Effects of Social Media on eLearning development in the Gee

Case study: Saudi Arabia

Dimitrios Xanthidis

Information Management IMSIU University

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Abstract-This paper is the last of a series of 3 research

papers on eLearning progress, development and challenges and

opportunities in the GCC (Gulf Council Countries) and more

specifically in Saudi Arabia. It concludes the preliminary study

on Saudi eLearning reality and attempts to provide, eventually, a

thorough understanding of how Social Media influence the

perception of Saudis about eLearning deployment in the country.

A questionnaire, expert-reviewed and pilot-tested, was used to

collect data. It appears that Saudis have increased their

percentage as Social Media users and prefer a blended approach

of education where the role of eLearning is enhanced. The

traditional way of teaching is steel respected. As long as more

Saudis go online the eLearning awareness and acknowledgement

will increase accordingly.

Keywords-social media; effects; eLearning; education; Saudi Arabia;

I. INTRODUCTION

Since 1995 the Arab world conceptualized the importance of Internet use as a basic tool for business and socio-economic development. The consequence was to invest heavily on digital communication infrastructures in a quest to adapt to globalization [1]. This effort, directed the Arab world to high Internet penetration rates as a result of full ICT deployment and awareness. Especially the Countries of Gulf Council (GCC from now on) which responded also positively, managed to raise their Internet usage penetration to high levels that easily compare with those of the developed countries, i.e. 86.2% in Qatar, 77% in Bahrain, 74.2 in Kuwait, 70.9% in United Arab Emirates, 68.8% in Oman and 49% in Saudi Arabia [2].

Information and Communication Technologies (lCT from now on) proliferation offered increasing amount of opportunities for accessing and exchanging information offering new realization in personal learning goals [3]. The GCC countries have already introduced and launched successfully eLearning procedures in their education systems. Nevertheless, being one of the very few developing countries that experience exceptionally high rates of population growth has resulted in stressing their education system beyond its limits. In particular, the Saudi Arabia education system is overwhelmed by the vast amounts of students' enrollments. The impact on educational institutes' policies of such a

Ali Saad Alali Information Management

IMSIU University Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

number of youngsters (50% under 20) looking for education, was to invest heavily on the construction and stuffing of new learning institutes and transform over the years the old traditional way of teaching with a blended education method including eLearning practices [4]. Thus, the deployment of eLearning processes due to students' growing population rates becomes a necessity for the whole region as it proves to be cost effective, convenient and efficient for all stakeholders [5].

A closer look to Saudi Arabia statistics on ICT and eLearning deployment clearly highlights a great digital transformation of the country between 2000 and 2012. The Internet and ICT penetration rates are growing year after year and huge financial investment continue to support the development effort. Saudis are unquestionably ICT literate and have gained interest and widely acknowledged the value of eLearning in their education practice [6]. Indeed, most Saudis are capable of benefiting from the innovative ways of eLearning embedded in their education mixture. It is, however, equally important for the whole community to fully realize the significance of eLearning progress in their education systems so to enhance relevant efforts. The local residents should be motivated and actively support such policies willingly whether they are students or teachers [7].

Another modern trend that possibly may int1uence the move towards eLearning practices could be the involvement in Social Media groups. The question is what is the current status of Social Media usage in the country and how does it affect the perception of Saudis on eLearning performance and preference or in other words what is their realization level over developing elearning facilities.

II. AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

This research paper is an attempt to shed light in the reality concerning eLearning practice in Saudi Arabia from the viewpoint of social media users (or non-users). More specifically, this effort targeted at answering the following questions:

978-1-4799-2806-4/14/$31.00 ©2014 IEEE

• What is the current status on Social Media usage in Saudi Arabia?

• What do Social Media users believe about the progress of eLearning in Saudi Arabia?

• How do Social Media users believe eLearning affected traditional ( classroom) learning?

III. BACKROUND

Updating and monitoring educational procedures can help delve deeper into the understanding of ICT impact on eLearning development and this will, consequently, improve the decision making process associated with the formation of education strategy related policies from the higher educational management. However, having implemented eLearning procedures, there are always administrative and technological challenges that must not be underestimated in any way and might eventually stand as hurdles in the way of eLearning development.

Kenan, Pislaru and Elzawi studied the technological, cultural and political reasons that stand as barriers in the way of eLearning proliferation in Libya' s higher education system. They argued about the significance of technological and administrative necessities for a robust and effective eLearning environment in the educational system of Libya, as a paradigm of a traditional teaching country [8]. Despite education origins, Information Management in both developing and developed countries holds the responsibility to perform eLearning implementation effectively following a well­organized strategy plan.

