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Social media use by undergraduate students of education in Nigeria: a survey

Lalith Wickramanayake, Saidu Muhammad Jika,
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Undergraduate
Social media use by students of
undergraduate students of education

education in Nigeria: a survey

Lalith Wickramanayake 21
Sabaragamuwa University of Sri Lanka, Belihuloya, Sri Lanka, and
Received 26 January 2017
Saidu Muhammad Jika
Downloaded by Technical University of Munich University Library At 06:21 05 July 2018 (PT)

Revised 14 March 2017

Accepted 2 May 2017
Gombe State University, Gombe, Nigeria

Abstract
Purpose – This paper aims to investigate teacher students’ perceptions, intentions, experiences, attitudes,
opinions and barriers concerning social media use and impact of social media on their learning process.
Design/methodology/approach – A stratified sampling technique was applied to draw the sample, and
242 teacher students were selected as a sample from three higher educational institutions in Gombe State,
Nigeria. A questionnaire survey method was used to collect the data. Data analysis was by means of simple
and inferential statistics.
Findings – The students widely used mobile phones to access social media, and social media was extremely
popular for education, entertainment and communication among them. Educational and informational
communities were also preferred by students to other social media communities. The study further revealed
that effective social media usage among students enhanced their different types of skills including learning.
Unstable electricity connections, security and privacy issues, internet costs and unreliable internet
connections were recorded as some barriers concerning students’ social media use.
Originality/value – The outcome of this study will be a unique contribution because the pertinent literature
provides little evidence or research highlights concerning teacher students’ social media use. Even more, the
results of the present study may be a useful resource for university administrators, education policymakers and
innovative teachers in universities – especially in developing countries and particularly Nigeria – when
considering integration of modern techniques and technologies with university teaching and learning.
Keywords User studies, Social media, Nigeria, Internet-based learning, Media-based teaching,
Teaching students
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
Social media is an interactive product in the virtual environment and developed from
Web 2.0 technology. It has become an integral part of everyday life of average internet users
(Baro et al., 2013; Voss and Kumar, 2013), regardless of what devices they use to access the
internet. Different definitions of social media are available in the literature, along with
classifications, although they usually have similar meanings (Khobzi and Teimourpour,
2014). According to a very popular definition:
[. . .] social media is a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and
technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of user generated
content (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). The Electronic Library
Vol. 36 No. 1, 2018
pp. 21-37
The authors would like to acknowledge Dr Colin Hanbury (Research Assistant Professor of © Emerald Publishing Limited
0264-0473
University of Western Australia) for editing the text of this article. DOI 10.1108/EL-01-2017-0023
 EL Mostafa (2015) defines social media in the Web 2.0 context as “[. . .] the usage of Web-based
36,1 tools that link people and enable them to share information, videos, pictures, and so on”.
The term social media is used synonymously with other terms, such as social networks,
social networking sites, social software, social software tools, social media tools, social
media technology, community websites, Web-based tools, Web 2.0 tools, Web 2.0
communicative technology, virtual worlds, virtual communities, online communities,
22 collaborative software, e-communities and social network services. Some authors have taken
considerable effort to classify or define some of these terms. Swaminathan et al. (2013), for
example, divided social media into blogs, networking sites (Facebook, LinkedIn and
Twitter) and community websites (Wikipedia and YouTube). According to Kaplan and
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Haenlein (2010), social media included “[. . .] collaborative projects, blogs, content
communities, social networking sites (SNS), virtual game worlds, and virtual social worlds”.
Lim et al. (2014) grouped them further “[. . .] into seven categories: text-based, media sharing,
social networking, mobile-based applications, virtual world and games, synchronous
communications and conferencing applications and mash-ups”. As Eke et al. (2014) asserted
that social media can now be included into different platforms such as social, political,
academic, business, sports, romantic and religious.
Despite the various definitions and classifications of social media, researchers have
outlined the functions and purposes of this powerful and increasingly developing
technology in the current literature. Swaminathan et al. (2013) opined that social media
simply “[. . .] enabled users to exchange messages, maintain personal profiles, and create
lists of ‘friends’”. It also facilitated sharing information and collaboration among the users in
society at large and significantly in the context of education, business, marketing,
advertising, recreation, banking and recruitment (Khobzi and Teimourpour, 2014; Lim et al.,
2014). According to Singh and Gill (2015), a social media community with common issues or
interests will share news, hobbies, religion and culture. The advantages of this technology
are increasingly used by the health sector to widely disseminate health information (CDC,
2011).
The popularity and use of social media, especially among students and young
populations, has rapidly increased over the past few years (Hamade, 2013; Swaminathan
et al., 2013). It has now also become an important resource in the lives of university students
and has affected every aspect of their lives, including learning. This might be because this
generation is reported as “millennials”, “net savvy”, “digital natives” or “net students” who
rely heavily on electronic devices rather than traditional methods of teaching and learning
(Hess and Shrum, 2011; Shittu et al., 2011). This group quickly adapts to the newest forms of
communication (Voss and Kumar, 2013), information sharing and recreation, as well as
learning through new media, such as blogging, text messaging, googling, social networking
and game playing. Especially among students in higher education, the application and
integration of this cutting-edge technology is increasingly developing; “[. . .] computer-
mediated social networks have become part of the life of university students” (Dogoriti et al.,
2014) and “[. . .] Web 2.0 and the social software has become a tool in the hand of the present
generation of students” (Shittu et al., 2011). Whether the process of communication is
synchronous or asynchronous, social media creates collaboration and a shared learning
environment among students:
The use of social media in university teaching adds a collaborative dimension to teaching and
enhances interaction and communication between all those involved in the teaching-learning
process, as well as enhancing the student experience by encouraging participation (Mostafa,
2015).
 In addition, the interactive, collaborative and participatory approach of social media Undergraduate
encourages informal learning by students, which in turn enhances their engagement in students of
formal learning methods (Cao and Hong, 2011).
Most aspects of student engagement with social media in higher education have been
education
widely covered in the literature created in developed or industrialized countries. However,
the application and experience of use of social media in the tertiary education sector in
developing countries are still poor (Stanciu et al., 2012), particularly in Africa Munguatosha
et al. (2011). Thus, more research is needed in the tertiary education sector of developing 23
countries to explore what types of social media are effective for teaching in the classroom,
how students use them in learning, to determine their different types of experiences with
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social media (Neier and Zaye, 2015) and to measure their attitudes to and scope of use of
social media (Shittu et al., 2011).
The present study measures social media use among undergraduate students who
planned on becoming teachers at three Nigerian institutions. In addition, this study seeks to
understand the perceptions, intentions, experiences, attitudes, opinions and barriers of
students in education (teacher students) concerning social media use and the impact of social
media on their learning process. The outcome of this study will be a unique contribution
because the pertinent literature provides little evidence or research concerning teacher
students and their social media use. The results of the present study will be a useful resource
for university administrators, education policymakers and innovative teachers in
universities – especially in developing countries and particularly in Nigeria – when
considering the integration of modern techniques and technologies with university teaching
and learning.

Literature review
Social media use of undergraduate students has been an attractive research theme in recent
years in library and information science research and there has been much research. Little of
the research has been conducted in developing countries, particularly in Nigeria. Although
some studies can be found by a Google search in relation to Nigeria, the majority have poor
research design, poor presentation, questionable publishers and unstable theoretical
underpinnings.
Social media has become a necessity for the younger generation, especially among
undergraduates (Hamade, 2013; Swaminathan et al., 2013). Studies have confirmed that this
generation now has a psychological addiction with the internet in general (Chou and Hsiao,
2000; Qiaolei, 2014) and particularly with social media (Cabral, 2011; Hong et al., 2014). This
may be because students in higher education are now regular users of social media in
different forms, as shown in several studies.
Hong et al. (2014) found that the average time that university students spent on Facebook
was more than 4.5 h per day. This is a higher volume when compared with several other
studies conducted in the higher education sector. According to Singh and Gill (2015), 70.1
per cent of students spent about an hour daily on social media, while Hamade (2013)
reported that 60 per cent of students accessed their social media account many times a day.
Stanciu et al. (2012) found that 67 per cent of students accessed social media one to five times
a day, while Neier and Zaye (2015) found that 88 per cent of students accessed them daily.
Fasae and Adegbilero-Iwari (2016) emphasized that over two-thirds of the respondents (70.3
per cent) used social media daily, while 18.1 per cent used it occasionally and only 0.7
per cent used it never. Stainbank and Gurr (2016) also found that the majority of students
(52.3 per cent) used social media one to four times daily and over 40 per cent of them
accessed social media over five times a day.
 EL A study conducted by Al-Daihani (2010) disclosed that blogs, video sharing,
36,1 collaborative authoring, communication and social networking received the higher mean
scores of 3.49, 3.48, 3.39, 3.36 and 3.24, respectively, from the midpoint (3) in a scale of one to
five. As this study further revealed, a considerable number of respondents gave least mean
scores (below the midpoint of 3) for some other social software tools, such as calendaring
(2.98), image sharing (2.33), file sharing (2.21) and social bookmarking (1.67). Fasae and
24 Adegbilero-Iwari (2016) found that students were interested in using social media for
entertainment and communication activities more than learning. This study further stated
that only “for sharing academic events with my peers” (65.2 per cent) was the recorded
response of more than 50 per cent of students. Other academic related activities, such as “for
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submitting assignments” (34.1 per cent) and “to interact and exchange idea[s] with my
lecturers” (9.4 per cent), were the responses recorded by less than 35 per cent of the students.
Studies have shown an association with the types of electronic devices used by students
to access social media. The major tools that students used to access social media were
reported to be laptops followed by desktops and mobile phones (Singh and Gill, 2015;
Stanciu et al., 2012).
Interestingly, some studies found that Facebook was more popular among female
students than male students (Hamade, 2013; Ruleman, 2012). Stainbank and Gurr (2016) also
found that more female students (63.5 per cent) use social media than male students (36.5 per
cent). However, in general, students prefer Facebook followed by Twitter, YouTube,
Googleþ or Skype. Fasae and Adegbilero-Iwari (2016) found that the majority of the
respondents (93.5 per cent) use Facebook, followed by Googleþ (63.8 per cent) and Twitter
(47.8 per cent). This study further found that Googleþ (52.2 per cent) was the most beneficial
social media system to students, although they mostly preferred Facebook (93.5 per cent).
Singh and Gill (2015) found that Facebook was the most popular social media among
students (84.7 per cent), followed by YouTube (43.6 per cent) and Googleþ (41.1 per cent).
Stanciu et al. (2012) showed that Facebook was the most widely used (87 per cent) social
media, while Hamade (2013) found instead that it was Twitter (89 per cent) followed by
Facebook (62 per cent). Ruleman (2012) found that 79.1 per cent of university students
preferred Facebook, followed by Skype (27.8 per cent), and Stainbank and Gurr (2016)
disclosed that Facebook was most popular (84.6 per cent) compared with Twitter (15.4 per
cent).
University students are increasingly using social media, as recent studies have observed,
for entertainment and communication rather than studious activities, such as learning.
Singh and Gill (2015) highlighted that 49.7 per cent of students used social media for
entertainment followed by communication with family and friends (48.1 per cent) and for
socializing (40.5 per cent). Hamade (2013) pointed out that the majority of students (70 per
cent) used social media for entertainment. Stanciu et al. (2012) asserted that 60 per cent of
students used it for communication and further noted that students did not use this
technology much for communication related to education. This finding correlates well with
