Determinants and academic achievement effect of Facebook use in educational communication among university students
| Pages | 105-123 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-05-2018-0116 |
| Published date | 21 January 2019 |
| Date | 21 January 2019 |
| Author | Chin Fei Goh,Amran Rasli,Owee Kowang Tan,Sang Long Choi |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval,Information & knowledge management,Information management & governance,Information management |
Determinants and academic
achievement effect of Facebook
use in educational communication
among university students
Chin Fei Goh, Amran Rasli and Owee Kowang Tan
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Johor Bahru, Malaysia, and
Sang Long Choi
Raffles University Iskandar, Johor Bahru, Malaysia
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to examine the factors that drive students to use Facebook for
educational communication and explore the impact of Facebook use for educational communication on
perceived academic achievement.
Design/methodology/approach –A survey was conducted through a self-administered questionnaire to
collect data from student Facebook users at a large technology and engineering university in Malaysia.
Partial least squares path modeling was used to test the hypotheses in the research model.
Findings –This empirical study showed that Facebook use in educational communication is determined by
subjective norms and purposive value. Facebook use in educational communication positively affected
perceived academic achievement.
Practical implications –The findings provide useful insight for higher institutions and educators
regarding the potential academic effects of integrating Facebook into higher education learning. Moreover,
this study provides insight into the factors that drive Facebook use in educational communication.
Originality/value –Prior studies have largely investigated the determinants and the effects of Facebook
use among university students. However, little research has focused on educational communication
phenomena. This study investigated determinants and academic achievement effect of Facebook use in
educational communication among university students.
Keywords Facebook, Uses and gratifications, Academic achievement, Social influence, Social presence,
Educational communication
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
The rising ubiquity of social networking sites (SNS) in students’daily lives has been
accompanied by investigations on the tangible impact of SNS use in academic context.
Researchers have continued to gather evidence on whether Facebook can be used as a
pedagogical tool (e.g. Selwyn, 2009; Tess, 2013; Ainin et al., 2015). While many educators are
enthusiastic about the potential of Facebook’s pedagogical role, researchers remain in an
experimental stage in terms of investigating whether students have shifted their ways of
learning using Facebook and the links between SNS use and academic achievement (Aydin,
2012; Elaine et al., 2015).
Given the pervasive use of SNS, many scholars were interested in the potential influences
of SNS use on academic achievement (e.g. Ainin et al., 2015; Doleck et al., 2018; Michikyan
et al., 2015). However, prior published results reported the link between SNS use and
academic achievement is mixed and unstable. The study by Ainin et al. (2015) highlighted a
positive association between Facebook use and academic achievement but other research
showing a negative association (Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010; Michikyan et al., 2015; Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 71 No. 1, 2019
pp. 105-123
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-05-2018-0116
Received 21 May 2018
Revised 13 August 2018
11 October 2018
Accepted 12 November 2018
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
The authors acknowledge the generous support from Ministry of Education Malaysia and Universiti
Teknologi Malaysia (FRGS/1/2018/SS03/UTM/02/3).
105
Facebook use
in educational
communication
Junco, 2012b; Paul et al., 2012). Intriguingly, several studies reported non-significant link
between Facebook use and academic achievement (Doleck et al., 2018; Alwagait et al., 2015).
It is difficult to draw any definitive conclusions concerning the link between SNS use and
academic achievement. However, it is suggested that Facebook, which is a collaboration
platform, can increase students’participation in online discussion and collaborative learning
compared to traditional learning management systems (Camus et al., 2016; Moghavvemi
et al., 2017; Wang et al., 2012). Given Facebook has pedagogical affordances in teaching and
learning, many scholars continue to call more research to investigate the SNS impacts in the
academic context (Wang et al., 2012; Moghavvemi et al., 2017; Doleck and Lajoie, 2018).
There is one theoretical clue to untangle the contests on the link between SNS use and
academic achievement. Prior studies tend to rely on a general measure of the Facebook
usage rate to understand its impact in the academic context. One should note that a
standard measure of Facebook use may mask the effect of the specific usage of
Facebook in academic phenomena ( Junco and Cotton, 2011; Doleck and Lajoie, 2018;
Davenport et al.,2014).Dolecket al. (2018) point out that “further work is required to
understand the effects of students’SNS activities and usage patterns on academic
performance, with respect to specific SNS”(p. 15). In this regard, Facebook can be
specifically used for educational communication among students and enhancing learning
process (Arteaga Sánchez et al., 2014; Michikyan et al., 2015; Popescu, 2014). We contend
that the understudied of specific usage of Facebook, i.e., Facebook use in educational
communication, is a missing key element in the literature. Furthermore, the effect of
Facebook use on academic achievement cannot be observed without tracking Facebook
use in educational communication.
Our knowledge on SNS use is inadequate when the underlying determinants of SNS use
are not fully understood (Ainin et al., 2015; Doleck et al., 2018). Our review shows that social
presence, social influence and uses and gratifications (U&G) theories can be used to explain
the determinants on Facebook usage. First, social presence theory suggests that the degree
of salience of the other social actors in the interaction leads to the salience of the
interpersonal relationship (Lee et al., 2009). In SNS, social presence can be measured by its
inbuilt salience quality, i.e., level of sociability, sensitivity, warmness and interpersonal
engagement in a medium. Second, social influence describes how individual’s perceived
social pressure influences the use of a social media (Cheung and Lee, 2010). The compliance
force of social influence can be measured by subjective norms, which is known as a major
determinant of SNS. Finally, the U&G can be used to elucidate the individual’s key values in
the virtual community in adopting SNS (Cheung et al., 2011; Krause et al., 2014). The theory
can be measured by five values: purposive value, self-discovery, interpersonal
interconnectivity, social enhancement and entertainment value (Cheung et al., 2011;
Cheung and Lee, 2009; Oliveira et al., 2016).
Given little is known about Facebook use in educational communication phenomena, we
believe that identifying the determinants represents an important research concern. It is of
paramount importance to understand individual motivation and social aspects for social
networking behavior. In this regard, U&G theory offers insights concerning why
individuals engage in SNS use to gratify their needs. In social aspects, social influence is
important to explain the individuals’collective behavior on an SNS. Social presence offers
understanding how the salience of an SNS affects social behavior networking behavior.
The aforementioned discussion leads to the following questions:
RQ1. What are the determinants of Facebook use in educational communication among
university students?
RQ2. What is the effect of Facebook use for educational communication on perceived
academic achievement?
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