The Acceptance of Social Networking as a Learning Tools at University of Bahrain

Abstract

 Abstract—Social networks (SNs) are growing rapidly as leading technologies for education and learning platform. They have the potential to create new contents and opportunities that increase student's motivation for learning. However,to have an effective implementation and adoption for such technologies,there is a need to identify factors influence the students' acceptance of such technologies as new learning tools. By relying on the Technology Acceptance Model - TAM model which focuses on perceived usefulness and perceive ease of use as well as behavior intention toward using new technology was used to examine the student's behavior intention toward using SNs as learning tools at University of Bahrain. A quantitative research approach was conducted using survey method.Data were collected from a sample of undergraduate students from Information Systems at the University of Bahrain. PLS was conducted to test the predictive power of the proposed factors of the research model. The study confirmed that perceived usefulness and perceived ease are vital factors for predicting the students' behavioral intention to use social networks as learning tools. Both factors have shown a direct impact on thestudents' behavioral intention. In addition, they were act as moderators for the impact of many factors such as computer self-efficacy, perceived enjoyment and perceived mobility value on the behavioral intention.