the results of Ezeah et al. (2013), who found that students devoted more time to social media
for activities other than learning and even used this media to chat with their friends and
loved ones during class times. Al-Daihani (2010) found that 56.0 per cent of students
preferred social software “to chat with friends” followed by “for up-to-date information”
(5 per cent), for networking (31 per cent), for self-expression (28 per cent) and to “share files”
(23 per cent). This study, however, confirmed that students had moderate answers with
regard to the use of social software in education.
Fasae and Adegbilero-Iwari (2016) measured student awareness of social media. In total,
43 per cent of the respondents were very knowledgeable about social media, while 37.0
 per cent were partly knowledgeable. However, 20 per cent of the respondents were not Undergraduate
knowledgeable about social media. students of
Several studies have observed that social media has a significant impact on students’
learning in higher education, confirming that students use social media to communicate
education
with teachers/instructors and for collaboration, sharing and discussions. A study conducted
by Stanciu et al. (2012) found that the majority of university students (62.0 per cent) used
social media to communicate with teachers; however, around 25 per cent of students were of
the opinion that social media had no value or impact concerning education. The study of 25
Lim et al. (2014) had a contrasting result – about 90 per cent of the students used social
media for academic purposes. Among these, “assignments/project collaboration
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discussions” recorded the highest percentage (97.59 per cent) followed by “sharing of
documents” (91.57 per cent), “communication” (87.95 per cent), “knowledge/information
sharing” (83.13 per cent), “activities/event updates” (80.72 per cent) and “sourcing for
information” (72.29 per cent). Interestingly, this study found that teachers/instructors also
used this technology during academic engagements. For this purpose, teachers/instructors
were also given the same categories to rank their priorities: communication had the highest
percentage (80.5 per cent) followed by “assignments/project collaboration discussions” (79.3
per cent), “sharing of documents” (78.1 per cent), “activities/event updates” (73.2 per cent),
“knowledge/information sharing” (67.1 per cent) and “sourcing for information” (42.7 per
cent).
Based on content analysis of 11 previous studies, Piotrowski (2015) reported that 55 per
cent of business students and business faculty members had a positive attitude for applying
social media to teaching, 30 per cent indicated both positive and negative results on the
adaptation of social media to learning, and two studies derived negative views about social
media application in education. Dogoriti et al. (2014) found that social media and learning
management systems were beneficial for teaching and learning. The majority of students
responded positively to the 14 survey questions. Interestingly, 75 per cent confirmed that
“social networking sites help students to strengthen English skills” and 75 per cent agreed
that “social networking sites help to build/strengthen a sense of community within a
learning environment”, while 69 per cent were of the opinion that “social networking sites
can enhance the learning process among students”.
The barriers to the social media engagement of students were particularly demonstrated
in several recent studies. A study by Singh and Gill (2015) stated that “time consumption”
(37.2 per cent) was the major barrier faced by students to access social media, followed by
“fear of misusing their personal information” (29.2 per cent), “lack of security and privacy”
(23.2 per cent) and, interestingly, “access not allowed by university” (10.0 per cent).
Mohamed and Sumitha (2011) disclosed that students feared most the misuse of personal
information (39.5 per cent) and lack of security and privacy issues (48.5 per cent). Hamade
(2013) was also of the opinion that students lacked security and privacy issue knowledge
related to social media; 70 per cent of the students allowed everybody to view their privacy
information, while 30 per cent adjusted their privacy settings to control unauthorized
access – this study also highlighted that social media had negatively affected students’
study and work (60.0 per cent) and their use of time (58.0 per cent). According to Lim et al.
(2014), social media creates distractions and loss of focus in student study (66.7 per cent).
Interestingly, 38.3 per cent of the students confirmed that their social media-related
activities were monitored by university authorities and 81.5 per cent of the students said
that universities made necessary arrangements to block social media access within
university networks during teaching hours. Al-Daihani (2010) measured problems that
prevented students from using social media sites. There were ten statements out of which
 EL only “not received training” scored 3.71 of the mean, which meant students agreed
36,1 moderately to the statement. All other statements were given a low rating by the students.
According to Fasae and Adegbilero-Iwari (2016), “poor Internet connectivity” (79.0 per cent)
was the major barrier to using social media followed by “receiving unwanted messages/
pictures” (63.8 per cent) and “electricity failure” (52.2 per cent).

