Assessing Faculty’s Use of Social Network Tools in Libyan Higher Education via a Technology Acceptance Model

Ismail Aburagaga,Mary Agoyi,Islam Elgedawy

doi:10.1109/access.2020.3004200

Abstract

Recently, many educational institutes are expanding their education delivery methodologies to incorporate online, remote, and flexible learning, which is a strategic response to facilitate and fulfil the increasing demand for access to higher education. Unfortunately, online education requires substantial investments in different online education platforms, technologies, and infrastructure, creating obstacles for realising the online education strategy for many developing countries. In this paper, we argue that we could use social networks as one of the delivery platforms for online education, due to their easy access and popularity among young generations. Therefore, we carried out this study to measure and analyse the acceptance of faculty and educational stakeholders for social networks adoption as an educational delivery platform. Hence, we adapted the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) to determine and analyse the factors and variants affecting faculty's acceptance. We used the TAM as an internal variable, and we used privacy, infrastructure, institutional support and access devices as external variables to assess the faculty needs for adopting social networks into educational settings. The study examined 14 hypotheses corresponding to these factors using data collected from 382 respondents in six different universities within Libya, performing structural equation modelling, descriptive analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. Results show that privacy, institutional support, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use were seen to have a significant effect on behavioural intention. Additionally, perceived ease of use and behavioural intention contributed significantly towards the actual usage of social networks. The results also show that faculty and educational stakeholders have not provided enough for institutions or encouraged the use of social networks within the context of educational institutions across Libya.

Highlights

Social network tools (SNTs) have become the commonly used applications for social space through which it connects friends, colleagues, and family members
In a study on faculty openness, interactivity and sociability in institutions [15], the results show that SNTs are still limited in use, and only a few academics are ready to accept these applications into their teaching practices for some rational reason - cultural resistance, or institutional supports
The current study was designed to explore the utilization of SNTs in higher education (HE) with the adoption of the Technology Acceptance Model and other new variables

Summary

Introduction

Social network tools (SNTs) have become the commonly used applications for social space through which it connects friends, colleagues, and family members. SNTs are social interaction tools that make it effortless for people to network information as well as engage others with their life experiences [1], [2]. Many information systems (IS) researchers are still working on how to predict users’ continuance intention, post-acceptance and continuance theories, on the relationships between individuals or different groups through means of understanding technology acceptance, behavioural intention, actual use and several conventional theories [5]. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) is a vital instrument that examines the adoption and different dimensions of user behaviours to critically and fully integrate a conceptual model to a learning environment and overall help with providing useful implications related to different concerns [6].

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Conclusion