Impact of Social Media on Student Engagement and Learning Outcomes at University Level

Abstract

The aim of the study was to determine the characteristics of social media on engagement and learning outcomes of university students. The sample was randomly selected and included all the registered students at university of Sargodha. Sixty student participants of self-support programs were selected together with 270 students of regular programs. The data was physically collected and the data analyzed with descriptive statistics, correlation, regression and t-test. The study concluded that the social media may bring two impacts on the life of students which are moderate and academic usage of the tool positively and negatively impact the academic performance respectively. All the students who were enrolled at the University of Sargodha formed the study population. The sample was chosen randomly. The sample consisted of 270 students of regular and self support program. Physical data collection was used to get quantitative data. The methods of data analysis are regression, correlation, descriptive statistics and t-test. Based on the findings of the study, there are two ways in which social media can impact the academic life of students. Though overuse of it adversely affects the per-performance of students, moderate and academic use of it improves the engagement and learning outcomes. The study points out that using social media in the field of education should be planned to ensure that the benefit of social media is achieved and the negative aspect is minimized