There are four well-defined grouped categories (courses, individuals, technology and context) that need to be managed in any education system. The existence of an overall administrative plan that defines the necessary procedures for an updated technology infrastructure that supports eLearning environments turns to be very important. In addition, a well skilled stuff and motivated students along with the implementation of an efficient Learning Management System (LMS from now on) can sustain devoted supporters and good quality context within the education institutes [9].

As Concannon, Flynn, and Campbel suggest ICT access and computer skills are not the only factors that will promote the successful development of eLearning systems. Problems related to the age of the students, peer influence and study strategy shortcomings can reduce the motivation of students to be closely involved in technology driven learning procedures [10]. Furthermore, a rapidly growing student population could count as a problem to be solved too. Like for example in Saudi Arabia where the population is characterized by rapid growth due to high birth rates and a large cohort of youths. Thereby, blended approaches of education including eLearning processes have been implemented and the results were positive and encouraging. Along with the construction of new colleges and universities the Saudis have managed to cope with this problem till now [11].

Omidinia asserted that the high acceptance level of eLearning environments by both teachers and students is a crucial factor for eLearning proliferation procedures [12]. In Saudi Arabia recent researches have claimed that young

Saudis are not so willing to partICIpate in eLearning environments. Therefore, a better system performance, an easier system functionality and more intense interaction with institutes' eLearning technology procedures, can amplify the engagement of learners in the new blended learning era [13].

On the other hand a more recent research claimed the exact opposite where Saudis consent in great percentage on the implementation of eLearning in their education system even if local telecommunication problems prevent its full functionality. Furthermore, they believe that there are no real weaknesses in the infrastructure of local education institutes. What they want is a sustainable eLearning progress [14].

But besides high eLearning acceptance levels, modern education institutes should achieve a more student centered system which will accommodate most of the learner' s needs in a timely, efficient and cost-effective manner. A research coming from South Korea anticipated that in the near future and in this information age the education systems of most countries will experience the transition from a teacher centered to a learner centered education [15].

The last trends on eLearning systems suggest a Social Media involvement in creating Personal Learning Environments (PLE) capable of providing knowledge in a self-regulated, cost-effective and timely manner with a lot of interaction activities [16]. Modern mobile devices can better support interaction procedures among learners despite their current location and at any time they prefer to communicate (e.g. to collaborate in a course work effort, to disseminate project sources, suggest electronic or other libraries, take teacher' s instructions, follow a classroom' s teaching etc.) [17].

IV. METHODOLOGY

This paper is the third and last of a series resulting from a qualitative and quantitative preliminary research on the current perception of eLearning in Saudi. The goal for this part was to describe and explain the possible effects of Social Media on eLearning developments in Saudi universities. Saudi Arabia has become the geographical scope of this paper for cultural, political, religious and population size attributes that this country displays compared with the other GCC countries.

After having a circle of conversations with all stakeholders it became clear enough that the research could proceed in data gathering despite gender, religious, language, level of participants' interest and vast distance hurdles. The next phase was to draft a questionnaire capable of collecting suitable information to address the aims and objectives. At first it was imposed to a small sample of 20 individuals so as to be tested and revised if needed. Eventually the final questionnaire was fine tuned and ready for use.

The survey that followed lasted for 3 months and 600 Saudi citizens participated in it. The questionnaire was imposed primarily through an online survey using Google docs and, later on, through offline face-to-face interviews. All the recorded answers were checked for duplication and emptiness and those cases with problems were excluded from the final sample. At the end the survey was populated with 484 valid records of raw data.

The general sample size was regarded to be appropriate as this is only an exploratory study that includes all GCC area.

Furthermore, even if the age of respondents do not align fully to general Saudi age stats, the age range outcome of the sample was considered to be satisfactory. Another fact is that those under 45 years old were far more willing to be involved in this research.

Apart from the demographics the questionnaire consisted mainly of three questions extracting the Saudis' current status of Social Media usage, their opinion over eLearning deployment pace and their views concerning their opinion on how eLearning proliferation affected traditional way of teaching. The raw data were grouped and codified in a sample table suitable for data investigation through statistical packages that can perform cross tabulations and statistical calculations necessary. SPSS was used to perform the

country to go digital and the results till now compared with its demographic explosion of the last two decades it is safe to characterize the Social Media usage as quite satisfactory and, indeed, above the expectations.

