The Impact of Social Networks on Teaching and Learning at a Rural University in South Africa

Abstract

While originally not designed for academic purposes, the use of social networking tools has gained popularity in academia. The purpose of this study was to explore student and lecturer views, experiences, and beliefs on using social networks for teaching and learning in a rural context. Utilizing the mixedmethods approach, a questionnaire and face-to-face interviews were utilized to collect data. Stratified random sampling and purposive sampling were utilized to identify respondents currently using social networks in their teaching and learning. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software was used to analyze the quantitative data while content analysis was used to identify emerging themes from the collected data. We conclude that while students were very positive towards the use of social networks in class, not all lecturers have embraced the use of this technology in teaching and learning and have some apprehensive that social networks might disrupt learning. We recommend developing monitoring mechanisms to mitigate any negative use of social networks for learning and teaching and vigorous lecturer advocacy programs to develop positive attitudes and to encourage lecturers to embrace the use of social network platforms in teaching. We further recommend developing standards and procedures for using social network platforms in teaching and providing the tools to integrate them into learning and teaching. The impact of using these platforms need to be considered by designers and those who implement them in learning and teaching.