Social Network: Academic And Social Impact On College
ASEE 2014 Zone I Conference, April 3-5, 2014, University of Bridgeport, Bridgpeort, CT, USA.Social Network: Academic and Social Impact onCollege StudentsMohamed Tayseer, Fouad Zoghieb, Ismail Alcheikh and Mohammad N.S. AwadallahArts and Science DepartmentThe Petroleum InstituteAbu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.motahmed@pi.ac.aeAbstract – Social network sites have spread widely allover the world and are used by various users for severalreasons and purposes. Different studies were made onsocial networks and their effects; however, very littlepractical evidence is available regarding the effect ofusing social networks on college students’ academicperformance and social engagement. This paperaddresses the effect of using social networks, eg.Facebook and Twitter on students’ engagement in bothacademic and social aspects.I.INTRODUCTIONOnline Social networks have gained a tremendous popularityamong people all around the world, especially collegeThe purpose of this research is to investigate if there is anycorrelation between using online social networks and theacademic performance of college students and to find outthe ways in which social sites can enhance the students’academic performance. Moreover, we aim to discover howsocial networks help college students get engaged in theirsocial life.Our main research questions include: Does spending time on social sites affect the GPA? Can social sites enhance academic performance? Can social sites improve our social life?The sample size of this research was limited to includeonly the freshman male students of the Petroleum Institute.The female component was excluded from our research dueto the society traditions and cultural reasons. Moreover,only common social sites (Facebook and Twitter) wereincluded in our research due to the lack of time.II.LITERATURE REVIEWResearch about social networking sites shows that thesesites are used in two different aspects, socially andacademically. According to [1], social networking sites,Facebook for instance, are the ones that affect usersregarding online and offline activities. When students useFacebook to chat and interact with each other they alsostudents. As students lead nomadic lives, they haveconsidered these networks as beneficial tools for socialgatherings. When students transit from high school to theirfirst year of college, a new pivotal phase of their lives starts.Consequently, they have to encounter socializing with newpeople, getting engaged and involved in their new societyand adapting to new educational means. Therefore, socialnetworks play a major role in building, maintaining or evenreviving relationships and improving students’ learningskills. For instance, some students have looked at selfpresentation within these networks, while others havelooked at ‘friending’ and ‘grouping’ behavior [3]. In thisresearch we focused mainly on two variables: the academicand the social impacts of social networks usage on collegestudents.develop their offline relationships. Offline relations arebasically those created by online activities and theinfluences of those relations on students’ social behaviorand academic performance. Additionally, [1] and [2] showthat social networks have been integrated into students’daily lives to help them maintain their pre-existing closerelationships, keep in touch with their colleagues andacquaintances through communication and social gatheringstools and enhance their studying performance. Moreover,[3] states that social sites can be accessed more often andeasily using smart devices.Facebook academically and socially[1] States that, the itinerant lifestyle that students livenowadays makes them face many challenges when it comesto separating between their schoolwork and their socialdaily life. Data resulted from [1] implies that Facebook isused not only to socialize with people, but also to help firstyear students overcome their shyness factor. Some of thestudents may feel shy when it is related to making newfriendships. However, by using Facebook ‘event tool’,students can arrange meetings in order to get in touch witheach other even more or keep light relationships with theirmates. On the contrary, [1] shows that some of those lessextroverted students may feel “a bit creepy” to show up atone of these meetings. According to [1], one of the students
