2019 IEEE Student Conference on Research and Development (SCOReD)

October 15-17, 2019, Seri Iskandar, Perak, Malaysia

Understanding the differences in students’ attitudes

towards social media use: A case study from Oman
Noor Al-Qaysi
Faculty of Art, Computing & Creative
Industry,
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris,
Tanjung Malim, Malaysia
noor.j.alqaysi@gmail.com
Norhisham Mohamad-Nordin Mostafa Al-Emran
Faculty of Art, Computing & Creative Faculty of Computer Systems &
Industry, Software Engineering,
Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
Tanjung Malim, Malaysia Gambang, Malaysia
norhisham@fskik.upsi.edu.my malemran@buc.edu.om

Mohammed A. Al-Sharafi
Faculty of Computer Systems &
Software Engineering,
Universiti Malaysia Pahang,
Gambang, Malaysia
ma_shrafi@yahoo.com

Abstract—Social media use by university students attracted
the interest of several scholars worldwide. However, a limited
amount of research articles was published to investigate the
students’ attitudes towards social media usage in the Arab world
universities. As a case study, the core objective of this research
is to measure the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
media at an academic institute in Oman. The study intends to
examine the differences in these attitudes from the lenses of
several attributes, including gender, age, year of study, and
social media application. A total of 198 students took part in the
study through an online survey. Although the findings showed
no significant differences in attitudes with regard to the
aforementioned studied attributes, it is imperative to report that
all the participated students were mutually interested in using
social media applications in learning practices.
Keywords—students’ attitudes, social media, higher
education.
I. INTRODUCTION
The escalating progress of “Web 2.0” technologies in
general and social media in specific is exceptional [1]. This
is due to the reason that social media has markedly reshaped
the fashion in which users communicate and share their
information, personal messages, opinions, and ideas [2], [3].
Social media is considered a “buzzword” that was originated
in 2005 [4], and it has rapidly altered the landscape of social
life via its interactive platforms [5]. The term “social media”
highlights the landscape of “user-generated content” and the
effective societal characteristics pertained to the creation and
usage of such content [6], [7]. Social media refers to “a group
of Internet-based applications that are built on the ideological
and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and allow the
creation and exchange of user generated content” [8]. Social
media consists of two kinds of applications, namely “content-
sharing applications” (e.g., “YouTube”, “Wikipedia”, “blog”,
and “Twitter”) and “relationship-building applications” (e.g.,
“Facebook”) [9]. Such applications are used to generate
content (i.e., “user-generated content”), produce content of
their own (i.e., “user-created content”), or retrieve it from
various websites (i.e., “user-driven content”) [4].
educators [4]. Second, social media tools allow the students
to meet their individual learning styles. Such tools also
support cognition, socialization, collaboration, interaction,
meaningful knowledge construction within classrooms [11].
Moreover, social media supports group work and
independent research to boost students’ confidence [12].
Social media has proved its effectiveness in different
fields like medical and health sciences [13], nurse education
[14], anatomy education [15], business [16], marketing [17],
[18], and higher education [19]. In that, an increasing amount
of articles analyzed the effectiveness of social media in
higher educational settings. Such studies mainly focused on
analysing the acceptance of social media [20], the
relationship between professional and educational activities
of using social media by scholars [21], the factors influencing
social networking sites [3], impacts on learning performance
level [22], [23], and students’ attitudes toward social media
[24].
Based on the extant literature and the authors’ prior
experience, there is a dearth of knowledge pertaining to the
understanding of students’ intention towards using social
media in the Arab higher educational institutes. Further,
research overlooked the importance of the differences in
learners’ attitudes from the lenses of several attributes such
as gender, age, year of study, and social media application. In
response to these arguments, the current case study aims
mainly to explore the students’ attitudes towards using social
media in the Omani higher educational atmosphere from the
perspective of the aforementioned attributes. As a
consequent, the following research questions were
formulated:
RQ1: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
media affected by gender?
RQ2: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
media affected by age?
RQ3: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
media affected by year of study?

