Adoption of Social Media in Teaching Library and Information Science in Public Universities in South-South Nigeria

Abstract

Social media, such as WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Telegram, and others, have become one of the most innovative web-based means of communication in the 21st century. It has enjoyed growing acceptance and adoption among people in nearly all walks of life, including professionals and academics in diverse disciplines. In recent times, studies have shown that university teachers across the world have been adopting these tools for instructional purposes. However, research seems not to have established whether lecturers who teach Library and Information Science in government-owned universities in South-South Nigeria adopt social media for teaching task. Thus, this study examined lecturers’ adoption of social media in teaching Library and Information Science (LIS) in ten South-South Nigerian public universities. It intended to identify the extent of adoption, purposes for adoption, benefits derived from adoption and challenges encountered in adoption. Employing a descriptive research approach, ninety-four LIS lecturers constituted the study population while seventy-three LIS lecturers made up the sample. A questionnaire served as a tool for data gathering, after it was validated by LIS/Measurement and Evaluation university lecturers. Ninety-four questionnaire copies were distributed but seventy-three copies were jaisretrieved and considered amenable for analysis. This amounted to a response rate of 77.66%. Weighted mean and standard deviation were adopted to compute data. Result showed that the lecturers minimally adopted social media to teach LIS. Findings further revealed that the lecturers adopted social media to deliver lectures and to transmit course materials to students. It was also found that the lecturers’ adoption of social media for teaching task enabled the lecturers to stay up-to-date; to easily communicate with and to share course materials with students; and to acquire digital skill. However, the lecturers found it difficult to apply social media for instructional activities due to unstable internet connectivity, erratic power supply and poor digital literacy.

Keywords: Adoption, Library and information science, Public universities, Social media, South-South Nigeria, Teaching.

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