A snapshot survey of Saudi higher education students' perceptions of SNSs and Web 2.0 as a support learning tool based on the proposed social learning hub model

Abstract

The rapid growth in social network sites and Web 2.0 applications has changed the ways of communications, knowledge exchange and learning. However, there is a lack of educational research in relation to learning outcomes on utility of Facebook and other similar SNSs in terms of: 1) interactions of students; 2) academic communication; 3) cooperative learning; 4) student motivation. Based on our proposed social learning hub (SLH) model, we empirically examine the abovementioned four factors as a pilot survey on student perceptions of the use of Facebook as a learning tool, in the School of Engineering and the School of Computer Sciences and IT, Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University, Saudi Arabia. Our findings indicated that the majority of the students had a hesitant perception of using Facebook in terms of the abovementioned four factors; and this negative perception needs to be rectified with intervention strategies.