26 Significance of the study

The present study evaluates how teacher students understand the value of social media for
the teaching and learning process in both university and school environments. This study is
unique within the relevant available literature in Nigeria and in most countries, as there has
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been little such research. The findings may be a useful resource for many higher education
institutions who seek newer, innovative and proven ways to improve their pedagogy and
curricula.

Statement of the problem

Although many developed countries use this technology for teaching and learning
effectively, studies have confirmed that Nigerians – especially students and youth
communities – use social media to interact, collaborate, recreate, and communicate rather
than for learning (Ezeah et al., 2013; Nwangwa et al., 2014). This situation is consistent with
experiences in the Asia-Pacific (Lim et al., 2014), Tanzania (Munguatosha et al., 2011) and
Kuwait (Hamade, 2013). Thus, the question is whether social media has a negative impact on
student learning or provides challenges to the higher education system in Nigeria. If so, to
overcome these, is pedagogy or curricula in need of revision to integrate social media with
classroom experience?

Objectives of the study

The main objective of this study is to evaluate how social media affects the teacher students’
learning environment in higher education institutions in Nigeria. In relation to the main
objective, the study incorporates the following specific objectives:
 to determine the most popular social media used by students;
 to examine the purposes of using social media;
 to identify student preferences among different social media communities;
 to determine interaction through social media between teachers and students;
 to examine how social media can enhance student learning experiences in a
classroom setting;
 to discover whether students need social media to support learning;
 to evaluate student opinions on the effect of social media on school teaching and
children’s behavior; and
 to identify the barriers to using social media.

Methodology
The population for the present study was taken from three institutions established in
Gombe State in Nigeria: the Federal College of Education (FCE), the Federal University of
Kashare (FUK) and Gombe State University (GSU). The major reason for selecting these
institutions was that FUK and GSU offer BSc degrees in education through their education
 faculties, while FCE provides a BSc degree in education for all students of the institution. As Undergraduate
these institutions are located within close proximity, effective distribution of instrument and students of
data collection was ensured. Data collection was through a questionnaire survey comprising
20 questions, of which 18 were closed-ended and two were open-ended. For the closed-ended
education
questions, the students were asked to indicate their level of agreement with each statement
using Likert-type scales. For question numbers 10, 11 and 16, a three-point (agree, neutral
and disagree) Likert-type scale was applied; while for questions 13 and 14, a five-point
(strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree and strongly disagree) Likert-type scale was used. 27
The population for the study was final year students from the selected institutions. The
main purpose for selecting final year students was that they were almost ready to graduate
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and to take teaching positions in government or private schools throughout the country. The
size of the population was 603. Based on a stratified sample technique, the population was
divided based on gender into two strata within each institution. Simple random sampling
was then used to take a 40 per cent sample from each stratum. Thus, the total sample size
was 242. This technique allowed an equal chance for each participant to be selected and a
sufficient sample size for the study. The researchers were personally involved in
distributing the questionnaires randomly among students in the selected institutions and
collected them on the same occasion. This process helped the researchers to attain a 100 per
cent return rate.
The collected raw data through the questionnaire were thoroughly organized and
inspected for accuracy and completeness. Of the 242 collected questionnaires, 234 were
selected for analysis. The rejection of eight questionnaires was because of six responding to
question number four as non-users (i.e. never) of social media and the other two were
incomplete.
The raw data was entered into MS Excel worksheet and mostly analyzed using the
Minitab Statistical Package. The analysis was by means of simple and inferential statistics.
One-sample t-test was carried out for some analysis using 2 or 3 (i.e. neutral responses)
appropriately as the reference mean.

Data presentation and analysis

The study results are presented in the following section along with interpretations. Table I
presents the combined data on sample size and gender distribution of respondents in the
respective institutions.
Table II highlights the age distribution of respondents in the respective institutions.
About 57 per cent of the respondents belonged to the over 25 age groups. The overall results
confirmed that Nigerian students do not usually enroll in universities soon after they
complete their Senior Secondary Certificate Examination (SSCE) at the age of 18.
In terms of frequency of access (Table III), about 90 per cent of the students used social
media daily, of which more than 65 per cent of the students were moderate or frequent
(around one hour or more) social media users. The students of FCE were heavier users of

Gender
Institution Male Female Total

FCE 79 (59.0%) 55 (41.0%) 134 Table I.

GSU 54 (71.1%) 22 (28.9%) 76 Gender distribution
FUK 11 (45.8%) 13 (54.2%) 24 of respondents at
Total 144 (61.5%) 90 (38.5%) 234 each institution
 EL social media compared with the other two institutions because more than 60 per cent of them
36,1 used social media around one hour or more daily.
A slight majority of the respondents (56.4 per cent) used mobile phones followed by
laptops (21.8 per cent) to access social media (Table IV). Compared with FCE and FUK, GSU
students used mobile phones (82.9 per cent) more to access social media. Desktop computer
use of students to access social media was rather low compared with laptops, mobile phones
28 and other devices, such as tablet PC and iPad.
The distribution of types of social media use varies among the institutions (Table V).
Facebook had the highest preference (89.3 per cent), followed by Yahoo Messenger (44.4 per
cent), Twitter (37.1 per cent) and YouTube (32.9 per cent). The study also revealed that hi5,
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Badoo and Blogger were used moderately, while other social media were not as popular.
Even Nairaland, which is dedicated to Nigerians, was not popular, and Flickr and Pinterest
were not used by any of the respondents.
Another target of the present study was to determine which types of social media
communities were preferred by students. Their preferences showed some distinctive
variations. According to the results, educational communities were preferred by the
majority of students (47.8 per cent) followed by informational (31.2 per cent), entertainment
or recreational (15.3 per cent) and resource sharing (5.5 per cent).
Most of the students (60.2 per cent) who responded to the questionnaire believed that
social media had no effect on their learning nor decreased their time devoted to learning,

Age distribution (years)

Institutions 18-22 23-25 26-28 >29 Total
Table II. FCE 37 (27.6%) 15 (11.2%) 42 (31.3%) 40 (29.9%) 134
Age distribution of GSU 5 (6.6%) 25 (32.9%) 27 (35.5%) 19 (2.0%) 76
respondents at each FUK 9 (37.5%) 9 (37.5%) 3 (12.5%) 3 (12.5%) 24
institution Total 51 (21.8%) 49 (20.9%) 72 (30.8%) 62 (26.5%) 234

Time spent on social media

Do not access social Less than Around Around More than
Institutions media daily (%) 30 min (%) one h (%) two h (%) two h (%) Total

