Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness of Social Media for e-Learning in Libyan Higher Education: A Structural Equation Modeling Analysis

Abstract

Abstract-Social networking media are becoming popular among students and teachers in higher education. Researchers have also started to explore the use of social networking media for teaching and learning in higher education. Social networking media have offered new opportunities for sharing, creating and interacting between students and teachers. However, to implement and adopt such technology, there is a need to investigate the factors that influence the acceptance of the students and the teachers using such technologies as a tool for learning and teaching. In this paper, a study based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), which emphasizes on Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness together with Behavior Intention to use new technologies, is used to test the factors of using social networking media for e-learning in Libyan higher education. A quantitative research method was employed utilizing survey method. Research data was collected from a sample of teachers and students from four universities in the Libyan higher educational sector. Structural Equation Modeling was carried out to examine the predictive behaviour of the proposed factors of the research model. It was discovered from the study that the Perceived Ease of Use and Perceived Usefulness are important factors for predicting a student's and teachers' behavioral intention to use social networking media for e-learning in Libyan higher education.Index Terms-Libyan higher education, social networking media, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, e-learning. I. INTRODUCTIONThe impact of the Internet on the education sector has taken both teachers' and students' attention in recent years. New generations of Web 2.0 and Web 3.0 have added more enthusiasm and excitement for people to spend many hours on internet based applications, especially social networking media [1]. A big portion of the social networking media users are youths who are mostly university students [2]. Many studies have reported that Facebook is the most common social networking tool used where 85-99% of the university students use it for all aspects of life, including for educational purposes [3]. A recent study of about 3000 college students, from USA, indicated that 90% of students utilize Facebook and 37% of them use Twitter to share information [4].Social networking media (e.g Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter) received a lot of attention due to the high take up rate across the world. Social networking media have made communication, collaboration and interaction possible and Manuscript received September 2, 2014; revised November 2, 2014. The authors are with Murdoch University, Australia (e-mail: a.elkaseh@murdoch.edu.au). more efficiently. Consequently, they have been introduced to support educational activities [5]. Social networking media have been able to create a revolution in the communication fields for information and knowledge sharing [5]. This revolution has changed the manner of how people interact and communicate with each other, including how they exchange,...

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