TABLE OF CONTENT
Pages
TITLE PAGE i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
TABLE OF CONTENTS v
ABSTRACT vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of
the Study 1
Statement of
problem 5
Purpose of the
study 8
Research
questions 9
Significance of
the study 9
Scope of the
study 11
CHAPTER
TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Concept
of Social Networking 13
Concept
of Business Education 17
Relevance of social networking in education 24
Implication of using social networking in learning process 33
Competency
of business education lecturers in the use of
social
networking 39
Challenges
that face the use of social networking in education and
social
networking, teaching and learning 43
Empirical studies 55
Summary
of Related Literature 71
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Design
of the Study 74
Population
of the Study 75
Sample
and Sampling Technique 76
Instrumentation
76
Validity
of the Instrument 77
Reliability
of the Instrument 77
Method
of Data Collection 78
Method
of Data Analysis 78
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION OF
RESULTS
Presentation of
Results 79
Discussion of
Findings
90
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION,
RECOMMENDATION AND SUGGESTION FOR FURTHER STUDIES
Summary 96
Conclusion 98
Recommendation 99
Suggestion
for further study 101
REFERENCE
102
APPENDICE 107
ABSTRACT
The study was undertaken to investigate the
influence of social networking on business education students’ academic
performance. Five research questions were raised to guide the study, the study
employed descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of
247 business education students and 100 were randomly selected and used as
sample for the study. The instrument that was used for the study was a set of
50 structured questionnaires which was validated by my supervisor and two other
experts. The reliability of the instrument was designed using test-retest
method and the reliability coefficient value of 0.86 was obtained. The research
design used for the study is descriptive research design. The copies of the
questionnaires were administrated personally by the researcher and with the
help of research assistants, the questionnaire items were analysed using mean
and standard deviation. The findings revealed that students are experiencing
challenges in using social networking for their academic work. It was also
revealed that social networking is not responding for their poor academic
performance since they use it to share academic knowledge and information among
themselves. The researcher recommended that both governments, communities,
school administrators should ensure to help reduce the challenges faced by the
student in the use of social networking in the school environment.
Key words: social networking, business education
students, & academic performance.
CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Social networking is
built on the idea of how people should know and interact with each other
through the use of the internet. Internet is a very essential part of life from
shopping to electronic mails and education. It has become one of the most
important communication tools among people nowadays. It gives people the power
to share, making the world more open and connected. Recently, there is a
drastic increase of adults that are into online social networking site compare
to January 2014 when the percentage was 74 (Ellision 2008). Social networking
can be done for social purposes, business purposes and educational purpose.
Social networking programs group
individuals by interests, hometowns, employers, schools and other
commonalities.
Wikipedia defined
social networking service as a platform to build social relations among people
who share similar interests, activities, backgrounds or real-life connections.
A social network service consists of a representation of each user (often a
profile), his or her social links, and a variety of additional services such as
career services. Social network sites are web-based services that allow
individuals to create a public profile, create a list of users with whom to
share connections, and view and cross the connections within the system. Most
social network services are web-based and provide means for users to interact
over the Internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging.
There are over 219
social networking sites today according to Wikipedia. Some of the popular and
commonly used ones are Facebook, Twitter, Google, Google+, YouTube,
Academia.edu, Instagram, About.me,
Whatapp, Blackberry messenger, Yahoo mail, G mail, Bebo, Friendster,
Hi5, Habbo, NING, classmates, Tagged, myYearbook, Meetup, MyLife, Flixster,
myHeritage, Orkut, Badoo, Gaia Online, Netlog Tuenti, IRC-Galleria, Xing,
Ibibo,. Social networking hit really its stride with the launch of Friendster
in 2002 founded by Canadian computer programmer Jonathan Abrams. It is used as a degree of separation concept similar to
that of the now-defunct SixDegrees.com, refined it into a routine dubbed the
“Circle of Friends,” and promoted the idea that a rich online community can
exist only between people who truly have common bonds. After Friendster was
abandoned, LinkedIn took a more serious approach to social networking
phenomenon and LinkedIn was formed for business people who want to connect with
other professionals.
There is much interest
from schools and Universities in the potential of public social networking
services and social media such as blogs to leverage or complement formal
educational activities and enhance learning outcomes (Brennan 2001 & 2003;
Notley 2010). Whilst e-learning frameworks are now integrated into most educational
settings, the use of social networking services is less comprehensively
utilized. Access to social networking services varies according to state and
educational level with some states banning access to social networking services
and social media services altogether (Notley 2009). Consequently there is a
dearth of evidence on the impact of social networking on young people’s formal
education (Anderson 2007). Nevertheless, pilot projects and research are being
rolled out which highlight both the potential and the need for social software,
services and practices to be integrated into school and higher education
frameworks. Social networking services are also being used to extend
opportunities for formal learning across geographical contexts. For example, students
from University of Benin and Obafemi Awolowo University, learners from both
schools use instant messaging and Skype to share information about their
cultures and work collaboratively. Social networking service use between
teachers and students can improve rapport and motivation and engagement with
education (Mazer, Murphy, Simonds 2007).
