Measuring the extent and nature of use of Social Networking Sites in Medical Education (SNSME) by university students: Results of a multi-center study

Figures & data

Figure 1. The observed frequencies of responses to statements about the students’ extent of use of Social Networking Sites for Medical Education (SNSME) (N = 1312).

Figure 2. The observed frequencies of responses to statements about the students’ perceptions of use of Social Networking Sites for Medical Education (SNSME) (N = 1312).

Table 1. Perceptions about use of social networking sites in study cohort by χ² test using Social Networking Sites for Medical Education (SENSME) (N = 1312).

Statements	χ^2	p values
1. How often do you use e-mail for sharing information for educational purpose?	398^a	0.00*
2. How often do you use social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr) to keep in touch with peers and tutors?	888^b	0.00*
3. How often do you use social networking sites (e.g., Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Flickr) to share education-related information?	146^c	0.00*
4. How often do you use social networking sites for sharing research, innovations in medical field?	116^d	0.00*
5. How often do you read blogs or Wikis for education-related information?	264^d	0.00*
6. How often do you contribute to blogs or Wikis to share information, or disseminate knowledge?	968^e	0.00*
7. Social networking sites help me in collection of educational materials	247^e	0.00*
8. Social networking sites are helpful in collaborative and peer-to-peer learning	200^d	0.00*
9. Social networking sites are useful in developing reading and writing web skills	134^f	0.00*
10. Social networking sites provide opportunity of virtual meetings with other students and tutors	173^g	0.00*
11. Social networking sites help me to communicate with peers about class projects	208^g	0.00*
12. Social networking sites help me to access educational resources	319^h	0.00*
13. Social networking sites help me to retrieve educational references for research	115^h	0.00*
14. Social networking sites facilitate my professional development of technological skills	161^i	0.00*
15. Social networking sites are useful in communicating with classmates about course-related topics	260^j	0.00*
16. I have found social networking sites useful during the pre-exam period when I get an instant answer/explanation from my peer, instead of going through the books	197^j	0.00*
17. I have found social networking sites useful for sharing notes and lectures	280^j	0.00*
18. I have found social networking sites useful for educational purposes	262^i	0.00*
19. Students need supervision and guidance for the appropriate use of social networking sites for educational purposes	62^j	0.00*
20. I believe that social networking sites are inappropriate for sharing classroom materials, information, and discussing education-related topics	155^k	0.00*

Note: 0 cells (.0%) have expected frequencies of less than 5. The minimum expected cell frequency is (a = 262.4, b = 262.2, c = 262, d = 261.2, e = 260.8, f = 260.6, g = 261, h = 259.8, i = 259.6, j = 260, and k = 256.4). Here * represents p value of <0.01.

Table 2. The results of the Mann–Whitney U test showing comparison of the students’ perceptions about use of Social Networking Sites for Medical Education (SENSME) among gender (N = 1312).

Statement	Male MR	Female MR	Mann–Whitney U	Z	p values
1	555.53	733.11	153,969	−8.77	0.00*
2	579.73	713.95	167,666	−6.89	0.00*
3	612.38	688.10	186,051	−3.69	0.00*
4	633.45	668.64	197,797	−1.71	0.09**
5	618.57	679.88	189,435	−3.01	0.00*
6	712.71	607.18	174,605	−5.46	0.00*
7	821.72	524.33	113,403	−14.60	0.00*
8	820.75	527.16	115,069	−14.36	0.00*
9	800.98	539.01	124,494	−12.79	0.00*
10	797.06	544.38	127,875	−12.34	0.00*
11	826.01	522.13	111,549	−14.88	0.00*
12	807.16	532.76	119,235	−13.54	0.00*
13	792.20	543.59	127,493	−12.13	0.00*
14	805.88	533.05	119,451	−13.35	0.00*
15	824.47	520.49	110,107	−14.95	0.00*
16	806.45	533.95	120,122	−13.35	0.00*
17	824.12	520.75	110,299	−14.94	0.00*
18	821.82	520.38	110,466	−14.84	0.00*
19	757.87	570.26	147,135	−9.12	0.00*
20	556.23	707.22	154,416	−7.45	0.00*

Note: MR: mean rank. Note: Grouping variable is age group. * and ** represent p < 0.01 and p < 0.05, respectively. MR: mean rank.

Bold values reflect statistically significant differences between responses by male and female participants.

Table 3. The results of the Kruskal–Wallis test showing comparison of the students’ perceptions about use of Social Networking Sites for Medical Education (SNSME) across years of schooling (N = 1312).

Statement	Year 1	Year 2	Year 3	Year 4	Year 5	χ^2	p values
1	671	699	579	686	690	26.98	0.00*
2	653	666	601	745	666	21.71	0.00*
3	551	702	604	686	680	20.64	0.00*
4	447	638	643	657	705	30.80	0.00*
5	602	613	648	638	697	10.70	0.03**
6	499	642	640	649	696	21.11	0.00*
7	511	635	661	774	626	32.21	0.00*
8	486	630	664	764	638	31.95	0.00*
9	534	633	651	790	626	33.41	0.00*
10	479	651	677	733	624	28.07	0.00*
11	503	640	666	724	642	19.45	0.00*
12	509	647	661	757	619	28.71	0.00*
13	518	668	660	774	597	37.57	0.00*
14	555	653	660	758	605	25.80	0.00*
15	466	647	668	760	619	37.39	0.00*
16	483	651	678	772	599	44.11	0.00*
17	419	662	670	760	616	49.09	0.00*
18	474	658	667	758	610	37.52	0.00*
19	645	676	644	761	593	26.72	0.00*
20	828	660	640	602	611	24.23	0.00*

Note: MR: mean rank. Here grouping variable is age group. * and ** represent p values of <0.01 and <0.05, respectively.

Bold values reflect statistically significant differences between responses by male and female participants.

Table 4. The results of the Kruskal–Wallis test showing comparison of the students’ perceptions about use of Social Networking Sites for Medical Education (SNSME) across age groups (N = 1312).

Statement	18–24 years	25–34 years	Above 34 years	χ^2	p values
1	717	620	454	25.21	0.00*
2	668	648	677	1.08	0.58
3	655	655	737	0.45	0.80
4	584	698	679	30.03	0.00*
5	617	676	766	8.77	0.01**
6	583	697	708	34.07	0.00*
7	638	663	588	1.73	0.42
8	609	683	583	12.93	0.00*
9	621	673	588	6.49	0.04**
10	635	665	594	2.39	0.30
11	612	681	481	13.07	0.00*
12	631	664	548	3.36	0.19
13	648	652	566	0.52	0.77
14	639	657	615	0.77	0.68
15	624	669	516	5.96	0.05***
16	626	669	482	6.18	0.05***
17	611	680	375	16.47	0.00*
18	620	670	535	6.85	0.03**
19	690	625	583	9.99	0.01**
20	692	605	884	22.32	0.00*

Note: MR: mean rank. Here grouping variable is age group. *, **, and *** represent p values of <0.01, <0.05, and <0.10, respectively. Bold values reflect statistically significant differences between responses by male and female participants.