Faculty’s Use of Social Media in Flipped Classrooms: A Mixed-Method Investigation

Abstract

This paper reports a sequential mixed-method study on Saudi Arabian (SA) faculty’s use of social media (SM) in flipped classrooms (FC). The study also examined SA faculty’s related attitudes and identified factors that had limited faculty use of SM in Saudi higher education. In particular, the study explored how SA faculty used SM to address students’ needs and preferences as per the Read, Reflect, Display and Do (R2D2) framework. 391 eligible SA faculty members (199 male and 192 female) participated in the online survey, among which 8 (4 male and 4 female) were also selected for individual, semi-structured interviews afterwards. A wide range of factors were identified to understand what may have prevented or limited faculty’s SM uses in teaching. Research and practical implications were discussed, as well as suggestions to promote the use of SM for teaching in SA and countries with similar cultures.