To use or not to use? Social media in higher education in developing countries

Computers in Human Behavior 58 (2016) 296e305

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Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh

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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: [email protected] (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,

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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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AcƟviƟes Friends

Student

Peer learning Learning outcomes Course engagement

Fresh news Request for details Returneddetails

Following

Sharing

Public issues

Tagging

Knowledge discussion

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

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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

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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

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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.

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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 Monitoring - Originality of the work piece - 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 LMS - One way communication - 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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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