The Attitude of Students of The University of Jordan Towards The “ Social Media Networks ” Subject

This study aims to search the students’ attitudes in The University of Jordan towards the “Social Media Networks” subject, and in order to reach the study’s goals, a descriptive surveyor methodology was adopted, the study sample consisted of (198) students of bachelor degree who enrolled the subject for the second semester; academic year 2014/2015 from both genders in a random cluster way. A tool was designed to measure the students’ attitude towards “Social Media Networks” subject; the tool paragraphs targeted five dimensions: course content, faculty members, school applications, evaluation methods and laboratories offered by the university. The study results showed that the students’ attitude towards “Social Media Networks” subject, were positive in general levels and in medium degree. The course content and the school applications obtained the highest average respectively, followed by laboratories offered by the university and evaluation methods, faculty members took the last position. The results also show that there are no differences of statistical indications regarding the gender, educational level or experience options in the use of networks while a difference occurred regarding faculty’s type in favor of scientific faculties.


Introduction
According to the large development and rapid changes in telecommunication technologies, Internet and computers sector that the world lately underwent; it was necessary that the educational sector, with its variable levels, follows these changes, developments and knowledge explosions.As a result many orientations and aspirations were established to intake these developments.Internet was a result of development and it played a key role in changing telecommunications definitions and spread of knowledge.(Suwwan, 2005).
Internet could be defined as an international telecommunication network used to exchange information with other networks connected through it with numerous groups of computers around the world that works under determined systems called internet protocols.Internet played a very important role in terms of rapid changes in getting information and the large amount of information available, it facilitates communication between individuals and the acquisition, retrieval and circulation of information faster than other means, all in an electronic manner and without any human intervention (Sari, 2005).
Social Media Networks are from the featured applications of (Web 2.0) especially that it allows users to publish articles, adjust or even update them.Internet became more important with the occurrence and spread of social media networks such as Facebook, Twitter and many other networks which were able to attract millions of users from the worldwide from different social layers and different ages, even children and teenagers, making critical changes in interactive types and social communication manners.This has resulted in repercussions that contributed effectively to the formulation of the features of many societies intellectually, socially, politically and economically, which led to a significant change in the ways governments communicate with their citizens and the way companies perform their work and methods of marketing and selling products, also it changed the definition of developed work and how political, social and human rights activists engage in their activities (Swedberg, 2011).
Social networking is an effective 21st century communication tool, it's an online service known as virtual communities, and it allows individuals to interact with others.Most of social networks are about jobs, activities and hobbies, but the most featured networks on internet like: Facebook, Twitter and Linked in are characterized applications and have diversity in ways of communication with friends and is no longer limited to chat and entertainment, but went beyond that to promote goods, job search and advertising in general and many other things (University of Jordan, 2014).
As social media networks are available for everyone and easy to access, it is important that the educational organizations work on educating students on how to use and employ them in a positive way in their lives.Hence, the University of Jordan has introduced new subjects that touch the reality of students and their needs.These subjects are the social networking subjects that the Department of Business Technology at King Abdullah II College of Information Technology launched at the beginning of the first semester of the academic year 2014-2015 as an optional requirement for all students of the University of Jordan.
This article aims to introduce students to the basic concepts of social networks such as Facebook and Twitter and their practical applications, as well as how to start using and managing them, taking into account privacy, safety, electronic crimes and ethics such as patents and intellectual property rights.Also provide different applications that can benefit from the employment of social networks such as e-marketing, public relations management, search for work through social networks, etc.
After the researchers were exposed to the material, one of the main axes discussed in the article was as follows: The first chapter discussed the concept, history and the emergence of social networks and their characteristics and types and how to use them positively.The second chapter reviewed the most important tools of social networks and mechanism of work and use.The third chapter focused on the blogs and the mechanism of their work and use.Applications on social networks such as commerce, journalism and electronic libraries and the quality of their employment are presented in chapters 4 and 5.In Chapter 6, issues related to information security and its components were discussed.
The University of Jordan introduced social networks for the first time in Jordan as an attempt to integrate the ways in which students learn and their ways of thinking in the outside world.Hence, this study came to reveal the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards this article.