said that she would feel awkward going and not knowinganyone.answered 30 surveys after being distributed to them during8 o’clock class, after taking permission from theirinstructors.Twitter as an enhancing educational toolAccording to [2], though Facebook is the most popularsocial networking site in the US, the authors decided to useTwitter since it is both practical for a continuing dialogue;because it is just 140 characters per post. Article [2] showsthat students can utilize social networks (for e.g. Twitter) todevelop their educational performance. Students have hadextended and richer discussions on Twitter more than inclass. Moreover, they felt more comfortable askingquestions on Twitter which assisted them avoiding theirshyness factor. Furthermore, they were able to express theirconcerns about upcoming major tests. As a result, they werecapable of organizing study groups.Our survey consisted of 2 main sections. Section one whichdealt with the effect of using social networks on students’academic life and section two which dealt with the effect ofusing social networks on students’ social life. We focused inour style of questions on Yes/No and Likert scale technique,in order to get more specified, reliable and related answers.Two members of our team were responsible for explainingany doubts the students had while filling the survey.Accessing social networks via smartphonesSocial networking sites users looked for ways to stay intouch with their accounts on these sites. As a result, theywere able to adopt smartphones as a new technology tocommunicate with their families and friends easily.Researchers tried to come up with findings by several ways;they tried to make questionnaires through websites, andthrough universities to know the connection between timespent exploring websites through smartphones and thegrades they got. According to [3], researchers found outthrough their questionnaire that smartphone users couldspend more time accessing social tools compared to thosewho do not. Moreover, they found out that the connectionbetween the amounts of time spent browsing such websitesand the grades the students got, is expected to have anegative impact on their grades.After the review of all articles, we concluded that socialsites affect college students’ educational performance andsocial lives. It is unclear whether these social sites affectstudents’ learning performance positively or negatively.Furthermore, social sites facilitate the social live of collegestudents. To conclude, it is an interesting topic for us to findout more about social sites and clarify their effects onstudents here at the PI.III.METHODOLOGYIn order to answer our research questions, we used a surveyas the main data gathering instrument. The survey was usedto collect quantitative data to determine the extent andfrequency of the perceived issue. To collect qualitative datathat focused on giving us explanations of the issues, weused our own observations and experience of the issue andmade use of the literature review. The survey was piloted onsome students to get feedback which was used to improve it.The survey was directed to freshman male students in thePetroleum Institute excluding females’ section due tocultural and traditional reasons. A total of 30 studentsTwo members of our team were assigned to the task ofconverting the collected surveys into an excel spread sheetthat contained all of the data of the survey in a way thatwould be easy to read and analyze. Then the two remainingmembers were assigned to the task of analyzing the surveydata. The analysis methodology was to categorize answersof each question into positive, neutral and negative answers.For example, in the academic section, answers to questionslike “Do you think online groups can be used as academicstudy groups?” with either “Strongly disagree” or“disagree” were considered to be negative, while answerswith “Do not know” were considered to be neutral andanswers with “Agree” and “strongly agree” were consideredto be positive.IV.RESULTSTo have a better understanding of all the responses we havereceived, we converted raw data into numerical results andpresented them in tables and charts. These results areillustrated below. Through the survey we were aiming tofind out if there is any correlation between the respondents’academic performance and their use of social networks.Thus, the respondents were required to answer somequestions about their midterm GPA and the time they spendusing social sites. An interesting finding shown in Fig. 1 isthat the students with high GPAs spend more time usingsocial networks, while students with low GPA spend ent onSocial Sites0.080.041-2 hours0Less than2.52.5-3.03.0-3.53.5-4.0Midtem GPA2-4 hours4-6 hoursMore than 6 hoursFig. 1: Midterm GPA vs. Hours spent on social sites.
