Abstract:
Social networking sites allow users to establish networks with other users. This enables communication through platforms such as Facebook and Twitter among others. While these technologies have eased communication a number of problems abound such as distraction of students from their studies. Depending on how Facebook is used, this is likely to impact on students’ academic achievement either positively or negatively hence this study sought to assess the relationship between Facebook and academic achievement of fourth year Kisii university Bachelor of Education students. The study was guided by four research objectives. It adopted a mixed method research design in order to obtain both quantitative and qualitative data to answer the research questions effectively. The study population consisted of 300 Bachelor of Education students 2012/2013 academic year, 5 ICT administrators and a senior administrative assistant in the Faculty of Education. Purposive sampling was used to select the 5 ICT administrators and a senior administrative assistant while stratified random sampling was used to select 86 males and 85 females to make a sample size of 171. The response rate was 83.6% with 143 respondents returning their fully filled up questionnaires. Questionnaires, in-depth interview and document analysis - academic transcript analysis- provided data that were analysed using frequencies, percentages, cumulative averages and Pearson product moment correlation coefficient . Qualitative data results were presented in narratives and direct quotes while quantitative data results were presented in tables. The findings revealed that: 93.7% (134) of the respondents used Facebook and spent on average 115 minutes daily Facebooking; 60.2 % of the students multitasked while studying and that there were policies that regulated use of social media in the university computer laboratories. A Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient of(r=-0.052) revealed that there was no relationship between time spent on Facebook and academic achievement of the students. It was therefore concluded that irrespective of the time spent on Facebook, this was not significant enough to affect the students’ academic achievement. Based on these findings and conclusions, it was recommended that rather than restrict Facebook use; the University management and students should be encouraged to embrace it more as a teaching and learning resource as it had the potential to enhance learning. These findings are significant in bridging the knowledge gap in as far as Facebook use relates to academic achievement and in helping students make an informed choice on how to use Facebook effectively for enhancement of their academics hence boosting the education standards in the university.