The Problem of the Study and Its Questions
Social networks such as Facebook and Twitter have become part of the everyday life of an increasing number of individuals, making it a fertile ground for modern studies, considering its growing impact on young people and their education in particular, The positive and negative effects on the learning of young people have played a role in dispersing students from their studies while they can play a fruitful role if they are based on educational principles and supervised by educators.In addition, the impact of these networks may depend on the individual's interests and his desire to use them in a positive way that benefits his education or vice versa (Kuppswamy & Narayan, 2010).
As a result of the global openness, the flow of information and the exchange of views and ideas that the social networks were one of its most important tools, this led to a change in concepts and trends and the enormous widespread use of these networks, especially among the youth and university students who are the future generation.King Abdullah II College of Information Technology In the University of Jordan offered for the first time in Jordan, the course "Social Networking" as an optional requirement for all undergraduate students starting from the first semester of the academic year 2014-2015.This study was conducted to identify the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards a new subject inspired by the reality of the students.The University of Jordan offered them at the beginning of the academic year 2014/2015 as an optional requirement.Therefore, the problem of study is the following questions:

•
What are the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards "Social Media Networks" Subject?
• Are there statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks" due to the gender variables, the academic level, the type of faculty and the experience in using these networks?

Objectives of the Study
This study aims to identify the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social networks".It also aims to identify the impact of some variables in the attitudes of students towards the subject of "social networks" such as gender, specialization, type of college and the extent of experience in the use of social networks.

The importance of the Study
The importance of knowing the attitudes of students towards the subject of "social networks" in general stems from the importance of this article, which is the first in the University of Jordan, which allows students to discuss these networks and their importance and their effects and future uses and in particular the possibility of benefiting from them in investing the energies of young people, because It aims to teach students how to use and manage social networks, taking into account privacy, security and cybercrime (University of Jordan, 2014).As well as its importance in enriching studies in this area and the possibility of investment in modifying students' use of social networks.In addition, this study will be helpful to educational officials and specialists in the field of general and higher education in terms of orientation and awareness of students in the proper ways to deal with these networks.Therefore, the results of this study may lead to the reorganization of Jordanian university subjects and the introduction of new subjects which suits the reality and needs of students.

Limitations and Determinants of the Study
This study was limited to undergraduate students at the University of Jordan who are studying "social networking" for the second semester of the academic year 2014.In addition, the study tool (questionnaire) was made and developed by the researchers in order to investigate the students' attitudes toward the subject of "social networks".The results of this study are determined by the extent of the ability of the questionnaire to improve the generalization of the sample.

Related Work
Al-Sawair (2014) conducted a study aimed at investigating the motives of using Facebook by university and secondary school students in Jordan and its relation to their academic achievement.The study sample consisted of (1200) students distributed equally among (600) students of the university and (600) secondary school students in Wadi Sir district in the capital governorate.The researcher used a questionnaire divided into five dimensions: entertainment, communication with friends, follow-up of scientific developments, search for new information, and learn about new techniques.The results showed that the most important motivations for university students to use the social networking site Facebook are entertainment and follow-up of scientific developments.The main motivations for high school students using this site are to search for new information and to learn about new technologies.
Al-Thabitat, Al-Sarayrah and Khalifa (2013) conducted a study aimed at identifying the attitudes of Jordanian private university students towards the subject of National Education.To answer the questions of the study, a sample of (830) students was randomly selected from six Jordanian universities in particular.To collect information, a questionnaire was created consisting of (56) paragraphs.The results showed that the attitudes of the students towards the national education subject were positive with an average of (3.85) with no statistically significant differences in their attitudes due to gender variable or level of study, and the existence of differences of statistical significance attributed to the variable "college" for the benefit of students of humanitarian colleges.
Abu Seleek, (2012) made a study that aimed at detecting the impact of electronic social networks in the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan and the development of their balanced personality.The researcher developed a questionnaire to reveal these trends and the effect of these networks on the development of balanced personality.The sample included 75923 students.The results of the study showed that the impact of these networks is positive in deepening social relations, enhancing public information and removing psychological and social barriers between the sexes.The most important negative effect of addiction to social networks is the delay in school.The main motives of using these networks are providing users with the opportunity to present themselves in the way they love.Giving others the perfect picture as they think.
Srichanyachon, (2013) made a study aimed at identifying the attitudes of college students in Thailand towards the use of the WebEx system in the English classes taught over the Internet, comparing these trends with their previous knowledge of WebEx, and the relationship between students' computer culture and their attitudes towards the system.To achieve these objectives, the researcher developed a questionnaire distributed to (211) male and female students from the bachelor degree and who enrolled in the English language subject.The results showed that the levels of computer culture and trends towards WebEx were moderate, as well as the absence of statistically significant differences due to gender variable, personal computer ownership or amount of monthly expenditure.The results of the study also showed a positive relationship between the students' computer culture and their attitudes towards WebEx.The researcher found that students who have a high level of computer culture have more positive attitudes towards WebEx than students with low levels of computer culture.Kenzek, Mills & Wakefield (2012) conducted a study aimed at measuring the attitudes of students toward learning using social networks.To achieve this, data were collected from (147) adults using social networks through an electronic questionnaire consisting of 8 factors according to the Likert quintile.Factor analysis referred to two of them: interactive learning and educational communication.This research indicates that social networks deserve more use in measuring students' preferences from these networks such as Twitter, Facebook, Google + and other similar tools in communication, and the precise measurement of such concepts can support new models of learning and interactive learning within the Web 2.0 environment for the twenty first century.
The study of Vidal, E.C., Martinez, J.G., Fortuna, M.L., & Cervera, M.G., (2011) aimed to identify the students' attitudes and expectations from the educational use of the social networks.The aim of the researchers was to force the students to think about these trends as an essential step in achieving acceptance and understanding of the possibilities of social networks in education.To achieve the goals, the researchers developed a questionnaire and distributed it on 115 students in the first year of the bachelor's degree.The results showed that students have positive attitudes as users of social networks, but the students' expectations of the benefit of social networks in education were low, that all participants in the study did not use social networks in learning under the supervision of teaching staff before.
A review of previous Arab and foreign studies shows that there are some previous studies that examined the attitudes of students towards the use of social networks in the educational process, but did not address the subject of this study directly and in a specialized way, so this study is the first to the knowledge of the researchers in this field.

Study Method
The study followed the descriptive surveyor methodology based on describing the phenomenon by collecting data, tabulating, analyzing it and linking its meanings, in order to reach an understanding of the studied phenomenon and the variables that affect it, using the study tool which is the questionnaire.

The Study Sample and Population
The study population consists of all undergraduate students studying at the University of Jordan and enrolled in the "social networks" during the second semester of the academic year 2014-2015.The number of students reached (455) students according to the statistics issued by the Admissions and Registration Department University of Jordan (Admission and Registration Department / University of Jordan, 2014).The sample of the study was chosen by random cluster method, and the approximate percentage (44%) of the students in the study population was included.The number of validated questionnaires was 198.The sample of the final study consisted of (7) students from the first year, (29) students from the second year, (79) students from the third year and (83) students from the fourth year.

Study Tool
The researchers prepared a questionnaire to investigate the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks".After making a review of the educational literature related to the subject of the study, such as the study (Al-Thabitat, Al-Sarayrah and Khalifa, 2013).The questionnaire consisted of ( 22) items divided into five dimensions: content, faculty member, school applications, assessment method and laboratories provided by the university.The tool came in the five-dimensional Likert scale: (strongly agree = 5, agree = 4, neutral / not sure = 3, disagree = 2, strongly disagree = 1).

