Abstract
The term Social Networking Tools is used for social media applications accessible via mobile devices/smartphones; their use has become ubiquitous among college students, especially after the COVID 19 Pandemic, due to which the institutes of Higher education were shut down. A research gap was identified as the students’ acceptance of these learning tools has not been studied to the best of the author’s information, in India. The current study employs the conceptual model based on the UTAUT model by Venkatesh et al. (MIS Q 27(3):425–478, 2003), extended and modified by Khechine et al. (Br J Educ Technol 51 2306–2325, 2020. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12905). The sample comprised 305 students, 48 females (15.7%) and 257 males (84.3%), with an average age of 18 years. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), a methodology of structural equation modeling which allows the assessment of any complex cause-effect model comprising latent variables was used for assessing the hypothesized model using SmartPLS version 3.2.9. The results show that the college students were impacted by Performance Expectancy PE, Effort expectancy EE, and Social Influence SI in shaping their behavioral intention BIU; Facilitating conditions FC and Intrinsic Values IV didn’t influence their behavioral intention. However, their behavioral intention BIU and their Intrinsic Values (IV) influenced their intention to use (IU) social networking tools for learning for Higher education, in the Indian context.
Highlights
The use of Social Networking Tools for learning has become ubiquitous among college students
The findings affirmed prior results obtained by García Botero et al (2018), who confirmed that UTAUT constructs such as Performance expectancy (PE), Facilitating conditions (FC), and Social influence (SI) swayed students’ outlooks towards technology-enabled learning in Higher Education, and those by Al-Adwan et al (2018) who confirmed that Effort expectancy (EE), PE, and SI were important factors for acceptance of new technologies for learning
The study extended the scope of UTAUT to encompass the social networking tools for Higher Education
Summary
The use of Social Networking Tools for learning has become ubiquitous among college students. These are termed as social networking sites, social networking communications, or Web 2.0, etc. College Students extensively use these emerging tools (Lim et al, 2014), for cross-cultural communications, knowledge acquisition, and self-examination (Yu et al, 2010). Social networking tools play a crucial part in the modernization of learning methodologies by making diverse and varied means to interact, entertain, interconnect, and correlate accessible to the students and teachers, and by paving the way towards a student-centered learning methodology, based on interaction rather than teacher-centered methodology, grounded on traditional pedagogical methodologies. The tools function as an important source for interaction as well as cooperation amongst learners (Al-Khalifa & Garcia, 2013)
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