Our second objective was to know how often therespondents use social networks for academically relatedpurposes. As shown in Fig. 2, more than two-thirds of therespondents do not share information about lectures andhomework, and further, more than half of the respondentsdo not even look for college related information throughsocial networks.Communicate With People92%Find Your Old Primary SchoolFriends85%Express Your Ideas Through aGroup73%Meet New Friends46%0%100%20% 40% 60% 80% 100%Percentage of Respondents80%69%PercentageofRespondents60%77%Fig. 4: The most common social purposes of using social networks23%Finally, Fig. 5 illustrates that the vast majority of therespondents uses social sites for social purposes, while only18% of them use these sites academically.40%20%31%0%Looking for College Sharing InformationRelated Information About Lectures &HomeworksnoyesAcademically18%Fig. 2:Using social sites to look for and share information.Moreover, we aimed to figure out if the respondents thinkthat the use of online social groups could enhance theiracademic performance. Amazingly, as Fig. 3 indicates, ahigh percentage of the respondents -about 81%-encouragethe idea of having debates and discussions over social sites.There are also about 73% of them who think that onlinegroups can be used as academic study eDisagree27%0%Debates &DiscussionsStudy GroupsFig. 3: Respondents' opinion about online debates and study groupsAlong with the academic purposes, we focused on the socialroles that social networks play. Therefore, respondents wereasked to choose the three most important socially relatedreasons for using social sites. Fig. 4 illustrates that almostall respondents, with a percentage of 92%, use socialnetworks to communicate with people, while 85%of themuse these networks to find their old primary school friends.Expressing the ideas through a group and meeting newfriends came next with percentages of 73% and 64%respectivelySocially82%Fig. 5: Comparison between the uses of social networksV.DISCUSSIONIn this discussion we are going to investigate and highlightseveral results we obtained from our survey that are crucialto answer our main research questions and to study the useof social networking sites in the Petroleum Institute. First,we point out that a high percentage of students at the PI whospend many hours using social networks have high GPAs. Asecond finding was that a bulk of students does not usesocial sites to look for college-related information; neitherhave they used these sites to share information about theirlectures and homework. However, a significant number ofstudents encourage having online discussions with theircolleagues and believe that online study groups can improvetheir study skills. A final result was that students are usingsocial networks for social purposes more than the academicones.We predicted that students who spent more time on socialsites would have low GPAs. To our surprise, as shown inFig. 1, students with high GPAs spend more time on socialsites. We think this might be due to good time management.Additionally interviewed students, said that they foundsocial sites as stress relievers. After spending some timestudying, they break the routine exploring social sites. Onone hand, these students knew how to manage their timeand divide it equally between entertainment and studying.On the other hand, students with low GPAs could not
manage their time and so they spent less time on socialsites.Fig. 2 indicates that most students in the PI do not useonline social networks to find college-related information orto share information about homework and lectures. Apossible reason for why students do not look for collegerelated information via social networks is the students’tendency to use online search engines to look for any pieceof information including the college related ones, as theyprovide various and readily available information that canbe accessed easily. A possible reason for why PI students donot share information about lectures and homework onsocial networks could be that it is somehow difficult toshare information about courses that require specificmathematical steps like calculus and physics, so they preferother means to share such information like face-to-facemeetings. Moreover, students probably do not use socialnetworks for academically related purposes because theythink of these networks as entertainment networks andsuitable places to release stress and forget about studyingthrough chatting with friends and sharing photos.On the other hand, according to Fig. 3, a surprising findingwas that the majority of the respondents agreed with theidea of having debates and discussions over social sites, andfor most of the respondents, using online groupsacademically is thought as an advantage when it comes toenhancing their academic performance. [1] Also supportsthe idea that these online groups provide students withaccessibility to more education-related information.However, perhaps the most important academic reasonbehind using these online groups is that they ease theprocess of social gathering. Thus, students thought thatseminars and study groups can be organized more easilyonline rather than asking everyone to meet at one place.Regarding the acceptance that online debates anddiscussions have got; it could be that these social networksmake sharing ideas easier to those who do not prefer theface-to-face discussions.Through