Insights on Using Social Media in Dental Education: A Cross-Sectional Study in Saudi Arabia

Mohammad K Badri,Afnan A Nassar,Shahinaz N Sembawa,Khalid T Aboalshamat,Mona T Rajeh,Seba A Al Hebshi

doi:10.2174/1874210602014010717

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the insight of utilizing social media as an educational tool among dental faculty members in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional survey was distributed to 380 randomly selected faculty members from three governmental universities in the Western region of Saudi Arabia. The participants completed a validated questionnaire to assess the intent of using social media and their opinion about the benefits and drawbacks of adopting social media as an educational tool. Descriptive statistics and chi-square test were used to analyse the results. Results: Out of 380 faculty members who were invited to participate, 271 responded (71% response rate). Results reveal that WhatsApp, followed by YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter were the mostly used social media platforms. Around 31% of the participants reported using social media for ten hours or more. The main reason reported by the participants for using social media was searching for information (82.17%), followed by professional networking (78.29%) and learning (75.97%). The majority of the participants agreed that social media have advantages like it helps students to communicate and share ideas with instructors, update students with new resources, and improve students’ skills. Social media also has several disadvantages; the respondents believe that it can increase their addictive potential, create more demand for internet access, and raise concerns on direct contact with students. Conclusion: As an educational tool, social media can enrich the teaching experience by using the appropriate strategies. The findings may be useful for educators to adopt social media platforms in dental education.

Highlights

Social media is an internet-based interactive technology that helps to create and share information [1]
Social media platforms and apps were initially conceived as a means of socializing, they have gradually been adapted for education
Some studies have explored dental students’ and faculties’ usage of social media, none have focused on implementing social media in dental education. To address this knowledge gap, the present study aimed to identify perceptions pertaining to the use of social media tools in the learning context in Saudi Arabia

Summary

Introduction

Social media is an internet-based interactive technology that helps to create and share information [1]. In recent studies, integrating social media tools into traditional education has increased collaborative student learning [3]. Social media is growing in popularity among dentists and faculty members. Our initial literature search revealed that dental faculties and students frequently use social media [8]. The questionnaire included questions related to the faculties’ background of using social media (Table 2). Regarding the average number of hours, 31% of faculty members spent ten hours or more using social media per week. Social media tool mostly used was WhatsApp, followed by YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter. Using chi-square and fisher’s exact tests, no significant association was found between gender and the different social media tools. We found that demonstrators, lecturers, and assistant professors were more likely to use Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat compared to associate and full professors (Table 3)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion