Development and Preliminary Validation of Social Media as an Educational and Professional Tool Student Perceptions Scale (SMEPT-SPS)

Abstract

Although social media has an increasing presence both in university and sports settings, in the sports-management education context, no instruments (without being focused on one particular social-media platform, e.g., Facebook and Twitter) have been developed and validated that globally allow the academy to explore the perceptions of sports-management students concerning the educational and professional learning potential that these tools offer. Therefore, this research’s main objective is to develop and perform a preliminary validation of the social media as an educational and professional tool student perceptions scale (SMEPT-SPS). This study sample was composed of 90 Spanish undergraduate sports-management students (M = 22.56; SD = 3.55). A multigroup confirmatory factor analysis was performed to examine the psychometric properties of the SMEPT-SPS. The statistical analysis reflects the scale’s three-dimensional nature, explaining 67.87% of the variance and presents adequate psychometric properties (α = 0.87). Nevertheless, further validity and reliability analysis are required to confirm these initial findings with a larger and more representative sample. Considering the foregoing limitation, this research contributes to the literature by providing a new instrument, the SMEPT-SPS, that could help sports-management faculty expand the scope and understanding of social media’s educational and professional potential.

Social media use in higher education: Building a structural equation model for student satisfaction and performance

“…With this in mind, learners are utilizing their perceived appropriate media type for a task. For instance, TikTok for short video-based work and Facebook or WeChat for managing group conversations and meetings ( 11 , 12 ). The opportunity for knowledge-sharing notwithstanding, students have the capacity to use such resources for knowledge generation, external feedback, and learning opportunities.…”

Deporte y regulación: nuevos escenarios y desafíos. Actas del XI Congreso Iberoamericano de Economía del Deporte

“…Los medios sociales están cada vez más presentes en la vida de las personas, siendo herramientas muy valoradas por los empleadores de la industria del deporte (López-Carril et al, 2021). Si bien medios sociales como Facebook y Twitter han recibido una gran atención por parte de los académicos (Manca & Ranieri, 2016), otros medios sociales que ofrecen oportunidades de aprendizaje para el alumnado como LinkedIn, Pinterest o TikTok, han recibido una menor atención.…”

“…Si bien medios sociales como Facebook y Twitter han recibido una gran atención por parte de los académicos (Manca & Ranieri, 2016), otros medios sociales que ofrecen oportunidades de aprendizaje para el alumnado como LinkedIn, Pinterest o TikTok, han recibido una menor atención. En un contexto de pandemia causado por la expansión del virus SARS-CoV-2, los medios sociales se han convertido en un recurso para el profesorado a la hora de generar espacios de enseñanza-aprendizaje en línea, facilitando que el desarrollo de las clases siga su curso superando las posibles limitaciones y restricciones a las clases presenciales (López-Carril et al, 2021).…”

“…Para evaluar el impacto de experiencia, se creó un cuestionario ad hoc para que el estudiantado expresase sus percepciones sobre el potencial de Pinterest en el contexto de la educación en gestión del deporte, así como se incluyó la escala desarrollada por López-Carril et al (2021), que mide las percepciones del alumnado sobre el uso de medios sociales en el contexto universitario, así como su potencial para desarrollar el perfil profesional del alumnado.…”

Social media usage and acceptance in higher education: A structural equation model

“…For example, the use of social media applications by students has skyrocketed (from 11% in 2005 to 90% in US adults aged 18-29 (Mahdiuon et al, 2020), and the impact on academic performance has varied (Kulidtod and Pasagui, 2017). In educational environments, students may use social media for a variety of purposes, including knowledge finding, collaboration, and social interaction (Elsayed, 2016;Rasheed et al, 2020;López-Carril et al, 2021;Karakose et al, 2022a). Several studies have shown a connection between social media use and undergraduate university students' academic performance and achievement (Alnjadat et al, 2019;Al-Maatouk et al, 2020a;Al-Rahmi et al, 2020).…”