What leads to social learning? Students’ attitudes towards using social media applications in Omani higher education

Abstract

Social learning refers to the learning delivered through social media applications. The examination of students’ attitudes towards using social media applications for learning activities is still not fully understood. For this reason, this research is carried out with the aim of measuring the students’ attitudes towards using social media from the lenses of several attributes, including gender, age, governorate, year of study, social media application, experience, and interest. The population of this study is the students enrolled at eight different universities and colleges located in eight different governorates in Oman. A total of 1307 students took part in this research through the use of an online survey. The results showed that gender, age, governorate, experience, and interest have significant impacts on students’ attitudes. Nevertheless, the study years and social media applications did not expose any significant effect on students’ attitudes. Additionally, WhatsApp was found to be the most predominant application used for educational purposes. Further, the study reported the barriers faced by the students while using social media applications for learning purposes. In response to these barriers, the study also provided a number of suggestions for improving the overall usage of social media in higher educational institutes.