An Empirical Investigation of Students’ Attitudes Towards the Use of Social Media in Omani Higher Education

Abstract

Although social media usage in higher education has been frequently examined, little is known regarding the differences in students’ attitudes towards its use in the Omani higher education. Therefore, this study provides an opportunity to advance the understanding of these differences in attitudes by focusing on three different attributes, namely age, gender, and social media application. A total of 169 students enrolled at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat, Oman took part in the study by the medium of an online survey. The empirical data analysis triggered out that there was a significant difference in attitudes with regard to age groups, in which students aged between 18 and 22 years old are much interested in using social media than the others. Nevertheless, the findings also showed that there was no significant difference in attitudes with respect to social media application and gender. More interesting, the outcomes pointed out that WhatsApp is the most frequent application used by students for educational purposes.