Towards Enhancing Quality Learning Among Undergraduate Students In Nigeria’s Universities: The Place Of Social Media Networking
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Abstract
Given that social media networks have proliferated rapidly, it was hypothesized that the classification of universities attended by undergraduate students would influence their utilization of social media. It was felt that students in privately owned universities as a result of their higher family background, better social status and economic advantage which should afford them a better access to electronic devices and telecommunication gadgets would make a better use of social media for learning than their counterparts in public universities. Two research hypotheses were tested in this study, a descriptive research of the survey type was employed, and 635 undergraduate students were sampled from a privately owned and a public university. Two validated research instruments tagged ‘USSMCUS’ and ‘USSMFU)’ which were found reliable were used to gather data. Although there was a significant difference in the utilization of different social media concepts for learning by undergraduate students in both privately owned and public university, there was not a significant difference between most of the individual forms of social medium. It was found that the extent of social media network utilization by undergraduate students in public universities for learning was low. In privately owned universities on the other hand, the utilization level of social media network was high. Since there was no evidence indicating that undergraduate students in the two universities had interest and affinity for specific forms of social media networks and that this interest led to their extent of utilization, this was recommended for further studies.
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