Use of Social Media for Knowledge Sharing Among Students

Abstract

The world of research requires researchers, students to share knowledge. With the invention of social media, knowledge sharing process has been more effective and easier. This study examined the usage of social media for knowledge sharing among students of the Polytechnic Ibadan, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted, while stratified random sampling technique was adopted to select the students. Four hundred and thirty four copies of questionnaire were administered, while 301 were retrieved and 271 copies found useful for data analysis. Data was analysed using frequencies and percentage distribution, Spearman’s rank correlation, Kruskal Wallis test, and Chi-Square. Findings reveal that Facebook and Whatsapp are the widely used social media tools for knowledge sharing by the students. The study found significant relationship between social influence and attitude towards using social media for knowledge sharing, as well as significant relationship between attitude and use of social media for knowledge sharing.The study recommends that institutions should exploit the proliferation of social media and its use to set up off-class student-student and student-lecturer discussion groups, which could help encourage and promote knowledge sharing, and thereby help students in achieving good academic outcomes.