Social Media Usage by Academics: Some Comparisons from a Developing Country and Developed Countries’ Perspectives

Author: admin zant

Across the globe academics and students are increasingly

using social media and social connections for educational

purposes. This article focuses on a comparison of particular

countries regarding their use of social media in teaching by

academics and whether they can utilize this platform for

effective communication for engaging students in learning

activities as well. The objective is to clarify 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 i.e. South Africa. The data was

obtained by using SurveyMonkey and executed during 2014

at tertiary educational institutions. The developing country

supplied 204 usable responses and the developed countries

711 responses. Suggestions are made regarding the

educational environment when 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 for

improvement in 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.

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