FCE 13 (9.7%) 6 (4.5%) 30 (22.4%) 49 (36.6%) 36 (26.9%) 134

Table III. GSU 9 (11.8%) 17 (22.4%) 25 (32.8%) 13 (17.1%) 12 (15.8%) 76
Time spent on social FUK 3 (12.5%) 4 (16.7%) 10 (41.7%) 4 (16.7%) 3 (12.5%) 24
media by students Total 26 (11.1%) 27 (11.5%) 64 (27.4%) 66 (28.2%) 51 (21.8%) 234

Means of access to social media

Institutions Desktop computer Laptop computer Mobile phone Other devices Total
Table IV. FCE 10 (7.5%) 41 (30.6%) 54 (40.3%) 29 (21.6%) 134
Means of access to GSU 3 (3.9%) 6 (7.9%) 63 (82.9%) 4 (5.3%) 76
social media by FUK 3 (12.5%) 4 (16.7%) 15 (62.5%) 2 (8.3%) 24
respondents Total 16 (6.8%) 51 (21.8%) 132 (56.4%) 35 (15%) 234
 while 32.4 per cent were of the opinion that social media use decreased their time devoted to Undergraduate
learning. In this regard, 7.2 per cent of the respondents were neutral. students of
Social media now functions through different platforms to provide numerous services to
their members, and the respondents’ choices of platforms are shown in Table VI. No single
education
service was used by over 40 per cent of the students. The most used function was “watch/
listen online music/video/podcast” (37.1 per cent) followed by “chat/communicate with
teachers/class fellows” (33.3 per cent), “download music/video/photos/documents” (23.9 per
cent), “commenting on blogs/video/podcasts” (22.6 per cent) and “read blogs/documents”
29
(22.2 per cent). All other functions were used by less than 20 per cent of the students. The
students’ intellectual uses of social media were rather low compared with other functions,
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for example, “creating polls/quizzes or surveys” (2.1 per cent) and “publishing blogs” (4.2 per
cent).
One-sample t-test was carried out using 2 (neutral) as the reference mean to analyzes “social
media use of actual teaching and learning setting in the institution”. The observed means (1.91
and 1.93) for variables a (“my teachers use Internet and associated technology while teaching in
class”) and b (“my teachers use social media to conduct their lectures and practical”),
respectively (Table VII), did not significantly differ from the reference mean. This means that
the respondents held a neutral attitude toward the experience in relation to both variables.
However, the results achieved for the statement c (“my teachers and students regularly have

Institutions
Social media FCE GSU FUK Total

Facebook 123 (52.5%) 68 (29.0%) 18 (7.6%) 209 (89.3%)

YouTube 37 (15.8%) 32 (13.6%) 8 (3.4%) 77 (32.9%)
Twitter 52 (22.2%) 28 (11.9%) 7 (2.9%) 87 (37.1%)
LinkedIn 0 (0.0%) 3 (1.2%) 0 (0.0%) 3 (1.2%)
Googleþ 7 (2.9%) 2 (0.8%) 0 (0.0%) 9 (3.8%)
Flickr 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%)
Nairaland 5 (2.1%) 2 (0.8%) 2 (0.8%) 9 (3.8%)
Pinterest 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%) 0 (0.0%)
Blogger 19 (8.1%) 10 (4.2%) 4 (1.7%) 33 (14.1%)
Badoo 12 (5.1%) 20 (8.5%) 8 (3.4%) 40 (17%) Table V.
Yahoo Messenger 53 (22.6%) 37 (15.8%) 14 (5.9%) 104 (44.4%) Students’ preferences
hi5 15 (6.4%) 19 (8.1%) 7 (2.9%) 41 (17.5%) for social media

Institutions
Purpose of using social media FCE GSU FUK Total

Watched/listened to online music/videos/podcasts 48 (20.5%) 3048 (12.8%) 948 (3.8%) 8748 (37.1%)
Download music/videos/photos/documents 2948 (12.3%) 2248 (9.4%) 548 (2.1%) 5648 (23.9%)
Upload music/videos/photos/podcasts/documents 2348 (9.8%) 2048 (8.5%) 148 (0.4%) 4448 (18.8%)
Read blogs/documents 30 (12.8%) 1448 (5.9%) 848 (3.4%) 5248 (22.2%)
Published blogs 648 (2.5%) 248 (0.8%) 248 (0.8%) 1048 (4.2%)
Table VI.
Connecting with online discussion groups/forums/ 1448 (5.9%) 2548 (10.6%) 548 (2.1%) 4448 (18.8%)
video conferences Students’ different
Commenting on blogs/videos/podcasts 2448 (10.2%) 2048 (8.5%) 948 (3.8%) 5348 (22.6%) purposes for
Creating polls/quizzes or surveys 248 (0.8%) 348 (1.2%) 048 (0.0%) 548 (2.1%) accessing social
Chat/communicate with teachers/class fellows 29 (12.3%) 36 (15.3%) 13 (5.5%) 78 (33.3%) media
 EL online group discussions/video conferences about assignments/projects”) and d (“my teachers
36,1 regularly encourage us to use e-learning materials available via social media”) were
significantly different from the test mean. The majority of students had a negative opinion for
statement c, whereas the majority had a positive opinion for statement d.
Table VIII shows one-sample t-test results achieved for the next question that measured
the impact of social media for personal acts of students. The question had five variables
30 designed to measure the impact of social media in individual acts of respondents. Of the five
variables, only the observed mean (2.02) of variable a (“social media sites are more effective
in communicating with your teachers than in actual class”) did not significantly differ from
the reference mean. Variables b-e (b, “social media sites help you with your assignments/
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home work/research work”; c, “social media sites can be used in any way as a tool for your
learning”; d, “social media is more effective in communicating with your fellows”; and e,
“social media has changed the way you think, behave, and your habits and attitudes”)
showed significant differences between observed (1.27, 1.04, 1.15 and 1.34, respectively) and
test means, confirming that the majority of the respondents had positive opinions
concerning the given statements.
It is important to understand the impact of social media for the development of different
types of communication skills of students. This study evaluated how social media affected
different aspects of communication, regardless of the language used by respondents for
communication. Of 234 respondents, 177 (75.6 per cent) confirmed that social media helped
them to improve “reading skills” while 54.2, 41.8 and 26.4 per cent indicated that social