Additionally, social
networks grab the total attention and concentration of the students and divert
them towards non educational, unethical and inappropriate actions such as
useless chatting, time wasting by random searching and not doing their jobs
which is reading. Also social network has introduced many attractive tasks like
gamming, online addiction, advertisements etc. so that people can never get
enough of these things. The social network addict becomes a useless node for
parents, friends and other associated people. They cannot succeed because they
have no sense of upcoming future and competitions in their careers. Most
business education students nowadays miss classes due to arrangement they made
with their friends online which could lead to missing of test if the lecturer
decide to do one, and also they don’t meet the required percentage of
attendance before exams which could lead to them not writing. After all these
students cannot miraculous have good grades and this seems to be an issue which
has affected the performance of business education students’ academic
performance.
Statement
of Problem
Social networking can
be regarded as one of the means which has made knowledge to be easily access.
It has increase the rate of learning process, and makes teaching and learning
effective and efficient. Online social
networks have become increasingly popular in recent years providing a different
and user friendly way to maintain social connections and share information.
Leki (2014) assert that a shift is taking place in the focus of pedagogical
practice on universities all over the world as students across a wide variety
of disciplines are learning by making and creating rather than from simple
consumption of content. The proliferation of e-learning systems in learning
institutions has contributed a lot to the acquisition and application of new
skills (Awodele, Idowu, Anjorin, Adedire & Akpore 2009).
The idea of using social
media is to provide students with a variety of tools for independent work,
reflection, construction and collaboration (Dalsguard 2008) . Social network
also provides learners with value resources for using the web as a tool in
order to develop their understanding and solve problems, whether in school, at
work, or in their private lives. The objectives of business education as opined
by (Njoku 2006) are: to empower individuals with desirable skills, knowledge
and value to perform specific functions so as to become self-reliant, to help
individuals appreciate the world around them and contribute maximally to the
social and economic development of the nation. This can be achieved with the
help of social networking in acquiring such skills and knowledge through the
help of skills related videos in YouTube. Students use social media day in and
day out to interact with their peers and even teachers about class-related
subjects. Not only do they know how to interact with others on the internet,
they know how to use basic and even complex functions in order to do so (Joseph
Baker 2013). Their ability to access, analyze, retain and share information is
skyrocketing and they often don’t even realize they’re developing these skills,
the advent and dominance of social media has created a new breed of marketing,
which has required professionals to build and further the field.
Education is very
essential part of an individual’s life for every teenager education is more
important than anything. Today students’ shows very much interest for using
social networks but unfortunately social networks affect education badly.
Technology is step towards betterment, no doubt but any technology which can
provide ease of social networks can be dangerous for social network addicts. Providing
ubiquitous facility of social networks is a straight invitation of addiction to
any student as academic satisfaction is not enough for those students who
suffers from social isolation.
The problem of the
study is that students have not been able to integrate social networking into
their academic learning process and these seems to be used for only their
social life’s which has caused addiction problems for students in business
education as they chat while lectures is actually going on and this would
affect their performance.
Purpose of the Study
The main purpose of
this study is to determine how social networking influence business education
students’ academic study.
Specially, it is to
ascertain:
1. The challenges experienced by business education
students in the implementation of the use of social networking
2. The
ways to curb business education students’ addiction towards social networking
3. The
extent to which social networking sites responsible for business education
students’ academic performance.
4. The implications of using social
networking sites by business education students
5. The
rate of usage of social networking sites by business education teachers affects
their student attitude towards social networking.
Research
Questions
The following
research questions are raised to guide the study:
1. What are the
challenges in the use of social networking sites by business education students
towards their academic performances?
2. Are they ways to
curb business education students’ addiction towards social networking sites?
3. Is social networking
sites responsible for students’ poor academic performance in business
education?
4. What are the
implications of using social networking sites by business education student?
5. To what extent can
the lecturer influence business education students’ attitude towards social
networking?
Significance of the
Study
The findings of the
study will be of immense benefit to all education stakeholders, particularly
teachers, researchers, students, curriculum planner, government, and the
public. It will create in planners, the awareness of such problems that may be
encountered in implementing projects on social networking.
The findings of this
study will be of benefit to the teachers as it will enlighten them on the need
for social networking as it will make study carried out by them easy to find
out and help update their knowledge that would be passed down to future
generation.
The findings of this
study will also be useful to the government and its agencies, as the government
would want easy access to social networks by students and these could lead to
government subsidizing the cost and also making sure internets connection must
be a required before schools can be established.
It will be useful to
curriculum planner as it will enable them to carry out a thorough assessment on
the implementation, effectiveness and impact of social networking in teaching
and learning.
The students will
benefit because they will understand the concepts, usage of social networking
and its relevance in proffering solution to daily problems in academic and
application of the knowledge gain in their individual tasks in future.
The study will also be
useful to research as a source of literature or related literature that adds to
the available material for present and future research study.
Scope
of the study
The study is focused on
the impact of social networking on business education students in the
department of vocational and technical education university of Benin, Benin
City. This study is specifically to determine the influence of social
networking has on business education student only.
The study is restricted
to 300 and 400 level in the department of vocational technical education in
University of Benin, Benin City