social media for academic-related purposes in hospitality and tourism education.
missing tools in developing countries for example, Egypt. It is vital
that policy makers realize the value of ICT in today's learning and
shift to new era of social learning where learning are studentcentered and the role of educators are coaching and mentoring. A
revision of current rules and regulation of public higher education
LMS is urgently needed to reflect and integrate ICT and social media
in teaching and learning. Investment in technology and integration
of social media as innovative potential tool have become critical for
the new generation. Hospitality and tourism higher education is
faced by the possibility that if social media tools are managed
properly, they may have a positive impact not only on the three key
learning outcomes of hospitality and tourism graduates (knowledge, skillsand attitude) but also on the quality of overall LMS. This
also may have a positive impact on tourism industry which is
critical to the Egyptian economy.
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