Abstract
Overwhelming popularity of Facebook as a social network site (SNS), especially among students, has shown growing interests of using it as a tool for education in and out of the classroom. However, despite concerted efforts from educationists, Facebook has hitherto unincorporated as a promising pedagogical tool. Influencing factors for such a use has already modeled structurally and validated, yet, the “increasing smart mobile usage to access Facebook” and its interactivity received insufficient attention in those models. Hence, our aim was to extend the existing structural model for two factors, namely mobility and interactivity. The structural equation modeling was applied to identify factors including mobility and its interactivity that may stimulate students to adopt Facebook for educational purposes. Online survey data were gathered from a sample of 510 undergraduate students using a structured and adapted questionnaire. Results of the present study revealed that in the extended model educational usage of Facebook was significantly related to its purpose and less significant to its adoption. Mobility was a significant factor in predicting the adoption in the extended model, even more than the social influence, while interactivity is significantly affecting the educational usage of Facebook. The extended model reconfirms the purpose of using Facebook is mainly for social relations. Similarly, community identification is the most significant factor for Facebook adoption and mobility seems to be further improving it. In conclusion, incorporating mobility and interactivity into the already existing model can better explain the pedagogical use of Facebook in the smart mobile age.
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Appendix
Appendix
The following table represents the questionnaire survey.
Adoption | |
|---|---|
Perceived Usefulness (PU) | |
PU-1 | Facebook allows me to communicate with more people in a short time period. |
PU-2 | Facebook allows me to share more in a short time period. |
PU-3 | Facebook makes it easier to establish and maintain personal relationships. |
PU-4 | Facebook allows me to have more control over my relationships. |
PU-5 | In general, the use of Facebook improves my personal relationships. |
Perceived Ease of Use (PEU) | |
PEU-1 | I became a Facebook member with ease. |
PEU-2 | My interaction with Facebook is clear and understandable. |
PEU-3 | I don’t have any problems learning about Facebook features on my own. |
PEU-4 | I find it easy to use Facebook features. |
PEU-5 | In general, I find it easy to use Facebook. |
Social Influence (SI) | |
SI-1 | I use Facebook because my friends recommended that I do. |
SI-2 | I pay more attention to the Facebook features used by my friends/contacts |
SI-3 | I use Facebook to communicate and share information with people around me. |
SI-4 | I use Facebook because many people I know expect me to use it. |
SI-5 | I use Facebook mostly to fit in since many people I know use it. |
SI-6 | I use Facebook because my friends recommended that I do. |
Facilitating Conditions (FC) | |
FC-1 | I find necessary resources to use Facebook with ease. |
FC-2 | Anyone can help me use Facebook. |
FC-3 | Facebook offers technical support when needed. |
FC-4 | I can get technical support by email if I have problems using Facebook. |
FC-5 | I can connect to Facebook where ever there is Internet connectivity. |
FC-6 | Facebook is similar to other social networks I use (msn, e-mail, online forums). |
FC-7 | In general, Facebook offers appropriate support. |
Community Identification (CI) | |
CI-1 | Using Facebook, I can create groups to share information with others that have the same interests. |
CI-2 | Using Facebook, I can join groups that I am interested in. |
CI-3 | Facebook allows the creation of groups of people who share the same interests and needs. |
CI-4 | I use Facebook to work as a team with the other members of the groups I joined |
Mobility (MO) | |
MO-1 | I use my mobile device to connect Facebook most of times than personal computer |
MO-2 | Mobile device helps to connect Facebook anytime and anywhere |
MO-3 | Features of mobile device (taking photos, video recording) are motivated me to connect Facebook for sharing images and videos quickly |
MO-4 | I would like to connect Facebook with my mobile device because, I need to make phone calls and send SMSs to my friends in the same time |
Purpose | |
Social Relations (SR) | |
SR-1 | I use Facebook to locate friends I haven’t been in touch with for a while. |
SR-2 | I use Facebook to find new friendships. |
SR-3 | I use Facebook to communicate with my friends. |
SR-4 | I use Facebook to share information and resources with my friends. |
SR-5 | I use Facebook to join groups to communicate about common interests. |
SR-6 | I use Facebook to be updated on the events of my previous school and former classmates |
Work Related (WR) | |
WR-1 | I use/would use Facebook to communicate with my classmates about homework and group projects of the university. |
WR-2 | I use/would use Facebook as a resource to increase my performance in my courses at university. |
Daily Activities (DA) | |
DA-1 | I use Facebook to get up to date information and news about my contacts. |
DA-2 | I use Facebook to find out what is new and innovative. |
Educational Usage | |
Communication (CM) | |
CM-1 | The use of Facebook improves communication between classmates. |
CM-2 | The use of Facebook improves communication between the teacher and the students. |
CM-3 | The use of Facebook improves classroom discussions. |
CM-4 | The use of Facebook improves the delivery of course content and resources. |
CM-5 | The use of Facebook improves the communication of announcements about courses, classes or school. |
CM-6 | Facebook provides resources to support students when doing their homework. |
Collaboration (C) | |
C-1 | The use of Facebook encourages the creation of academic groups (communities) of people with the same interests and needs. |
C-2 | Facebook is an appropriate platform to exchange course related information. |
C-3 | The use of Facebook improves student group work. |
Resource/Material Sharing (RMS) | |
RMS-1 | Facebook provides the resources to share a wide variety of resources and learning materials. |
RMS-2 | Facebook provides rich multimedia resources and media support to improve the educational experience. |
Interactive (IR) | |
IR-1 | Facebook make an interactive learning environment than traditional e-Learning Systems (LMS) in educational activities (Discussions, image & video sharing, academic notifications & updates, event news, uploading & downloading lecture notes, etc.) through the mobile device |
IR-2 | Facebook chatting provides personal communication among selected friends (peers/teachers/lecturers) to exchange educational information while engaging Facebook wall in public. |
IR-3 | Using Facebook via mobile device makes me interactive and encourages me for self-learning at any time anywhere |
IR-4 | Interactive notifications in Facebook updates, coming into my mobile device is motivated me to check whether it is an educational activity |
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Salinda Premadasa, H.K., Kapila Tharanga Rathnayaka, R.M., Waruni Thiranagama, A. et al. Remodeling the educational usage of Facebook in smart-mobile age. Educ Inf Technol 24, 41–61 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-018-9759-6
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-018-9759-6