Investigating social software usage for knowledge sharing purpose among students: A Malaysian Higher Education perspective

Abstract

Social software tools have been observed to change the way how students in this generation interact, socialize and learn. Recent focus of social software usage in the academic context studies concentrate on the pedagogical perspectives and informal learning purpose. The focus of this study is, however, another untapped potential which is knowledge sharing among students. This paper presents the finding from a survey study which aimed to investigate whether or not the students in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions use the social software tools for sharing knowledge and information with their friends. A total of 227 students from various universities in Malaysia participated in this survey study. The results indicate that the students are familiar with many social software tools. In addition, the majority of these students also shares information and knowledge with friends on different social software tools.