Journal of Social Science for Policy Implications

Students Involvement in Social Media: The Engagement Triangle in South – East Universities, Nigeria
Dr Evuarherhe Veronica1 ABOLO, Dr Olusola Angelina THOMAS

Abstract
The increasing knowledge and awareness in technology has made social media to be in constant use making the world a global village. The study investigated university students’ involvement in social media to ascertain their level of engagement .The population consisted the 9420 and 7902 students;109 and 107 lecturers in two federal universities from five departments in the South- East, Nigeria. The Taro Yamane’s formula was used to calculate the sample size bringing the total sample to be 763 students and 168 lecturers. Three research questions and two hypotheses were raised for the study.Two researcher constructed questionnaires, Students’ Perception on Social Media Usage and Engagement Level Questionnaire (SPSMUELQ) and Lecturers’ Perception on Students Social Media Usage and Engagement Level Questionnaire (LPSSMELQ) were used to collect data. The research questions were answered in descriptive statistics of frequency mean standard deviation. The mean of the responses are calculated using the Benchmark Mean as 2.5 and any mean less than the Benchmark is considered to be low The hypotheses were tested with chi-square and t-test. The results of the study indicated that the university students in South-East Nigeria are deeply involved in different social media. The study also established that social media involvement has significant influence on students’ engagement while lecturers and students differ in their perception on the engagement level of students due to social media. Recommendations such as having a censored hate-free social media policy for students, having periodic seminar on boosting students’ engagement level and exploring the teaching/ learning social media function to students were proffered to ameliorate the ills of social media on students engagement in the university.

Full Text: PDF     DOI: 10.15640/jsspi.v7n2a5