The increasing numbers of international students studying in UCSI University
necessitates research into appropriate ways to support cultural diversity in teaching and
providing learning tools for them. International students usually face problems in
adapting to culturally different education system and this complicates the discipline
specific skills that they have come to learn. In addition to that, the number of contact
hours is known to be insufficient, especially for cases of large classes of freshmen, where
individual face-to-face could be a better way to bridge the cultural gap. Social networking
site is known to be able to bridge the cultural gap and build trust among students and
members of the faculty. It is also a platform for knowledge sharing when the students
start to accept that the interaction among members within the site could support their
learning activities. The question here is whether they are ready to accept social
networking site as a learning tool. This paper evaluates the international students’
acceptance on using the social networking site to support their learning activities, using
the UTAUT model, which postulates the constructs of performance expectancy, effort
expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions on using technology. These
constructs determine the behavioural intent, which influences the usage behaviour of the
technology. Effectiveness of social networking to support students’ learning activities in
higher education is expected to be highly dependent on the acceptance of the students in
various aspects, and this research reports the progress of students in accepting the
emerging technology as their learning tool. A variety of lessons concerning the use of
social networking site and how it can be linked to other online tools are presented,
especially in terms of building trust among students across culture differences.
Thoughtful consideration in planning the structure of collaboration tools is
recommended, not only for providing learning environment but also in terms of assisting
students in adapting to culture diversity.
The increasing numbers of international students studying in UCSI University
necessitates research into appropriate ways to support cultural diversity in teaching and
providing learning tools for them. International students usually face problems in
adapting to culturally different education system and this complicates the discipline
specific skills that they have come to learn. In addition to that, the number of contact
hours is known to be insufficient, especially for cases of large classes of freshmen, where
individual face-to-face could be a better way to bridge the cultural gap. Social networking
site is known to be able to bridge the cultural gap and build trust among students and
members of the faculty. It is also a platform for knowledge sharing when the students
start to accept that the interaction among members within the site could support their
learning activities. The question here is whether they are ready to accept social
networking site as a learning tool. This paper evaluates the international students’
acceptance on using the social networking site to support their learning activities, using
the UTAUT model, which postulates the constructs of performance expectancy, effort
expectancy, social influence, and facilitating conditions on using technology. These
constructs determine the behavioural intent, which influences the usage behaviour of the
technology. Effectiveness of social networking to support students’ learning activities in
higher education is expected to be highly dependent on the acceptance of the students in
various aspects, and this research reports the progress of students in accepting the
emerging technology as their learning tool. A variety of lessons concerning the use of
social networking site and how it can be linked to other online tools are presented,
especially in terms of building trust among students across culture differences.
Thoughtful consideration in planning the structure of collaboration tools is
recommended, not only for providing learning environment but also in terms of assisting
students in adapting to culture diversity.
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