In education, an escalating number of benefits were RQ4: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
provided to educators and learners while using social media media affected by social media application?
platforms for learning practices [4], [10]. First, social media
has enabled students to engage, collaborate, share thoughts,
and build permanent relationships with their peers and their

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 II. LITERATURE REVIEW
Social media use by university students attracted the
interest of several scholars worldwide [25]. Attitude and
behavioral intentions play an important role in affecting
educational technologies [26]–[28]. Investigating the
attitudes towards using the applications of social media
supports determining the students’ willingness to use these
applications. Attitudes towards using social media by
learners and educators have been examined by an increasing
number of researchers.
Gangadharbatla [29] explored the influence of “internet
self-efficacy”, “need to belong”, “need for cognition”, and
“collective self-esteem” on college learners’ attitudes in
respect of using social media platforms. The empirical results
indicated that these factors had positive impacts on learners’
attitudes in respect of using these platforms. Furthermore,
Kim et al. [30] examined the cultural contexts role in shaping
college students’ use of communication technology, which in
turn influences their motives for using social media
applications in two different nations, namely the US and
Korea. Practically, the findings recommended that the social
media marketers need to enhance the entertainment features
of social media for attracting more consumers in
individualistic cultures, and to embed the characteristics that
simplify social support exchange via existing social
relationships in their collectivistic cultures.
Moreover, Hartshorne and Ajjan [31] examined the
educational advantages of “Web 2.0” to achieve the “in-class
learning” and to recognize the determinants affecting
learners’ willingness to use these platforms. The students’
“attitudes” and their “subjective norms” were found as
effective predictors for their intention to utilize the “Web 2.0”
applications. Baſöz [32] measured the perceptions of 120
“pre-service teachers” towards using social media platforms
in EFL classrooms. The findings concluded that these
platforms should be involved in fostering communication
skills among the students. Roblyer et al. [33] also carried out
a study to compare the faculty members and student
perceptions and uses of Facebook and email technologies for
personal and educational purposes in the USA. The findings
indicated that students were in favor of using “Facebook” and
other interactive technologies, whereas, faculty members
were in favor of using the “traditional technologies” like
emails in order to support classroom activities.
Studying the attitudes towards social media plays an
effective turn in the educational process [26]. Accordingly, it
is anticipated to explore the students’ attitudes towards using
social media applications prior to adopting them in higher
education settings. Such attitudes will offer a better insight
into the incorporation of these applications in the learning-
teaching activities.
III. RESEARCH METHOD
A. Context and Subjects
The targeted sample involved the students enrolled at “Al
Buraimi University College” (BUC) in Oman. The purpose of
selecting BUC refers to the fact that BUC is running a number
of educational technologies and its students showed positive
perceptions in using these technologies [10], [34], [35].
Students from different departments specialized in different
majors took part in the study. The data were gathered via an
online survey. This is due to the fact that questionnaire surveys
177
are capable of producing more reliable results [36]. The
students were requested to participate in the survey through
emails. In order to maximize the response rate, follow-up
emails were also sent as reminders. The survey was designed
to be completed in around 10 minutes. A total of 204
responses were collected. Six entries were removed from the
dataset due to the large number of incomplete answers, and
thereby, 198 entries were retained for further analysis. Out of
those, there were 144 females and 54 males. 71.7% of the
participants were aged between 18 and 22. Concerning the
year of study, 39.9% of the respondents were in year 1,
followed by 32.3% in year 2, 13.6% in year 3, and 14.1% in
year 4.
B. Survey Structure
The online questionnaire survey is categorized into three
sections. The first section was related to personal information,
including “gender”, “age”, and “year of study”. The second
section includes six items that were related to measure social
media usage information. The third section is a 13-item
instrument pertained to the employment of social media in
educational activities. To evaluate the items used in section
three, a five-point Likert-scale with “strongly disagree (1),
disagree (2), neutral (3), agree (4), and strongly agree (5)” was
used. The third section items were adapted from the existing
relevant literature with further adjustments to fit the study core
objective [37], [38].
IV. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
RQ1: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
media affected by gender?
For examining the statistically significant difference
among the students’ attitudes toward the usage of social media
with respect to gender, the authors calculated the independent
samples t-test. Table 1 clearly shows that there is no
significant difference among the attitudes of students with
regard to their gender (t = 1.126, p > 0.05). This result is in
agreement with the outcomes noticed in previous studies [13],
[32], in which the usage of social media was not considerably
influenced by gender. In this sense, the gender factor does not
expose any impact on the attitudes towards social media use
for educational practices. A possible explanation for this result
might be that males and females in Oman are both equally in
favor of using social media while performing their learning
activities.
TABLE I. DIFFERENCES IN TERMS OF GENDER
Gender N Mean Std. t-value Sig.
Deviation
Male 54 3.7037 1.17151 1.126 0.261
Female 144 3.5069 1.06508
RQ2: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
media affected by age?
In order to explore the significant difference among the
students’ attitudes with respect to their age, the means and
standard deviations were calculated (see Figure 1). To
measure the statistically significant differences between the
mean values, a “one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)” was
performed. Table 2 triggered out that there are no statistically
significant differences (F = 0.870, p > 0.05) among the
students’ attitudes concerning their age. This result contradicts
with the findings concluded in prior research [38], in which
students aged between 18 and 23 were the most effective users
of Facebook. This result could be interpreted by the notion that
university students in Oman are equally in favor of using
social media in learning activities regardless of their age.
Fig. 1. Mean and standard deviation for age groups.
RQ4: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social
media affected by social media application?
The means and standard deviations for the social media
applications were calculated (see Figure 3). To examine the
significant difference among the students’ attitudes towards
the usage of social media concerning the used social media
application, “a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA)” was
calculated. Table 4 exhibits that there are no significant
differences (F = 0.840, p > 0.05) among the students’ attitudes
with respect to the used social media application. However,
this result contradicts with that observed in previous research
[39], in which “Facebook” was among the most frequently
utilized websites. A possible justification for this result is that
the university students in Oman are willing to incorporating
social media in educational activities regardless of the used
application.
Fig. 3. Mean and standard deviation for social media applications.