The majority of the sample size resides in the two regions called Nedj and Hejaz (white color) where the two most populated Saudi metropolitan areas, i.e. Riyadh (the capital) and leddah (biggest port of the west), are located. The 2 smaller regions, i.e. Asir and Eastern Province, however, indicated higher percentages of Social Media usage. They might actually want to communicate through Social Media and, hence, acknowledge them as suitable medium for this purpose given their gender, distance and cultural difficulties.

statistical analysis, mainly cross-.....-------------------------------------." tabulations, and MS Excel was used to provide quality charts suitable for interpreting the results.

The authors also decided that Arc-GIS would be the appropriate software package, to produce a map projection capable of illustrating the Social Media usage geographical display of Saudis, allowing the authors to proceed in a geo­visualization examination of the sample accordingly. In this phase an assumption was necessary that Saudis tend to live mainly in four areas, excluding the North area that presents rather low dwelling capacity, namely Nedj, Hejaz, Eastern province and Asir).

V. FINDINGS

A. SocialMedia usage Initially the participants were

asked about the location of their residency, retrieving valuable spatial data for performing geospatial analysis. Together with the primary questions the authors could, then, produce a very clear map projection about usage in Saudi Arabia (Fig. 1).

s

1> t<> ()o

(j\ t<>

Population 2013 �

_ 1,000,000-1,500,000

_ 1,500,001-2,000,000

_ 2,000,001 -4,000,000

_ 4,000,001 -8,000,000

G 8,000,001 -10,000,000

the current Social Media

A geovisualization analysis followed which revealed the dissemination pattern of the sample based on Saudis' Social Media usage and presented over a population choropleth map layer of Saudi 2013. This first data mining mapping presentation pointed out that Saudis are heavy users of Social Media with a significant percentage of non-users' population, though. It seems that there is still some distance to be covered to increase the penetration rates since most of them are youngsters. But considering the great effort made by this

I r a q

Social Media Usage

_DK_CS no users _ No_answer

I _Never IjI

light users Rarely I Little I

IjI _Often G u I f heavy users_ A Jot

_AJways

Ye me n i

o 70 140 560 _.I=:J_-==-_ .. ===-__ Miles

280 420

Fig.l Social Media Usage of Saudis

Gulf of Oman

. Muscat

Indean Sea

The aforementioned lead to the safe conclusion that the Saudis can be characterized as heavy users (much higher than 50%) of Social Media and, thus, keen to using such computer­based applications that come handy with the modern eLearning practice. Their progress towards Social Media penetration is remarkable (having 49% of Social Media users in 20 I 0) and so they can see their digital future with great expectations.

B. Social Media effect on Saudis' education preferences

The participants were, also, asked how they perceive the progress of eLearning in their educational system. More specifically they were asked whether they see no or slow progress, sufficient or rapid and what are the main obstacles blocking such a progress. Their responses based on their use of Social Media are

of the participants is similar with the one in the previous case, however, now it is less intense. Likewise is the case of disagreement on the suggestion.

Fig.2 eLearning progress based on individuals' social media use

illustrated in Figure 2. Figure 2: elearning progress based on individuals' social media use

No progress of elearning Don't knowl Can't say 00 low progress

--Sufficient progress

There are two main things worth to point out. First, as the figure clearly depicts and the deeper analysis of the data supports, the vast majority of the respondents are heavy users of the social media using them "often", "a lot" or "always" (almost 90% of them). Altogether, the heavy users and the little or no users, a total of 421 responses, see either "no progress" (25.4%) or "slow progress" (57%) of eLearning in the country. Only a small 8.1 % see "sufficient progress" and less than 2% find the growth "rapid". There is, also, a noteworthy 7.6% who did not know or were unwilling to say. The reader should not rush

«:»Never telR.3rely .-:ti ttle use X Often -A lot +Always -Oon't know/ Can't say

into the conclusion that there is no progress since these responses probably just present the participants' willingness to see more progress inline with their move towards digitization through the use of smartphones and social media. In other words they might be just satisfied and complain asking for more development on the matter.

Also, when asked whether they, a total of 377 individuals that could respond, blame the lack of ICT infrastructure for the slow or no progress of eLearning they tend to increasingly agree the more they use the social media, i.e. those never use social media only agree 21.4%, those rarely using them agree at 47.1 %, those that make little use agree at 56.8%, those that often use it are in agreement at a level of 67.7%, the ones using them a lot agree at 68.6% and the individuals always in use of social medial see this as a problem at a level of 72.2%. On average 65.3% of the participants, the vast majority, agreed that lack of ICT infrastructure is one of the main reasons for slow or no progress of eLearning in the country. The pattern, although not quite as clear, is opposite for those who disagree with an average of 23.3%.