Variables Mean Standard error 95% confidence interval t p Result

a 1.91 0.059 (1.79, 2.02) 1.57 0.118 not significant

b 1.93 0.059 (1.81, 2.04) 1.22 0.222 not significant
c 2.15 0.059 (2.03, 2.26) 2.47 0.014 significant
d 1.27 0.037 (1.20, 1.34) 19.57 0.0001 significant
Table VII. Notes: N = 234, 1 = agree, 2 = neutral (test mean) and 3 = disagree; a = my teachers use internet and
Social media usage in associated technology while teaching in class; b = my teachers use social media to conduct their lectures
actual teaching and and practical; c = my teachers and students regularly have online group discussions/video conferences
learning settings in about assignments/projects; d = my teachers regularly encourage us to use e-learning materials available
the institutions via SM

Variables Mean Standard error 95% confidence interval t p Result

a 2.02 0.049 (1.92, 2.11) 0.35 0.729 not significant

b 1.27 0.032 (1.20, 1.33) 22.40 0.0001 significant
c 1.04 0.014 (1.01,1.07) 65.71 0.0001 significant
d 1.15 0.052 (1.05, 1.25) 16.34 0.0001 significant
e 1.34 0.038 (1.26, 1.41) 17.48 0.0001 significant

Notes: N = 234, 1 = agree, 2 = neutral (test mean) and 3 = disagree; a = social media sites are more
Table VIII. effective in communicating with your teachers than face-to-face communication in actual class; b = social
Impact of social media sites help you with your assignments/homework/research work; c = social media sites can be used in
media for individual any way as a tool for your learning; d = social media is more effective in communicating with your fellow
acts students; e = social media has changed the way you think and behave and your habits and attitudes
 media helped them to improve “writing skills”, “speaking skills” and “listening skills”, Undergraduate
respectively. students of
For the statement concerning “critical thinking and problem solving skills”, of the 234
respondents, 179 (76.4 per cent) said that social media improved these skills, while 68 (29.0
education
per cent) of them responded positively to the statement concerning the effect on “sound
reasoning and analytical skills”.
Impacts of social media for managerial and group performance skills of the respondents
were measured by applying one-sample t-test taking 3 (neutral) as the reference mean 31
(Table IX). All of the given statements (i.e. a, “enhance your leadership/project management
skills”; b, “enhance your ability to leverage the strength of others to achieve common goals”;
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c, “enhance your ability to use interpersonal skills to coach and develop others”; d, “enhance
your ability to do teamwork/collaboration skills”; and e, “enhance your ability to manage
conflicts”) showed a significant difference between observed (1.82, 1.89, 1.91, 1.66 and 1.95,
respectively) and reference means (i.e. 3). According to the results, the majority of the
respondents were in the positive opinion for the given statements.
Table X highlights the impact of social media for given three variables (a-c). One-
sample t-test was carried out using 3 (neutral) as the reference mean to analyzes the
data. Observed means (1.64, 1.59 and 1.82) for variables a-c (a, “enhance your
information and communication technology application skills’; b, ‘enhance your ability
to select and use appropriate technology to accomplish a given task”; and c, ‘enhance
your ability to apply appropriate technology for problem solving”), respectively,
differed from the reference mean (Table X), showing that respondents had positive
opinions for the three given statements.

Variables Mean Standard error 95% confidence interval t p Result

a 1.82 0.053 (1.72, 1.93) 21.84 0.0001 significant

b 1.89 0.055 (1.78, 2.00) 20.19 0.0001 significant
c 1.91 0.052 (1.80, 2.01) 21.15 0.0001 significant
d 1.66 0.050 (1.56, 1.76) 26.61 0.0001 significant
e 1.95 0.045 (1.87, 2.04) 23.47 0.0001 significant
Table IX.
Notes: N = 234, 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = neutral (test mean), 4 = disagree and 5 = strongly
disagree; a = enhance your leadership/project management skills; b = enhance your ability to leverage the Impact of social
strength of others to achieve common goals; c = enhance your ability to use interpersonal skills to coach media on managerial
and develop others; d = enhance your ability to do teamwork/collaboration skills; e = enhance your ability and group
to manage conflicts performance skills

Variables Mean Standard error 95% confidence interval t p Results

a 1.64 0.052 (1.54, 1.74) 25.92 0.0001 significant

b 1.59 0.053 (1.49, 1.70) 26.42 0.0001 significant
c 1.82 0.047 (1.72, 1.91) 25.33 0.0001 significant