Authenticity of the Tool
The questionnaire was presented in its initial form to five arbitrators who are specialized in the fields of educational technology, curriculum, teaching and Arabic language.They were asked to determine the appropriateness and comprehensiveness of the paragraphs in the questionnaire to measure the attitudes of the students of the University towards the "social networks" and make its paragraphs clear with strong language, make any amendments or propose paragraphs they deem appropriate, delete unnecessary paragraphs, and make the proposed amendments as provided by the arbitrators in their recommendations.The study adopted a way to measure trend's degree towards "social networks" subject by dividing it into (large, medium, low) according to the following criteria: A) the low trend level from -1 to less than 2.33.B) The average trend level of 2.34 -less than 3.66.C) The high trend level from 3.67-5.

The Stability of the Tool
The stability of the tool has been verified using the coefficient of Cronbach Alpha for internal consistency, which was distributed to a sample survey of (40) students from the study community and outside the sample, the stability coefficient of the total tool was: (0.749) which means that the tool has acceptable stability for the purpose of this study and to continue its procedures.

Study Variables
This study was designed to investigate the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks".This study is a descriptive study which included the following variables: 1) Independent variables: Gender, and it has two levels (male, female).Faculty and it has three levels: (Humanitarian, Scientific and Medical).The academic level which has four levels (first year, second, third and fourth).And experience in the use of social networks which has two levels (less than a year, more than a year).2) The dependent variable: the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks".

Statistical Analysis
After the application of the study procedures, the questionnaire data was entered into the computer and the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to analyze and extract the results, as follows: • Extracting descriptive statistics from averages, standard deviations and trend levels according to the above scale.
• Make a Multivariate test for differences.
• Conduct a four-way MANOVA analysis to find out the effect of gender, college, grade level, and experience in using social networks.A LSD test was performed for distance comparisons on the total type variable

Results Related to the First Question
What are the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "Social Media Networks"?
In order to answer this question, the arithmetical averages, the standard deviations and the level of trend of the study sample were calculated on the dimensions of the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social networks", as in Table ( 1).
Table 1.The arithmetic averages, standard deviations, and the level of the trend of the study sample on the dimensions of the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the "social networks" rank in descending order according to the arithmetic averages Table (1) shows that the level of the total score of the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards social networks was (3.45) average, sample dimension was medium.The arithmetical averages of dimensions ware between (4.73 and 4.17).The dimension of the study content was the highest score (4.17) with a large degree of direction.Followed by the school applications in the subject which scored an average of (3.71) with a high degree of direction.Then comes the faculty member dimension with a (2.73) average, a medium degree of direction.These findings demonstrate the importance of this subject in the lives of students especially that it meets their needs and develop their awareness about these networks and help them enrich their prior knowledge.This result may be attributed to the students' concentration on content, regardless of the lecturer or teacher, and the students' high expectations from the teachers of this article because of their attitudes towards the content.
The following is a detailed description of the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan toward the subject of "social media networks" according to their dimensions, as in Table (3) shows that the arithmetical averages for the faculty member field ranged between 2.00 and 4.05, at a low and medium average level.This came with a (2.73) average score with a relative importance of 54.6%.It was found that the lecturers should receive training, gain new experiences and follow-up all that is new in this area, and perhaps because of the novelty of the article, the members of the faculty have not yet gained sufficient experience.This was made clear by the students' answers to a paragraph (I believe that the faculty member has experience in dealing with social networks), which obtained the lowest average account reached (2.00), indicating the need to pay more attention and effort to raise the efficiency and expertise of the faculty member in teaching this subject.Also the paragraph (I feel that the faculty member is biased to some networks without others) achieved the highest arithmetic average in the faculty member field reaching (4.05)This trend is due to the lecturer's attention to the most widely used networks among university students on one hand, on the other hand, can also be attributed to the nature of the evolution and technological acceleration we are living in which made students better than their teachers in following up and learning what is new.
Third Field: school applications for the subject  4) shows that the arithmetical averages of the applications dimension in the article ranged between (2.57 and 3.88) and at medium and high level.The total arithmetic average of this dimension reached 3.71 and reached 74% for relative importance and ranked second.The paragraph (I work with motivation and energy at any time through these networks) achieved the highest arithmetic average in this dimension (3.88) and a relative importance of 77%.This indicates that students need to develop such motivation, activity and desire to learn and develop their cognitive, emotional and skill aspects.As the students' trends towards the subject in general were positive then their trends towards its applications were also positive especially that these applications that contribute to preparing students for future working life.The paragraph (I think these networks will be useful to me in my future work area) comes with the lowest arithmetical average and a medium degree.
Fourth field: Evaluation method:

Total degree
Table ( 5) also shows that the arithmetical averages of the evaluation method ranged between (3.25 and 3.93) and at medium and high level.The paragraph (I believe that the theoretical tests are not an evidence of my learning in this subject) achieved the highest arithmetic average in this dimension with a high degree.The paragraph (I think it would be better if the evaluation tool was the practical use of a social network) comes with the lowest arithmetical average and a medium degree.
Fifth field: computer labs offered by the university  6) that the arithmetical averages of the computer labs provided by the university ranged between (3.78 and 4.37) at a high level, where the paragraph (I feel that it is better to teach one of the lectures on the Internet) came with the highest arithmetical average and high degree of direction.(I do not like opening my personal pages on university networks for privacy reasons) came with the lowest arithmetical average and medium degree.On the other hand, the Internet services and programs provided by the University of Jordan to students through computer labs came in line with the requirements and duties of this subject, where the arithmetic average in this dimension reached (3.07) with a relative importance of 61.4%.
Results related to the second question: Are there statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks" by gender, level of education, type of faculty and experience in using these networks?To answer this question, a Multivariate Test was conducted for the study variables and Table (7) shows this test.7) shows statistically significant differences due to the type of faculty.To determine the sources of these differences, a 4-way MANOVA analysis was performed, and Table 8 shows the results of this test.(8) shows that there are no statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan toward the subject of "social media networks" due to gender variable, educational level and experience.
Regarding the gender variable, the results indicate that both males and females have positive attitudes towards the subject.This can be explained by the fact that its wide spread, multiple sources, easy access to the Internet from anywhere, and use of social networks at any time and through mobile phones, what made it easy for females to get connected without any consideration of time and place barriers.In addition, the subjects, content, activities and tasks of the article are common to both genders.Therefore, both are having similar trends and attitudes.
These results may not be consistent with the study of Al-Kettani and Al-Ajaily (2012), which aims to identify the reality of the second phase trends in the Faculty of Physical Education in Muthanna towards statistics subject, with significant differences due to gender variable in favor of males, because of the nature of statistics which focuses on scientific skills, and the tendency of female students mostly heads towards literary subjects rather than scientific ones.
As for the results of the student experience in the use of social networks, most of the sample has more than one year experience and the number of students with experience less than a year is very little and is not enough to create differences of statistical significance, which indicates the popularity of social networks and its widespread among students where it is an easy-to-use and accessible online web site that can be accessed and interacted from multiple sources.
As for the results related to the variable educational level of the university students (first, second, third, fourth years), these networks are known and famous among the students and are available to all regardless of their specialization and educational levels or age, and they have knowledge and experience in dealing with these networks especially that age levels and its characteristics are very close in the four academic years.
As shown in Table ( 8) there are statistically significant differences in the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks" according to the faculty type variable on the dimensions of the course content, faculty member and computer labs provided by the university and the total degree of the scale.And to know to whom these differences refer; a LSD difference test was performed for the dimensional comparisons on the faculty type variable.Table 9 shows these comparisons.9) shows that there are statistically significant differences in the course content dimension between the humanitarian and medical colleges.The differences were in favor of the medical colleges, and there were no differences between the humanitarian, scientific and medical colleges.The faculty member shows that there are differences between the humanitarian and scientific faculties in favor of the humanitarian faculties and the absence of differences between the (humanitarian and medical colleges) and (scientific and medical colleges).Regarding the computer labs offered by the university dimension, there are significant statistical differences between the humanitarian and medical faculties.The differences were in favor of the medical colleges and between the medical colleges and the scientific colleges.The differences were in favor of medical colleges and there were no statistically significant differences between the humanitarian and scientific faculties.
For the total degree of scale dimension the difference between the scientific and medical colleges was in favor of the scientific colleges, and between the humanitarian colleges and the medical colleges was for the benefit of the medical colleges, and the absence of significant differences between the humanitarian colleges and the scientific colleges in the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks".
The amount of differences for the benefit of scientific colleges refer to what the individual knows about the subject of the and trend determines the strength of the direction towards it and increases the importance that the student personally holds on the direction he carries towards a subject of study (Nashwani, 2003) As the knowledge provided to the students of the scientific specializations and medical colleges within the subjects of those specializations are more connected to skills and practical applications on the Internet, which may be related to these networks where it is dealt with a concern more than what is allocated to humanitarian colleges through limited courses, it generates a large share of students to interact with the Internet and its applications and interact directly with social networks and websites, such as the presentation of the scientific material on some websites and the formation of groups with the same interests and activities, which leads to the formation of positive attitudes of students in scientific and medical colleges, while the subjects of the humanitarian faculties focus on the theoretical aspects and humanitarian and educational materials more than practical aspects.These results were in line with the study (Thabitat, Sarayra and Khalifa, 2013).

Recommendations
In the light of the findings of the study, the researchers recommend: 1) Conducting studies on the relationship between the use of social networks and the orientation towards registration in such subjects.
2) Introduce other courses for humanitarian colleges that fall within the applied and practical level, which deals with topics about these networks and try to benefit from them in the educational aspects.
3) Work on updating and developing educational inputs, improving teaching methods and raising the efficiency of teachers through holding training courses and workshops, cooperating with specialists and experts and benefiting from the experiences of others in this field to ensure the development of positive attitudes among students towards faculty members.4) Conduct further studies on such courses include other variables in other universities and compare them with the results of this study.5) Study the trends of teachers and university administrators about the introduction of new courses such as "social networking" to meet the needs of students and the interest of society, and study the attitudes of teachers and lecturers of this article about the importance and extent of interaction with students and the extent of service to the educational process.7) Take guidance from the experience of other universities, global and regional,that introduced such subjects, and cooperate with them to benefit from their experience.

Table 2 .
Arithmetical average and standard deviation for the paragraphs related to the course content field in descending order:

Table ( 2
) shows that the arithmetical averages for the dimension of the course content ranged from 2.21 to 4.42 at a low, medium and high level.The paragraph (I expect to be fully aware of how social networks are used) is at the highest average and the highest trend degree.This indicates that students tend to enroll and register with such subjects and are willing to study more of them.Most of the students have shown positive attitudes towards the subjects and contents discussed in this subject.The paragraph (I feel that the content of the subject is distributed equally to cover the most important applications of social networking in the lives of university students) is the lowest arithmetic average and low trend degree.This can be attributed to the fact that it is an optional subject for all university students and various faculties and majors.The authors of this article tried to address the most important topics and applications that affect the needs of different students and focus on the common subjects among students of scientific and humanitarian colleges.

Table 3 .
Arithmetical average and standard deviation for the paragraphs related to the faculty member field in descending order:

Table 4 .
Arithmetical average and standard deviation for the paragraphs related to the school applications field in descending order:

Table 5 .
Arithmetical average and standard deviation for the paragraphs related to evaluation methods field in descending order:

Table 6 .
Arithmetical average and standard deviation for the paragraphs related to computer labs offered by the university field in descending order:

Table 7 .
(Multivariate Test)Statistics of the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks" by gender, level of education, faculty type and experience in using these networks

Table 8 .
Results of the "Quadratic variance" analysis of the attitudes of the students of the University of Jordan towards the subject of "social media networks" by gender, educational level, type of faculty and experience in using these networks

Table 9 .
Results of the (LSD) test, students' attitudes towards "social media networks" depending on the faculty type variable