Social network sites and professional development of lecturers

Abstract

This study investigated Social Network Sites and the Professional development of lecturers in Kwara State, Nigeria. The purposes of this study are to investigate the correlation between Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu and the professional development of lecturers in three selected universities. A quantitative research design was used in the study. A purposive sampling technique was used to select 120 participants from the sample universities. The researcher looks into the population of academics who engage in using three indicators of Social Network Sites. Pearson product-moment correlation and linear regression analysis were used to analyze the gathered data. The findings revealed that Google Scholar, ResearchGate, and Academia.edu were positively and significantly correlated with the professional development of lecturers. Therefore, it was recommended that lecturers should keep making use of Google Scholar to arouse interest in publication. Furthermore, lecturers should improve on the use of ResearchGate to increase the visibility and impact of their works. Keywords: Collaborative learning, effective communication, Google scholar, ResearchGate, professional development