THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING AMONG BUSINESS EDUCATION STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF ILORIN

Abstract

It has been observed that social media could be leveraged as a promising tool to support communication and collaboration inside and outside the classroom, which could further facilitate the crossing of physical and virtual borders/barriers through mobility and immediacy. However, it seems these potential advantages are still not being fully maximized in the Nigeria teachinglearning process. Therefore, this paper aims to examine the use of social media for knowledge sharing among business education students at the University of Ilorin. To guide the study six research questions were raised, and one hypothesis was formulated. The research design for this study was an ex-post facto research design. The study population comprised all business education students in the University of Ilorin from 100 level to 400 level. Questionnaire was the main instrument adopted for this study. Stratified sampling technique was adopted to select sample of 200 students as respondents for the study. Descriptive statistics, percentage, mean and standard deviation, and inferential statistics of Pearson Product moment Correlation (PPMC) all at 0.05 level of Significance, were used to analyze data to answer the research questions raised and the hypothesis formulated for the study. Results from the analysis shows that Business Education students at the University of Ilorin use different types of social media virtually every day, ranging from Facebook to Zoom, Business Education students acknowledge the importance of knowledge sharing and exchange, they also acknowledge the importance and usefulness of social media, Business Education in University of Ilorin have intention to use social media for knowledge
sharing, Business Education students encountered challenges in using social media for knowledge sharing and there is no significant relationship between the usefulness of social media and experience of using social media by Business Education students in University of Ilorin (calculated r-value of 0.493 is greater than the critical r-value of 0.159 with corresponding p-value of 0.000). The study therefore recommended that Students should be educated on the influence of social media on their academic performance and they should be monitored by teachers and parents on how they use these sites.