Students Engagement in Social Media Platforms for Learning and the Role of Libraries: An Empirical Study

Abstract

The changed learning environment has necessitated formation of interactive networks for sharing, participation and collaboration. The Social Media platform provides tremendous avenues in this regard. The present study aims to investigate the level of integration of Social Media into the learning practices of the students of seven general universities in the state of Odisha. A questionnaire based survey was conducted among 1000 postgraduate students and research scholars segregated into four major disciplines, Arts & Humanities, Social Sciences, Pure Sciences, and Applied Sciences & Technology. The findings revealed that Social Media is very much popular among the students. However, the use of these platforms in learning practices has remained very trivial among the students under investigation. In spite of its huge potential as a learning platform, they are chiefly used for personal communication and entertainment. Hence the models has been suggested for successful integration of social media in to learning in the Universities of Odisha and the role of library in promoting usage of social media in to learning has been presented in the paper.

Keywords: Social Media, Facebook, Twitter, Linked In, Friendster, Web 2.0

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