Constraints and strategies for effective use of social networking sites (snss) for collaborative learning in tertiary institutions in nigeria: perception of tvet lecturers

The popularity of using social networking sites (SNSs) as an educational tool is increasing every day. Many educators are now trying to integrate these online teaching platforms that were provided by commercial services such as Google, LinkedIn and Facebook into learning environment. Despite the importance of SNSs, a lot of constraints seem to hinder its effective use for collaborative learning in Nigeria by TVET lecturers. Therefore, the main purpose of this paper is to ascertain the perception of TVET lecturers on the constraints and possible strategies to effective use of SNSs for collaborative learning in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The study adopted a descriptive design. A questionnaire was used to collect data from 128 TVET lecturers purposively drawn from the four tertiary institutions in Enugu State that offers vocational and technical education programme. Mean, standard deviation, exploratory factor analysis and t-test statistics were used in realizing the objectives. The finding of the study showed among others that, 13 SNSs were commonly used by TVET lecturers, 13 major constraints hinder effective use of SNSs for collaborative learning by TVET lecturers, while 10 strategies were proffered to promote the effective use of SNSs for collaborative learning. This paper therefore calls for continuous professional development (CPD) of TVET lecturers particularly to enable them acquire the needed soft skills required for effective utilization of SNSs in their teaching practices. © 2019, Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature.