Exploring Social Media Usage in Academic Settings: A Study by Huseyin Odaba, Assoc. Prof.

USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA BY ACADEMICIANS H seyin Odaba Assoc. Prof., Atat rk University, Department of Information Management, T rkiye

The Plan Introduction and Basic Concepts Social Media Social Media in Education Aims, Hypothesis and Method Findings and Discussions a. General Evaluation b. Sample Evaluation Conclusion

Social Media in Education -- a vital element in education -- social media give chance to share learning materials -- a kind of ideal tool which can provide equity for opportunity in education

Aims, Hypothesis and Method Main aims: -- Describing the social media awareness levels of both academicians and students, -- finding out the attitudes of this group related to the use of social media in the education. Sub aims: 1. What is the level of social media use in education among academicians? 2. What are the expectations of students from academicians in terms of educational quality and what is the place and role of social media in these demands?

Aims, Hypothesis and Method The hypotheses: - Among the academicians, the use of social media with educational purpose is accepted as pointless, - Among the academicians the level of social media use with educational purpose is in low level, - Students see social media as a useful tool in the area education, - Students find the level of their lecturer s social media use in their educational practices insufficient.

Aims, Hypothesis and Method Frequency N Percentage % Social Status Academician Student Gender Women Men No answer Area of Education Social Sciences Natural and Engineering Sciences Medicine and Health Sciences Sports Sciences No answer Age Academician Lower age group (23-35) Upper age group (36-57) No answer Student Lower age group (18-21 Upper age group (22-32) No answer Total 113 153 42,5 57,5 99 164 3 37,2 61,7 1,1 110 117 25 2 12 41,4 44,0 9,4 0,8 4,5 56 55 2 49,6 48,7 1,8 74 73 6 266 48,4 47,7 3,9 100

Findings and Discussions -- Likert type of questions are used in order to get two groups of data (Academicians and Students). -- The first group of questions was asked to find out the participants attitudes and behavior towards to the social media as a whole. -- The second group of questions is about to the most preferred social media applications of the participants and their evaluations related to these applications.

General Evaluation Table 2: Efficacy of Social Media and Social Media Use Academician N % 68 19 4 81 15 2 82 15 5 52 25 0 Student N 76 52 4 88 34 2 82 34 5 89 30 3 I find social media very useful in terms of sharing course materials with students. % 49,7 34,0 2,6 58,3 22,5 1,3 53,9 22,4 3,3 59,3 20,0 2,0 I agree I do not agree I have no idea I agree I do not agree I have no idea I agree I do not agree I have no idea I agree I do not agree I have no idea 60,2 16,8 3,5 71,7 13,3 1,8 72,6 13,3 4,4 46,0 22,1 0 I believe that in addition to the traditional teaching techniques social media makes educational practices more attractive It is not difficult to be experienced user in social media. I find myself perfect and sufficient to use social media

General Evaluation Table 3: Social Media Success I have no idea 6,2 I do not agree 18,6 I agree (%) 39,8 (%) (%) Academicians -- By using social media I have the opportunity to support students homework and projects more effectively. -- My students who meet in social networks in the web have more academic success. Student -- I have to opportunity to prepare more qualified papers by using social media. -- Since I communicate with my friend in social networks, I got more success in my courses. 29,2 25,7 13,3 67,5 19,9 2,6 42,5 34,2 3,4

Sample Evaluation Table 4: Facebook Usage I have no idea 8,0 I do not agree 40,7 I agree (%) 29,2 (%) (%) -- Facebook, is a useful platform to share course documents with students -- Facebook gives me the opportunity to direct students instantly. --Most of colleagues in my department use Facebook to share course documents with students. -- Most of colleagues in my department use Facebook to send instant message or communicate with students. Academician 48,2 24,1 10,7 Student 23,8 58,9 7,9 28,5 45,0 8,6

Sample Evaluation Table 5: Blog and Cloud Usage I have no idea 11,6 I do not agree I agree (%) 62,5 (%) (% ) 7,1 Academician -- Blog (wordpress, blogspot, bloger vb.) is a useful platform to share course documents with students and make announcements. -- Google Document/Drive is a useful platform which can be used for file management and sharing. Student -- Most of lecturers in my department create a blog (wordpress, blogspot, bloger etc.) and share course documents with students by using it -- most of the lecturers in my department use Google Document/Drive to share file/document/course materials with students 79,5 3,6 6,2 33,8 43,0 11,9 27,2 43,7 15,2

Sample Evaluation Table 6: Usage of YouTube and Twitter I have no idea 4,5 I do not agree 14,3 I agree (%) 67,9 (%) (%) -- YouTube is a kind of useful platform that can be used for sharing educational videos. -- Twitter is a useful platform to send instant messages with educational content to the students. -- Lecturers in my department use YouTube to share personal or departmental activities with students. -- Lecturers in my department use Twitter to send instant messages to students. Academician 39,3 28,6 11,6 Student 29,1 46,4 12,6 21,2 57,0 13,9

Conclusion -- The first of hypothesis of research Among the academicians, the use of social media with educational purpose is accepted as substantially. pointless is verified -- The second hypothesis Among the academicians the level of social media use with educational purpose is in low level is also confirmed to a large extent. Particularly the determination of students about the academicians behaviors consideration. can be taken into the

Conclusion -- Another hypothesis Students see social media as a useful tool in the area education is also verified in this study. It can be claimed that both academicians and students have similar tendency in terms of usefulness of social media in education.

Conclusion -- Finally, the last hypothesis Students find the level of their lecturer s social media use in their educational practices insufficient is verified according to the result of research. -- Many academic studies show that there is positive correlation between social media usage in education and academic success.

USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA BY ACADEMICIANS H seyin Odaba Assoc. Prof., Atat rk University, Department of Information Management, T rkiye