Index

1. INTRODUCTION

The recent times have seen an ever increasing number of youth claiming access to higher education programmes. This phenomenon could be largely caused due to democratization, development of global societies, improving living conditions and societal and corporate structures which have an ever increasing demand for qualified performance as professionals and as responsible citizens (Silva et al., 2003). We have, therefore, witnessed a change both in terms of quantity as well as quality in the student population, reflected in the gradual loss of the elitist and formal character of higher education through the admission of individuals from all social classes (Soares and Almeida, 2002).

To date, the issue of pedagogics has attracted the attention of many academics and researchers from different countries, who are interested in teaching at the level of higher education. Traditionally, the paradigm of pedagogical organization in higher education, the heir of the medieval model, is still that of the teachers’ freedom of choice, leading to their almost absolute autonomy, associated to a methodology based on authority-based and disciplinary teaching. This paradigm has revealed itself to be relatively efficient in the context of students from an elite; but in a multicultural system, it very often represents a pure waste of time and resources (Santos, 2001).

The progressive Information Societies : With the change from a world of atoms to a world of "bits" (Negroponte, 1995) we are witnesses to the appearance of the Information Society and its expansion through the development of computer networks, which allow citizens to access enormous sources of information, communicating at a speed never seen before, connecting to any point on the globe and asserting themselves not only as consumers of information and knowledge but also as the creators and sources of that very information and knowledge itself. As mentioned in the Report to UNESCO of the International Commission on Education for the Twenty-first Century, this technological revolution obviously constitutes an essential element in the understanding of our modernity, in as much as it creates new forms of socialization and, even, new definitions of individual and collective identity (UNESCO, 1996).

Social media has proof its ability to boost the communication between people and many industries which are attempting capitalized on the power of social media. Nonetheless, there is one industry in particular that is best suited to adapt to these new mediums–institutions of higher education. As social networking has become one of the most popular means of communication among the college-age demographics traditional universities are beginning to utilize these technologies to communicate with current and prospective students .The EDUCAUSE Centre for Applied Research (ECAR) Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2008 defines social networking sites as “Web-based services that allow 1)individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, 2) articulate a list of other users with whom they share a connection, and 3) view and traverse their list of connections and those made by others within the system (Gruber and Abe, 2009).
This study aims at understanding the level of use and teacher perception use of social media in higher education in two separate contexts to visualize the differences and bring to the fore the teacher apprehensions that still impede the process of the whole hearted acceptance of social media in the teaching learning process.

The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) is an umbrella term that includes any communication device or application, encompassing: radio, television, cellular phones, computer, and network hardware and software, satellite systems and so on, as well as the various services and applications associated with them, such as videoconferencing and distance learning. When such technologies are used for educational purposes, namely to support and improve the learning of students and to develop learning environments, ICT can be considered as a subfield of Educational Technology. ICTs in higher education are being used for developing course material; delivering content and sharing content; communication between learners, teachers and the outside world; creation and delivery of presentation and lectures; academic research; administrative support, student enrolment etc. The various kinds of ICT products available and having relevance to education, such as teleconferencing, email, audio conferencing, television lessons, radio broadcasts, interactive radio counselling, interactive voice response system, audiocassettes and CD ROMs have been used in education for different purposes. India is making use of powerful combination of ICTs such as open source software, satellite technology, local language interfaces, easy to use human-computer interfaces, digital libraries etc. with a long-term plan to reach the remotest of the villages. Community service centres have been started to promote e-learning throughout the country (Bhattacharya and Sharma, 2007).

A review done by Padmasiri and Kawshalya (2015) stated the usage of facebook (which is known as one of the social medias) for acadmeic teaching. Even though, Sri Lanka is a country with a small geographical span, the power of ICT plays a major role in almost all the markets’ affairs (Thyra and Silva, 2011). Even though, many initiatives have been taken to improve ICT in Sri Lankan context, the policies not yet made addressing National issues (Dissanayake, 2011). ICT can be made use to improve the labour market and to bridge the gap between the information poor and rich. With the policies set by ICTA E-Sri Lanka program, modern telecommunication infrastructure will be provided throughout so that all citizens will be benefited irrespective of the location and affordability (Godamanna and Jayamaha, 2013).

1.1. Purpose and Objectives of the Study

Social media is now a prominent avenue for personal and professional communication, with exciting educational uses emerging in stride. Both the teachers and the students are willing to use social media in education, and they believe it will enhance their educational experiences, but the practice is significantly low; in the meantime, there are agreements that the use of social media is for socialization only (Alabdulkareem, 2015).  This means of communication needs to be better exploited.

The study helps to understand the use of social media by management faculty for personal and professional purposes in both India and Sri Lanka so that it would be beneficial for the entire teaching and learning communities. Using a representative sample of teaching faculty from across various Management institutes, the study reviews their use of social media. The study aims at tracing the level of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions among management faculty in India and Sri Lanka. To identify the primary barriers, impede the whole hearted acceptance of social media by the teaching fraternity.

2. LITERATURE REVIEW

This research addresses the gap by investigating the effects of personal social media usage on task performance (Brooks, 2015). To extend this research, the author examined the effects that the personal social media usage has on individuals’ techno stress and happiness levels. Another article has been written by Alwagait et al. (2015) explores a survey on university students in Saudi Arabia in regards to social media usage and their academic performance The survey also explored which social network is the most popular amongst Saudi students, what students thought about their social media usage and factors besides social media usage which negatively affect academic performance. This qualitative study explores the use of social media among faculty in the discipline of public administration in the United States (Chen and Marcus, 2012).

Despite the high popularity of personal use of online social media, a low percentage of students and instructors use them for educational purposes (Rooyen, 2015). This research focused on how using social media can enhance the teaching and learning of Accounting Online. Student support is frequently used by distance education institutions worldwide, but in South Africa it remains a challenge to educators as not all students have access or can afford using the internet regularly. From the study it is explored that, most students at the University of South Africa, a distance education institution, have mobile phones, opportunities emerge for academics to make use of social media (Rienties et al., 2013). Author stated that most professional development programmes provide teachers with formal and informal social networks, but limited empirical evidence is available to describe to what extent teachers build internal (i.e., within their programme) and external (i.e., with colleagues not involved in the programme) social learning relations.

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND HYPOTHESIS

The acceptance of Social Media by faculty for teaching may be treated as information and communication technology acceptance. UTAUT-Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology has been used as theoretical framework for the Model of acceptance to guide our study. Table 1 demonstrates conceptual framework presented in Figure 1 in detail aligned to the model developed by Venkatesh et al. (2003). 

Table-1. Conceptualization

Source: Venkatesh et al. (2003)

Figure-1. Conceptual Framework

Source: Venkatesh et al. (2003)

Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT), was formulated, with four core determinants of intention and usage, and up to four moderators of key relationships. UTAUT thus provides a useful tool for managers needing to assess the likelihood of success for new technology introductions and helps them understand the drivers of acceptance in order to proactively design interventions (including training, marketing, etc.) targeted at populations of users that may be less inclined to adopt and use new systems. Though UTAUT is nearly new among theories proposed in the field of technology acceptance but validity and reliability of this model has been demonstrated for studies on technology acceptance in various contexts (Anderson, 2004; Lin et al., 2004).

H1: Performance expectancy of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

H2: Effort expectancy of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

H3: Social influence of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

H4: Facilitating conditions of management in faculty India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

4. METHODOLOGY

The structured questionnaire contained the questions to elicit information based on the various levels of data measurement. The survey tool comprised of 36 questions modified from the UTAUT model. 200 questionnaires were circulated among the management faculty in Kochi an urban city of India while another 200 were circulated among the management faculty in Sri Lanka. The questionnaire comprised of two parts wherein the first section related to queries relating to demographics of respondents and their social media usage pattern and preferences while the second section comprised of questions adapted from the UTAUT model.

The survey was conducted using both print copies of questionnaire as well as the online forms. The sampling method is used for the study is snowball sampling. In this study B-school faculty were considered as the population. Each respondent referred the next respondent for the study, so the process was repeated for the collection of 400 samples used for the study. One–Sample t-test was used for analysing the data. The one sample t-Test is a statistical procedure for testing the mean value of distribution. It is often used for testing the mean value of hypothesis.

5. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

The one sample t- test assumes that the “statistical procedure for testing the mean value of distribution. It is often perform testing the mean value of hypothesis.

5.1. Performance Expectancy

It is the degree to which an individual believes that using the system will help him or her to attain gains in job performance. The UTAUT model was derived from a combination of previous ones (Ghalandari, 2012) five factors from previous models helped in formation of performance expectancy variable consisting of perceived usefulness (technology acceptance models), external motivation (motivational model), job fit (PC utilization model), relative advantages (innovation diffusion theory ) and outcome expectations (social cognition theory) (Bagozzi et al., 1989).

Table-2. One Sample statistics for Performance Expectancy

* Significant at 95% level, Source: Survey data

From the Table 2, it can be concluded that the performance expectancy means for both Indian and Sri Lankan management faculty are significantly higher when compared to the test mean value which was 12. While the teachers in India reported having a higher score for performance expectancy in the usage of social media for teaching learning purposes.

Ho = Performance expectancy mean of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka are the same as the test mean

H1 = Performance expectancy mean of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

From above One Sample T test, it was found that the test was significant (p < 0.05), so as it was statistically proven that the performance expectancy mean is higher than the test mean. So we infer that the management faculties have high performance expectancy with respect to the use of social media for their professional work in both the countries.

5.2. Effort Expectancy

Effort Expectancy is the degree of ease associated with the use of the system. Effort Expectancy construct can be significant in determining user acceptance of information technology, concerns for ease of use may become non-significant over extended and sustained usage. Therefore, perceived ease of use can be expected to be more salient only in the early stages of using a new technology and it can have a positive effect on perceived usefulness of the technology (Marchewka et al., 2007).

Table-3. Effort Expectancy One Sample Test

*Significant at 95% level, Source: Survey data

The mean of Effort expectancy score (calculated as a sum of four 5 point Likert scale questions) is found to be = 24/2 = 12. From the table 3 One sample T test, it was found that the test was significant (p < 0.05), so it is statistically proven that the Effort Expectancy mean is higher than the test mean, which implied that management faculty both in India and Sri Lanka felt social media was easy to use and was a user-friendly medium to be adopted for teaching and learning

H2: Effort expectancy mean of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

H0: Effort expectancy mean of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka are same as the test mean

The sample mean compared with the test mean was found to be significantly higher. Hence the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternate hypothesis accepted. It implied that the Effort Expectancy mean for management faculty from both India and Sri Lanka was relatively higher than test mean. From the above table, it could also be inferred that the Effort Expectancy mean of the Sri Lankan management faculty was higher than that of their Indian counterparts.

5.3. Social Influence

The degree to which an individual perceives that important others believe he or she should use the new system. Venkatesh et al. (2003) stated that by social influence, they  meant  the degree to which an individual perceives that other ones are important to him/her in using new system. Constructs of subjective norms (rational action theory, planned behaviour theory decomposed planned behaviour theory and technology acceptance model 2), social factors (PC utilization model) and image (innovation diffusion theory) were influential in formation of this variable.

Table-4. Social Influence one sample test

*Significant at 95% level Source (Primary data)

From the table 4, it was concluded that the Social Influence score means for both Indian and Sri Lankan management faculty are significantly higher when compared to the test mean value which was 12. While the teachers in India reported having a higher score for Social Influence in the usage of social media for teaching learning purposes.

H3: Social influence mean of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

H0: Social influence mean of management faculty in India and Sri Lanka are same as the test mean

The test mean was compared with the sample mean. The researcher found from the One Sample T test, was significant and that the Social Influence mean was higher than the test means in both the Indian and Sri Lankan context. Hence, the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternate accepted. Another interesting finding was that social influence reported by Indian faculty was slightly higher than their Sri Lankan counterparts.

5.4. Facilitating Conditions

The variable of facilitating conditions refers to the extent to which an individual perceives that technical and organizational infrastructure required to use intended system are available. The facilitating conditions have a significant effect on constructs of perceived behavioural control theory), facilitating conditions (PC utilization model) and adaptability (innovation diffusion theory) (Venkatesh and Davis, 2000; Venkatesh et al., 2003).

Table-5. Social Influence one sample test

*Significant at 95% level Source (Primary data)

From the Table 5, it was concluded that the facilitating conditions score means for both Indian and Sri Lankan management faculty are significantly higher when compared to the test mean value which was 12. While the teachers in India reported having a higher score for Facilitating Conditions for the usage of social media for teaching learning purposes.

H4: Facilitating conditions mean of management in faculty India and Sri Lanka vary from the test mean

H0: Facilitating conditions mean of management in faculty India and Sri Lanka are same as the test mean

The test mean which was 12 was compared with the sample mean. And the researcher found from the One Sample T test, was significant and that the Facilitating Conditions mean was higher than the test means in both the Indian and Sri Lankan context. Hence the null hypothesis was rejected and the alternate accepted. Another interesting finding was that Facilitating Conditions mean reported by Indian faculty was slightly higher than their Sri Lankan counterparts.

5.5. Barriers to Social Media Usage in the Teaching Learning Practices of Management Faculty

Several factors contribute to the restrictive nature of acceptance of social media by faculty into their teaching practices. These factors can broadly be classified into teacher-level, school-level and system-level factors that prevent teachers from doing so. Several researches have reported barriers like lack of teacher technology skills; lack of teacher confidence; lack teacher training; lack of suitable educational software; limited access; rigid structure of traditional education systems; restrictive curricula etc., as factors that impede the ready and willing acceptance of technology (Buabeng-Andoh, 2012).

Despite the above discussed findings which reveal high performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions in management faculty there are still some areas which need due attention and need to be addressed with appropriate remedial courses of action. In order to investigate these factors that inhibit the minds of teachers in the whole hearted acceptance of social media, the researcher asked each of the respondents to rate a set of seven barriers to social media acceptance by teachers on a rating scale of one to five Each of these seven factors were identified from a detailed review of literature.  The data so collected was analysed using the Friedman Test and the results of the same are depicted in the Table 6 and 7.

Table-6. Friedman Test

Source: Survey Data

Table-7. Mean Rank

Source: Survey Data

The following factors were ranked as top three barriers to usage of social media in the Indian Context

Rank 1 - Yet to be integrated with learning management system

Rank 2 -  Social media effectiveness measures are unavailable

Rank 3 - Integrity of student submissions

The following factors were analyzed as the barriers of social media in the Sri Lankan Context

Rank 1- Yet to be integrated with learning management system

Rank 2- integrity of student’s submissions

Rank 3- privacy while using social media in teaching purposes

6. CONCLUSION

The paper assesses the faculty perception on the lines of performance expectancy, effort expectancy, social influence and facilitating conditions all of which were found to be high. The result revealed that Indian faculty had higher mean scores for performance expectancy, social influence as well as facilitating conditions while the Sri Lankan respondents reported higher score for effort expectancy. Further on the study analyzed various barriers that deterred management faculty from using social media for teaching, learning purposes. Among the various factors that were analyzed, the most highly ranked were the lack of social media integration with learning management system followed by lack of social media effectiveness measures among the Indian management faculty while the dearth of mechanisms to ensure the integrity of student’s submissions while using social media for teaching learning purposes was an issue for faculty from both the countries. The management faculty from Sri Lanka also felt that privacy was of prime concern when it came to using social media for teaching purpose. This study reiterates the fact that although social media is all so popular among the masses, due to the lack of proper mechanisms which integrate Social media it to the learning management system, faculty are still unable to explore the full potential of this mode of communication to share with the student community their valuable insights.

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