Usage of social networking sites for scholarly communication among Postgraduate Students in Universities in Nakuru county, Kenya

Abstract

Scholarly communication (SC) has been experiencing tremendous change due to rapid technological advancements leading to the creation of varied ways of sharing information among scholars despite the ever-rising cost of information access and sharing. The focus of this study was to assess the use of social networking sites (SNS) for scholarly communication among postgraduate students in selected university campuses in Nakuru County, Kenya. The objectives of the study were to determine the extent of use of SNS for scholarly communication; to establish the reasons for using SNS by postgraduate students for scholarly communication and to assess the relevance of the social networking sites to postgraduate students for scholarly communication. Technology Acceptance Model 2 (TAM 2) was used with a descriptive research design to achieve the objectives of this study. The target population was 650 postgraduate students from eight public and private universities in Nakuru Town. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to select two public and two private universities with a combined sample size of 109 postgraduate students respectively. Data collection tools used were questiormaires and interview guide. Descriptive statistics and Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 26 was used for data analysis, where the results were presented in tables and charts. The findings of the study show that postgraduate students use SNS for SC by sharing research ideas which was represented by chi-square values of 30.118 with a p-value of 0.000 which is less than 0.05 significant level; sharing class experience being represented by chi-square values of 11.765 with p-value of 0.000 less than the significance level of 0.05, to know where to meet for lessons, when lectures are starting and updates on deadlines for submitting class assignment being represented by chi-square of 4.235 with a p-value of 0.040 which is less than 0.05 significance level. According to"the findings of this study, the reasons for using SNS are for academic purposes being the major reason, leisure, getting information about activities in campus, socializing entertainment and group discussion. Finally, the findings showed that the use of SNS for SC is of relevance to postgraduate students. In conclusion, the findings of this study will help students, researchers and information centres to understand the importance of using SNS for scholarly communication to enhance their research work.