TABLE II. ANOVA RESULTS FOR AGE GROUPS

Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square
Between Groups 2.091 2 1.045 0.870 0.421
Within Groups 234.386 195 1.202
Total 236.477 197

RQ3: Are the students’ attitudes towards the use of social

media affected by year of study?
Figure 2 illustrates the mean and standard deviation for the
year of study. Further, “a one-way analysis of variance
(ANOVA)” was measured for the purpose of testing the TABLE IV. ANOVA RESULTS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA APPLICATIONS
statistically significant difference between the mean values.
Table 3 shows that there are no significant differences (F = Sum of df Mean F Sig.
0.224, p > 0.05) among the students’ attitudes with respect to Squares Square
Between Groups 4.045 4 1.011 0.840 0.501
their year of study. This result matches the results noticed in a Within Groups 232.432 193 1.204
previous study conducted in the past [13], which indicated that Total 236.477 197
the usage of social media was not effectively pertained to the
academic year. This indicates that the year of study does not V. CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORK
affect social media use in learning activities.
Social media within the higher educational contexts has
Fig. 2. Mean and standard deviation for the year of study. been widely investigated by scholars [21], [22], [25].
However, the attitude towards social media use is an
important topic that still calls for further investigation.
Examining the students’ attitudes is regarded as an essential
issue that could recognize the shortcomings and strengths of
social media, and identify the determinants for its possible
employment in the higher education sector.
Based on the extant literature, a few attempts were made
to study the attitudes of students in respect of using social
media in the Arab world. Thus, the present case study mainly
aims at investigating the attitudes of students towards using
social media in BUC in Oman. The study mainly focused on
the differences in these attitudes from the lenses of different
attributes, including gender, age, year of study, and social
media application. A total of 198 university students took part
TABLE III. ANOVA RESULTS FOR THE YEAR OF STUDY in the study. Although the findings showed no significant
differences in attitudes concerning the gender, age, study
Sum of df Mean F Sig.
Squares Square year, and social media application, it is imperative to report
Between Groups 0.816 3 0.272 0.224 0.880 that all the respondents were mutually interested in using
Within Groups 235.661 194 1.215 social media applications in pedagogical activities regardless
Total 236.477 197 to the studied attributes.

178
 Although this is a case study, the core limitation of this
research is the focus on only one academic institution in
Oman. It is difficult to generalize the results to the entire
academic institutions in Oman. Future endeavors should
consider more academic institutions in order to maximize the
possibility of results generalization.
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