As far as language hurdles in the path to eLearning developments the results are a little less definitive in the sense that there is a slightly smaller population of participants in agreement (6l.8%) but also a smaller number of those who disagree (20.2%) with an increased number of the undecided ones (14.3%) of the total 377 responses on the matter. Also, although the pattern of agreement based on social media use

The data don' t lead to any different conclusions in the case of considering illiteracy as an obstacle blocking eLearning progress based on individuals' usage of social media. The pattern looks quite similar once again only even less intense than in the previous case. The majority of 383 participants (55.9%) agree with the problem with the agreement increasing with the increase of the social media use even though slightly less than in the cases mentioned earlier. A very considerable 18.8%, more than the previous cases, is undecided. There is a 21.4%, almost like previously, that disagree with the suggestion and decreasing the heavier the use of social media. There are a negligent 3.9% of the individuals that could not respond at all.

The same pattern of responses seems to be followed in the cases of the suggestions of "financial problems", "lack of eLearning institutions" and "lack of promotion" as obstacles blocking the road to eLearning progress. Indeed, 6l.3% of the 382 respondents agreed whereas 24.9% disagreed and 9.7% were undecided as to the case of "financial problems" (4.2% did not have any response), 69.1 % of 379 individuals agreed when 13.5% disagreed and another 13.5% were undecided as to recognizing the "lack of eLearning institutions" as a problem (4% did not respond at all) and, finally, 62.9% of 383 participants agreed whereas 16.2% disagreed and 16.2 were undecided as to whether "lack of promotion" is a main obstacle for eLearning progress (4.7% with no opinion). In all

these cases the responses based on social media usage follow similar pattern.

not able to decide. It is indifferent whether the individual responding makes heavy or no use of the social networks.

VI. CONCLUSIONS

Figure 3: Effect of the social media in traditional learning processes The first clear point coming

out of this preliminary research piece of work, rather expected indeed, is that the more a person uses social media the more likely it is that this person will complain about eLearning full deployment in the country asking for more work towards the goal which IS to provide this opportunity to all the more individuals in the different regions of the country. Furthermore, and since the young population comprise the vast majority of the country and since the younger a person is the more likely to make heavy use of the social media it is an easy and safe conclusion to say that heavy investments towards eLearning procedures and the character of the local population guarantees

u.

Improve traditional system

12

Disagree Undecided

Destroy Traditional system

Disagree the rapid progress of eLearning

�ever �arely little use Often --A lot ..... Always --OK/CS in the years to come.

L C. Social Media effects on Saudis Education deployment

perception Fig.3 Effect of the social media in traditional learning processes

It could be said quite safely that there is a general verdict amongst Saudi social network users about the effect of eLearning on traditional learning and it is vividly illustrated in figure 3. Saudis believe eLearning will improve traditional learning (classroom) processes (86.4%), only 7.6% disagree and a 6.5% are undecided. What is even more interesting, though, is that this suggestion is accepted even by those who never use the Social Media (71.4%) or the ones that rarely use it (94.1 %). Concerning those that disagree the majority of them are those who never use the social media much as expected indeed.

When the participants were given the suggestion that eLearning will destroy traditional learning a quarter of them agreed (22.5%) with almost two thirds disagreeing (60.6%) and a significant 17% were not decided. Again much as expected and although the stats show only a 6-8% variance yet the individuals who believe more intensely than the rest that eLearning will destroy traditional processes are using the Social Media heavily or always as opposed to the ones who don' t believe so. The opposite pattern is true for those who disagree. There is no particular pattern in the case of the undecided.

Finally, when they were asked if they believe eLearning will not affect at all traditional processes their answers were mostly split between those who agreed (40.7%) and those who disagreed (43.6%). There were also 13.6% of the participants

The second point, as crucial and clear as the first, is that the Saudis, mainly regardless of their

heavy use of the social networks which just intensifies their perspective and relevant behavior, see eLearning as an additional tool to educate the masses and improve traditional learning processes. They mostly disagree it will destroy the traditional classroom teaching system and they are split between those that believe, in general, it will not affect the old system and those who believe it will.

All these are very positive signs and indicators that the vast investments in educational infrastructure and human resources in the country together with the intense support for IT related developments, e.g. telecommunications infrastructure, will, probably after a decade, show the fruits of this huge admirable effort of a rather new country to develop fast. In this future eLearning looks like it has a very important role to play.

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