User readiness model of social media for learning among polytechnic students in Nigeria

Abstract

The adoption of Internet resources for learning continues to grow in the world today. Despite the abundant benefit of utilizing social media which is an offshoot of web 2.0, an internet resource for communication and interaction, its use has not been fully embraced as a teaching tool in Nigeria. The user readiness of social media by the students has been a challenge in learning, social media is becoming a prominent communications tool and found to be facilitating teaching and learning, the part of sharing and learning activities among students appear to be very important. Social media appear very helpful in building academic activities to achieve a better academic performance of students. Based on literature reviews, this research proposes a user readiness model of social media for learning to promote students engagement, effectiveness, and performance in collaboration. In achieving the objective, the study examined some of the user readiness factors of social media among Polytechnic Students in Nigerian, and also to identify students’ perception of using social media for learning to provide a better understanding through the theory of technology readiness and acceptance model (TRAM) that will improve the academic performance. Even though there is a high usage of social media by the students, it did not reflect that they are using it for academic pursuit. Facebook, Twitter, and WhatsApps have emerged as the most popular and widely used social media amongst students. Eight hypotheses for the quantitative approach were established to test the studying factors in user readiness model of social media for learning, while the survey method using Google Doc form was used in getting data. The data collected were analyzed using Smart PLS. Findings revealed that the students used social media to share Information, chat and interact with lecturers, peers, and friends. Similarly, they spend more time using social media, this indicates that using social media has positively influenced their lifestyles and greatly helped them to achieve academic excellence. The study, therefore, concludes that social media is an indispensable Internet platform among Nigerian Polytechnic students.