Students Use of Social Media and its Relationship with their Academic Achievement in the University of Education, Winneba

Abstract

The emergence of social media has bedeviled society with so many questions on its impact in recent times, especially in the Ghanaian context. There seem to be negative exposure on the use of social media. This study, therefore, examined the impact of social media on the academic achievement of students of University of Education, Winneba-Winneba Campus. It sought to examine the type, frequency and impact of social media on the academic achievement of students. The descriptive case study design was for the study. The proportional stratified random sampling technique was used to sample 510 students from four faculties in the University of Education, Winneba campus. Questionnaire was used to collect data from the respondents. The questionnaire was analysed using frequency and percentages and Person Product Moment Correlation. The study revealed that social media exerted positive impacts on students’ academic achievements since students used social media to access educational materials and improve their reading and research skills. Students who used social media mostly for academic purposes saw an improvement in their GPAs (GPAs between 3.0 and 4.0 on a scale of 4). Students who often used social media for entertainment, sports and other non-academic purposes, however, had lower GPAs (GPAs between 1.5 and 2.0 on a scale of 4). It was recommended, therefore, that students should embrace the positive aspects of social media to augment their academic performance. The Academic Board of the university should encourage lecturers to employ social media sites such as WhatsApp, Twitter and LinkedIn vehicles for conveying academic content and other academic discourses.