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Top1. Introduction
The emergence of SM such as YouTube and Facebook has made academic researchers consider its usage in several academic activities. Facebook has created an avenue for academic researchers to connect, engage, and share ideas. YouTube also provides a chance for academic researchers to disseminate novel finding using multimedia, and also improve their understanding of areas of expertise. The widespread popularity of SM has led to its acceptance and usage in the academic environment (Jaffar, 2012; Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010; Krauskopf, Zahn, & Hesse, 2012; Manasijević, Živković, Arsić, & Milošević, 2016; Moran, Seaman, & Tinti-Kane, 2011). Facebook was founded in 2004 with one million users which has now increased to two billion users (Facebook, 2018). Furthermore, YouTube came into existence in 2005 with eight million users. YouTube now commands followership of 1.32 billion subscribers (Statistic Brain Research Institute, 2018). However, the low rate of SM acceptance for IL calls for investigation (Bullinger et al., 2011; Church & Salam, 2010).
This paper empirically examines the barriers and benefits of using SM for IL in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) being one of the foremost research universities in Malaysia. Altbach (2009) is of the view that research universities are of paramount importance to developing nations for them to effectively compete in the knowledge economy (Madhusudhan, 2012). He et al. (2009) stated innovations that make it easy to transfer knowledge and maximize collaboration among researchers play a major role in research growth and productivity. Researchers have shown that productivity in research output will eventually lead to favorable rankings in the global university rankings (Da Silva & Davis, 2011; Liu & Cheng, 200). Therefore, sufficient productivity among researchers is usually determined by the level of collaboration and interaction. Hence, the ability of researchers to produce quality research output is highly influenced by the creation of a collaborative environment (Abramo et al., 2013). Conversely, the use of SM as a means of communication, interaction, and collaboration will effectively improve research output, thereby resulting in favorable ranking among other universities. The paper aims to bring forth the barriers and benefits of using SM for IL among academic researchers in Malaysia. The main objectives of the study are:
- 1.
To discover the level of usage of SM in IL by academic researchers.
- 2.
To explore the role of gender, age, position, academic discipline, and experience on SM for IL use by academic researchers.
- 3.
To identify specialized SM tools for IL among researchers.
- 4.
To identify the benefits of using SM for IL by academic researchers.
- 5.
To identify the barriers affecting the use of SM for IL by academic researchers.
This paper is organized as follows: prior studies were reviewed in section 2, followed by the research methodology in Section 3. The data analysis is carried out in section 4. Section 5 provides a discussion of results and the Conclusion and limitations are discussed in Section 6.
Top2. Literature Review
There is a lack of research on the use of SM for IL (Manca, & Ranieri, 2017). Subsequently, previous reviews on SM for IL and their limitations were presented in this section. Social Networking Sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, has revolutionized the Internet to be a social platform which supports IL and information dissemination effectively (Rashid & Rahman, 2014). The usage of SNSs in academia has been there for quite some time now. An additional number of researches in past years has explored the pedagogical potential of SNSs and its effectiveness as a learning tool. The outcome showed that a greater number of the participants use YouTube and Facebook for communication and collaboration not necessarily for IL (Nentwick & König, 2014). The theoretical background of this study is based on the Constructionist Theory and Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). TAM is the Information Systems theory to explain and measure the acceptance of new technology such as social media. The experience-based knowledge building is referred to as the constructionist theory. The learning through conditions and culture is social constructivism. Knowledge building through interaction and collaboration is cognitive constructivism. The research community believes that social media technologies affirm constructivism (Catherine McLoughlin, 2008; Schroeder, Minocha, & Schneider, 2010).