Fig. 4, we can conclude that the main reason forusing social network sites is to communicate with otherpeople. A possible reason behind this could be that thehuman being is social by his nature and likes to get in touchwith other people. However, students nowadays are engagedin their academic lives. Moreover, face to face meetingshave become difficult due to several reasons such as thelack of time for doing such meetings. As a result, they resortto social networking sites as an outlet of this life. Fig. 4 alsoshows that meeting new friends is the least common reasonfor using social sites; this might be because most of studentsdo not like to share their own information with people thatthey have not met before. Moreover, according to [3], twothirds of Facebook users have multiple accounts and usethem for inappropriate purposes like hacking and spying onothers' personal information. Therefore, many students tendnot to meet new people on social networks. Another reasonis that students may think of adding new people and makingnew relations through Facebook a weird action, while fewothers may think of it as a normal action. These studentswho like to make online relations may be trying toovercome their shyness factor [2].To conclude, Fig. 5 shows that most of the PI students usesocial sites to socialize and interact with people. This mightbe a result of many things in students’ social life. It could beto break away from the pressure caused by the routine ofstudying. Additionally, it also might be caused by the lackof daily interaction with the opposite sex which is a majorpart of college life. However, these students supported theidea of using social sites academically. They thought thatonline groups can be used as study groups to shareinformation, discuss and interact with each other. Thisproved to be a successful experience according to [2].Finally, throughout this discussion we aim to suggest somerecommendations that can facilitate integrating socialnetworks into students’ lives. We anticipate that ourrecommendations will help enhancing the academic andsocial life of college students through social sites.VI.CONCLUSIONFrom the research we conducted we were able to give aninsight into the academic and social issues that collegestudents encounter when using social networks. Ourfindings show that there is a correlation between thestudents GPAs and their usage of social networks. Aninteresting finding was that many of our respondents do notuse social sites to look for college-related information;however, many of them encourage the idea of having onlinestudy groups. Another finding showed that the students tendto use social networks for social purposes more than theacademic ones.Due to traditional and cultural reasons, it was difficult toinclude the female component in our research. Also, webelieve that broadening our sample size to include freshmanstudents of other universities in the UAE would help usgather more reliable results and more specific answers forour research questions. Thus, since we lacked the sufficienttime and our resources were limited, we had to limit theresearch scope to include only the male freshman studentsin the Petroleum Institute. The research conducted in thispaper gave us a somehow better understanding of howsocial networks affect the students’ life. In conclusion,throughout this research, we do not actually aim to solve aproblem, but rather we aim to demonstrate the importanceof social networks to college students, so that thestakeholders take our recommendations into consideration. VII.RECOMMENDATIONSWe recommend that instructors encourage students onusing social sites academically (for e.g. onlinediscussion assignment through Twitter as in [2]).
We also think that instructors should persuadefreshman students to communicate with them usingsocial sites if they are too shy to ask and get involved inthe class (used in [2]).Our team also supports the idea of creating an onlinesocial group for elder students to share experience andhelp freshman students.We also propose that students can associate theiraccounts on social sites with Blackboard and can knowmore about their assignments by just accessing theiraccounts on social sites.Our team urges freshman students to use social sites tobreak the routine of studying and as stress relievers.REFERENCES[1] L. Barkhuus & J. Tashiro, “Student Socialization in the Age ofFacebook”, University of California, San Diego 9500 Gilman Drive, LaJolla, CA 92093, USA, 2010. http://cseweb.ucsd.edu/ barkhuus/barkhuuschi2010.pdf [Accessed: 2nd of September 2011].[2] R. Junco, G. Heiberger & E. Loken, “The effect of Twitter on collegestudent engagement and grades”, Journal of Computer Assisted Learning,Blackwell Publishing Ltd, 2010. Available at: Rey Junco’s /JuncoHeibergerLokenTwitterEngagementGrades.pdf [Accessed: 3rd of September 2011].[3] M. J. Stollak, A.Vandenberg, A. Burklund, S. Weiss, "Getting social:The Impact of Social Networking usage on grades among collegestudents", Volume 18 Number 1, Las Vegas: ASBBS Annual Conference,February 2011. Available at: PDF/S/StollakM.pdf [Accessed03/10/2011].
motahmed@pi.ac.ae Abstract – Social network sites have spread widely all over the world and are used by various users for several reasons and purposes. Different studies were made on social networks and their effects; however, very littl
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