Social media usage by academics : some comparisons from a developing country and developed countries’ perspectives

Abstract

Academics and students across the globe are increasingly using social media and social connections for educational purposes. This paper focusses on a comparison of particular countries regarding the use of social media in teaching by academics and whether they can utilize this platform for effective communication to engage students in learning activities as well. The objective is to identify the usage of social media tools by academics by comparing a multi developed country study (comprising the UK, Australia, New Zealand, USA, Continental Europe and Canada) and a separate developing country study being South Africa. The data was obtained by using SurveyMonkey and executed during 2014 at tertiary educational institutions. For the developing country 204 usable responses were obtained and 711 responses from the developed countries. Suggestions are made regarding the educational environment using social media tools. It is concluded that academics are communicating with students in a positive way via the use of social media tools for educational purposes, but that much scope exists to improve the use of social media for educational purposes by academics. There are also some differences in the use of social media by academics when comparing the developing country and developed countries.