Narratives of Students about the Role of Social Networking Sites in Higher Education Institutes

Abstract

Social Networking Sites (SNS) such as Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, blogs, Twitter and other educational sites have become an essential part of daily routine at the tertiary level of education. The purpose of this study is to investigate how SNS enable social interaction as well as sharing of knowledge among students. Hence, this study explored students’ perception of educational activities conducted via SNS and their experience of using SNS in higher institutes. The study adopted a qualitative approach and focused on interpreting students’ narratives regarding the use of SNS in higher education. For this purpose, in depth interviews and focus group discussions were conducted from university students. Thematic analysis was used to analyze the data generated from the narratives of the participants. The findings showed that SNS plays an important role in distance education as they help students to attend online lectures delivered from the online forums of various universities. Students use SNS for various learning purposes, such as to access online libraries, e-learning, to download e-books and to find research articles from various authentic sites.