Studying the Social Media Adoption by university students in the United Arab Emirates

Abstract

Lately, instructors, as well as learners, have been integrating social networking media in the context of higher education systems. Social networking media has also become the subject of interest for researchers to explore its impacts in the process of imparting and acquiring higher education. Various platforms have been introduced by the social networking media to facilitate the process of communication between the teachers and students while it eases creating and sharing for its users. Through conducting research on the dynamics of students and instructors, their acceptance regarding the various innovations and their attitude towards these platforms, useful modifications of the current approaches can be done accordingly in a way that ensures a wide adaptation of the software. The current study is built on the ground of established research termed the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology (UTAUT). The findings of this research are employed to confirm the factors of utilizing social networking media for e-learning in the United Arab Emirates higher education context. The quantitative data has been acquired based on the survey method. The sample of this current investigation is students and instructors from two different universities in the higher education sector of the United Arab Emirates. The predictive behavior of the anticipated stimulants for the research model was analyzed using the Structural Equation Modelling. The findings of this study are useful to comprehend the factors that drive the Emirati students to embrace certain perceptions of social media technology in the higher education context.