Notes: N = 234, 1 = strongly agree, 2 = agree, 3 = neutral (test mean), 4 = disagree and 5 = strongly Table X.
disagree; a = enhance your information and communication technology application skills; b = enhance your Impact of social
ability to select and use appropriate technology to accomplish a given task; c = enhance your ability to media for certain
apply appropriate technology for problem solving technological skills
 EL The results in Table XI were derived from analysis of responses given for eight statements.
36,1 Out of these statements, four statements (i.e. a, “social media can be used as effective tool in
both teaching and learning in schools”; b, “social media can be used to improves skills and
experience of school teachers with relation to technology-oriented pedagogy or instructional
techniques”; c, “social media can be used to improve children’s skills/abilities and attitudes”;
and d, “social media can be used as a collaborative teaching and learning tool in schools”)
32 measured respondents’ opinions to determine whether social media could be used to
improve certain aspects of school teaching and learning. Variables e-h (e, “social media
negatively affects school children’s study times”; f, “social media diverts children into
violation and conflicts”; g, “social media creates mental confusion in children”; and h, “social
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media causes disorderly conduct and social imbalance in students”) measured respondent
opinions on whether social media negatively affected school children’s behavior. One-
sample t-test was used on the responses with 2 (neutral) as the reference mean. There was a
significant difference between observed (1.43, 1.21, 1.71, 1.56, 1.70, 1.64, 1.80 and 1.65 for a-h,
respectively) and reference means, indicating that the majority of the respondents agreed
with the above statements.
Barriers to the use of social media by the students were measured through the use of six
statements (Table XII). Among these, “unstable electricity connection” was the greatest
barrier (89.7 per cent) followed by “internet connection costs too much” (72.6 per cent),
“unstable security and privacy concerns” (70.5 per cent) and “internet connection is

Variables Mean Standard error 95% confidence interval t p Results

a 1.43 0.044 (1.34, 1.51) 35.46 0.0001 significant

b 1.21 0.029 (1.15, 1.27) 16.16 0.0001 significant
c 1.71 0.057 (1.60, 1.82) 22.57 0.0001 significant
d 1.56 0.052 (1.45, 1.66) 27.93 0.0001 significant
e 1.70 0.058 (1.58, 1.81) 22.59 0.0001 significant
f 1.64 0.057 (1.53, 1.75) 23.93 0.0001 significant
g 1.80 0.060 (1.68, 1.92) 20.05 0.0001 significant
Table XI. h 1.65 0.056 (1.54, 1.76) 24.29 0.0001 significant
Respondents’
opinions on positive Notes: N = 234, 1 = agree, 2 = neutral (test mean) and 3 = disagree; a = social media can be used as an
effective tool in both teaching and learning in schools; b = social media can be used to improve skills and
and negative impacts
experiences of school teachers with relation to technology-oriented pedagogy or instructional techniques;
of social media on c = social media can be used to improve children’s skills/abilities and attitudes; d = social media can be
teaching and used as a collaborative teaching and learning tool in schools; e = social media negatively affects school
learning in the school children’s study times; f = social media diverts children into violation and conflicts; g = social media creates
environment mental confusion in children; h = social media causes disorderly conduct and social imbalance in students

Institutions
Barriers to using social media FCE (%) GSU (%) FUK (%) Total

Unstable security and privacy concerns 113 (48.2) 41 (17.5) 11 (4.7) 165 (70.5)
Technology is not user friendly/difficult to use 61 (26) 30 (12.8) 14 (5.9) 105 (44.8)
Table XII. Internet connection costs too much 121 (51.7) 37 (13.8) 12 (5.1) 170 (72.6)
Barriers to using Internet connection is unreliable 88 (37.6) 26 (11.1) 8 (3.4) 122 (52.1)
social media for the Unstable electricity connection 124 (52.9) 65 (27.7) 21 (8.9) 210 (89.7)
respondents Too busy/don’t have time 39 (16.6) 13 (5.5) 5 (2.1) 57 (24.3)
 unreliable” (52.1 per cent). Only two statements had less than a 50 per cent response: Undergraduate
“technology is not user friendly/difficult to use” (44.8 per cent) and “too busy/don’t have students of
time” (24.3 per cent).
education
Discussion
The results of the present study showed that female enrollment in higher education in
Nigeria was lower compared with males. This gender variation could be caused by different
phenomena, such as devotional, cultural, traditional beliefs and tribal issues. Tertiary
33
education institutions in Nigeria do not have enrollment age limits for students, which
encourages more qualified older persons to register in degree programs.
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Mobile phones were the most popular way to access social media, followed by laptops.
This result, however, does not comply with previous studies conducted by Singh and Gill
(2015) and Stanciu et al. (2012) who reported that the major tools used to access social media
were laptops followed by desktops and mobile phones. This comparison clearly shows that
Nigerian students in higher education institutions have embraced modern technologies of
different forms. However, in the present study, there was a significant difference in mobile
phone use to access social media among students of the three institutions; students at GSU
used mobile phones more heavily. The use of desktop computers to access social media was
lower compared with mobile phones and laptops.
The time spent on social media by the students in each institution significantly differed,
for no reason that could be determined. The majority of students (more than 65 per cent),
however, were moderate or frequent social media users. This result reflects the findings of
several recent analyses (Hamade, 2013; Neier and Zaye, 2015; Stainbank and Gurr, 2016;
Stanciu et al., 2012). In relation to different forms of social media, Facebook had the highest
preference followed by Yahoo Messenger, Twitter and YouTube. This result also correlated
with several recent studies, (Fasae and Adegbilero-Iwari, 2016; Ruleman, 2012; Singh and
Gill, 2015; Stainbank and Gurr, 2016; Stanciu et al., 2012). In these studies, Facebook was the
priority choice by the students, although the second and other choices differed from each
other. The use of other forms of social media in the present study was moderate, weak or not
at all, indicating lack of popularity among students, even for Nairaland that was developed
specifically for Nigerians.
Student preference on different types of social media communities showed a positive
picture, as around 80 per cent preferred educational or informational social media
communities to entertainment or resource sharing social media communities. Even though
resource sharing social media communities had a direct relationship with the teaching and
learning process, they were not as popular. Some recent studies showed a different picture
from the present study because they mostly preferred entertainment or communication
communities to education or education-related communities (Al-Daihani, 2010; Fasae and
Adegbilero-Iwari, 2016; Hamade, 2013; Singh and Gill, 2015). The majority of respondents,
however, believed that social media use had no effect or did not decrease their study times.
Although students used social media for different purposes, the results revealed that less
than 40 per cent of them used this innovative technology for any one purpose. Among these,
watching, listening, chatting, communicating, downloading and reading had the highest
frequencies among the given options. This might be because these activities mostly do not
need intellectual contributions from students to be used. The given options that needed an
intellectual contribution were used infrequently, for example, “creating polls/quizzes or
surveys” and “publishing blogs”.
The respondents confirmed that teachers in the studied institutions did not widely use
the internet and associated technologies and social media for teaching and practical sessions
 EL with students. They encouraged students to use e-learning materials available through
36,1 social media for their learning and practice. However, teachers did not regularly conduct
group discussions or video conferences as aids to assignments or project activities of the
students. Students also did not accept social media as a more effective communication
method than face-to-face communication in an actual class setting with their teachers. This
result does not comply with the results of the study of Stanciu et al. (2012), as they found that
34 over 60 per cent of students successfully used social media to communicate with their
teachers. However, the results of the study of Lim et al. (2014) showed a relationship with the
present study. As both these studies confirmed, social media was an effective and helpful
tool for student learning, communicating with fellow students, assignment writing,
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homework and research work. As the present study further clarifies, students widely agreed
that social media had changed the way they think and behave and their habits and attitudes.
A majority of respondents further agreed that social media helped them to improve their
critical thinking and problem-solving skills even though social media did have much effect
on the development of sound reasoning and analytical skills.
Students believed that social media helped them to extensively develop their reading and
writing skills. However, its contribution to their development of speaking and listening
skills was slightly lower. Interestingly, the majority of the students accepted that social
media enhanced their leadership/project management skills and teamwork/collaboration
skills and helped them to achieve common goals, to coach and develop others and to manage
conflicts. It also significantly enhanced students’ information and communication
technology application skills, technological skills to accomplish a given task and problem-
solving skills in relation to technological applications.
As the selected population for the study was teacher students, their opinions were
important. Some of the given statements were directly related to school teaching and
learning processes. According to the majority of the students, social media can be an
effective tool in both teaching and learning in schools, to improve skills and experiences of
school teachers in relation to technology-oriented pedagogy or instructional techniques, to
improve children’s skills/abilities and attitudes and as collaborative teaching and learning
tools. The majority of them further agreed that social media negatively affected school
children’s study times, diverting children into violation and conflicts, creating mental
confusion and causing disorderly conduct and social imbalance in students.
The “unstable electricity connections” were the greatest barrier to social media use
among the respondents in the three institutions, followed by “internet cost”, “unstable
security and privacy issues” and “unreliable internet connections”. Some of these findings
were mirrored in recent studies. Mohamed and Sumitha (2011) and Hamade (2013) disclosed
that “unstable security and privacy issues” and “fear of misusing personal information” as
great barriers while Fasae and Adegbilero-Iwari (2016) disclosed that poor internet
connectivity and unstable electricity connections were the primary barriers. As the majority
of respondents in the present study were very aware of technological issues in relation to
social media, technology was not a barrier to their social media use. In the present study,
spending time on social media had no effect or was not a barrier for learning for the majority
of the students – although Singh and Gill (2015) and Hamade (2013) found that it had a
negative effect on student study times.

Conclusion
The analysis showed that social media was a very popular education, entertainment and
communication medium among the teacher students of FCE, GSU and FUK. To access
social media, they mostly used mobile phones. Students were generally connected with
 educational and informational communities more than other communities, indicating that Undergraduate
they made use of social media for effective learning. Students were also regularly students of
encouraged by their teachers to use more e-learning materials available through social
education
media even though the teachers rarely used them for online teaching. However, social media
was not popular for communication between teachers and students. In relation to teaching
and learning, social media can be an effective medium to enhance student skills including
critical thinking, problem-solving and communication skills. In addition, there were various, 35
mostly beneficial, purposes for which the teacher students used social media. Among these,
downloading, reading, watching, communicating and chatting were mostly preferred by the
students, although they rarely published or created information through social media. Use of
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social media by teacher students was badly affected by some barriers, including unstable
electricity connections, internet cost, unstable security and privacy issues and unreliable
internet connections.

Recommendations
The findings of the present study led to some recommendations. The largest issue is the
unstable electricity problem of the country – the electricity connection should be constant
within higher education institutions. As the country is not a large electronic manufacturer of
IT-related devices and smartphones, a reduction in importation taxes of such devices is
urgently needed. This, in turn, will help low-income students to acquire up-to-date IT
devices and smartphones to use in their studies. In parallel to tax reductions for IT devices,
the country should also reduce call and data charges for mobile phones. All higher education
institutions in the country must reconsider their rules and regulations in regard to the use of
student IT devices and smartphones while on institution campuses. Such an effort would be
an asset because of more effective use of such devices for learning. Authorities of higher
education institutions must also seek opportunities to educate students and staff about
social media and its effective use in teaching and learning. In this regard, special emphasis
should be given to enhance students’ learning experiences through social media in
classroom settings. Continuous assessment may also benefit university authorities by
increasing the effective use of this innovative technology for university education. Security
and privacy issues of social media use among students must be thoroughly addressed by
Nigerian higher education institutions to increase the effective use of social media.

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Corresponding author
Lalith Wickramanayake can be contacted at: [email protected]

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