Exploring the relationship of university students’ educational variables and the degree of their use of virtual social networks
| Published date | 18 November 2019 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/IDD-07-2019-0051 |
| Pages | 182-191 |
| Date | 18 November 2019 |
| Author | Mansour Jalali,Asgarali Bouyer |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Library & information services,Lending,Document delivery,Collection building & management,Stock revision,Consortia |
Exploring the relationship of university
students’educational variables and the degree
of their use of virtual social networks
Mansour Jalali
Department of Computer Engineering, Miandoab branch, Islamic Azad University, Miandoab, Iran, and
Asgarali Bouyer
Department of Computer Engineering, Azarbaijan Shahid Madani University, Tabriz, Iran
Abstract
Purpose –The purpose of this paper is to explore relationships among the university students’educational variables and their educational variables
concerning educational, cultural and social dimensions.
Design/methodology/approach –A questionnaire was developed and validated for analyzing the relationship between the amount of time spent
for using social networks and different dimensions of educational quality. The sample participants in this study included 400 st udents who were
selected from a total of 3,500 students in Eastern and Western Azerbaijan provinces at north-west of Iran in 2017. Finally, 342 of 400 questio nnaires
were considered for analyzing. The Pearson and Spearman correlation coefficients and multiple regression were used to anal yze data.
Findings –The results proved that the highest correlation coefficient was related to social networks and education quality and the lowest
correlation was related to social networks and cultural quality. The result of applying multiple regression proved that there is a linear relationship
between the roles of using social networks in predicting students’educational quality.
Originality/value –The role of academic and general social media in studying students’educational quality at universiti es is still under researched.
This situation provides a significant potential to explore on the effect of academic and general virtual social medi a in creating educational and
cultural awareness among university’s students. The findings of the current study add to the existing literature by contributing to a better awareness
of university student and applying appropriate strategies to conduct the education of students.
Keywords Regression, Cultural dimensions, Social networks, University students, Educational quality, Educational learning
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The role of social networks in modern life has significantly
increased and they have notably influenced our relationships.
Day in day out, more novel services aredesigned and produced
for maintaining communications which have probably led to
the detachment and aloofness from our friends (Bouyer and
Arasteh, 2014). It can be taken for granted that human
communications are so extensiveand widespread and it can be
argued that communications can have a notable impact on the
quality of learning (Subrahmanyam et al., 2008). E-learning
(electronic-learning) can be regarded as an important tool for
students (Jalaliet al.,2013).At present, the majority of students
are involved with various social networkingwebsites. However,
due to the significant development of internet and daily
application programs,these networks have evolved fast and the
interactive natureof online environments in social networks has
increased (Tanand Yuen, 2018;Hamid et al., 2010).
Regarding the number of internet users,Iran is considered to
have the 16th rank in 2019 and also it has the 4th rank of
internet growing in the world. According to the statistics of
internal resources, at present, the number of Iranian internet
users has exceeded 62.7 millionpeople which is equal to 76 per
cent of the population and is more than twicethe global average
(Stats, 2019). With respect to using the internet, Iranian
internet users have been at the global level and scope of using
the internet. Since Iranianswere once considered as prominent
and advanced bloggers around the world, they are regarded to
have high ranks in using certain international socialnetworking
websites. Some Iranian social and professional networking
websites such as Doreh, Soroush, Eitta, Classmates and
FaceFa have been developedwhich have not notably interested
internet users inside the country. Although a vast majority of
Iranians use social networking websites, the capabilities and
potentials of such social networking websites concerningthese
users have not been systematicallyinvestigated.
Recently, more specialized social networking websites such
as Researchgate,Wikipedia, Wikidaneshjoo, Stackoverflow and
Academia have become somehow popular among University
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on
Emerald Insight at: www.emeraldinsight.com/2398-6247.htm
Information Discovery and Delivery
47/4 (2019) 182–191
© Emerald Publishing Limited [ISSN 2398-6247]
[DOI 10.1108/IDD-07-2019-0051]
Received 18 July 2019
Revised 27 August 2019
28 August 2019
8 September 2019
Accepted 8 September 2019
182
To continue reading
Request your trial