Research Methods Project Proposal
Research Methods Project Proposal
Research Methods Project Proposal
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ASSESSMENT OF USE AND IMPACT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON EDUCATION
Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of the Degree of Bachelor of Technology Education
(Civil Engineering)
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DECLARATION
Declaration by Candidate
This research proposal is my original work and has not been presented for the award of any
Declaration by Supervisor
This research proposal has been submitted for examination with my approval as university
supervisor.
Supervisor…………………………
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ABSTRACT
This research proposal is based on a school project, a requirement on the research methodology
unit. It starts by a brief introduction for the purposes and what the research proposal is to contain.
Background of the study is provided to give the reader a general knowledge on the basics of the
design. Statement of the problem is then given to direct on the actual purpose and justification to
help prove that the research proposal is viable and worth the energy. The proposal is then
justified further by literature review to identify the research gap that is being filled and then the
actual methodology. The methodology section indicates all the viable methods, techniques and
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Table of Contents
DECLARATION.............................................................................................................................ii
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................iii
Table of Contents............................................................................................................................iv
List of Tables..................................................................................................................................vi
ACRONYMS................................................................................................................................vii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION..............................................................................................1
1.1 Background of the Study.......................................................................................................1
1.2 Statement of the Problem..................................................................................................1
1.3 Statement of research Purpose...............................................................................................2
1.4 Specific Objectives................................................................................................................2
1.5 Hypotheses.............................................................................................................................3
1.6 Significance of the Study.......................................................................................................4
1.7 Theoretical Framework..........................................................................................................4
1.8 Anticipated Problems and Limitations of the Study..............................................................5
1.9 Operational Definitions.........................................................................................................6
CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW..................................................................................7
2.0 THE EXTENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE...........................................................................7
2.1 Purpose..............................................................................................................................7
2.2 Time...................................................................................................................................7
2.3 Type...................................................................................................................................8
THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON DAILY STUDY........................................................9
2.1 Motivate to learn................................................................................................................9
2.2 Class concentration............................................................................................................9
2.3 Assignment efficiency.......................................................................................................9
2.4 Memorization of knowledge............................................................................................10
MANAGEMENT OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA WISELY.....................................................10
2.1 Time of use control..........................................................................................................11
2.2 Software quantity limitation............................................................................................11
2.3 Purpose of use management............................................................................................11
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SUMMARY...............................................................................................................................12
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY................................................................14
3.1 Introduction..........................................................................................................................14
3.2 Research Design..................................................................................................................14
3.3 Study Design........................................................................................................................14
3.4 Study Population, Sample Size, and Sampling Technique..................................................14
3.4.1 Population Composition...............................................................................................15
3.5 Setting of the study..............................................................................................................15
3.6 Research Instrumentation....................................................................................................16
3.7 Data Collection Procedure...................................................................................................17
3.8 Data Analysis.......................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................18
Book...........................................................................................................................................18
Journal........................................................................................................................................18
Website......................................................................................................................................20
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................22
Appendix I: SURVEY/ QUESTIONNAIRE WITH COVER LETTER...................................22
Profile of Respondents...................................................................................................................23
Part I: Direction:........................................................................................................................23
Part II: The extent of social media use......................................................................................23
Part III: The impact of social media on daily study...................................................................24
Appendix II: SEMI-STRUCTURED INTERVIEW QUESTIONS..............................................26
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List of Tables
Table 1: Population Composition...............................................................................................15
Table 2: Likert Scale...................................................................................................................17
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ACRONYMS
"Questionnaire Star"
(QS), xxiv
Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (LS), xxiii
(DeKUT), viii Microsoft Excel
Jomo Kenyatta University (MS E), xxiv
(JKUAT), xxii Microsoft Word
Kenyatta University (MS W), xxiv
(KU), xxii TECHNICAL VOCATIONAL
Likert Scale EDUCATION AND TRAINING
TVET, xi
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CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
In today's information age, social media has become the main channel for university students to
obtain various information, make friends and connect. According to the Pew Research Center,
there are 89% of university students use at least one social media application (Smith &
Anderson, 2020). Moreover, the survey on university students' social media usage time shows
that 20.5% of them spend 3-5 hours, while 16.5% of them spend more than 5 hours (Perrin &
Kumar, 2020). The indulgence in social media directly affects the study and daily life of
university students. Therefore, the phenomenon of university students' reliance on and excessive
So far, a study has found that the average university student spends more than 1,000 minutes per
month on Facebook, far more than studying (Hanson et al., 2010). However, the study by
Hanson and other professors have focused only on the use of single applications, ignoring the
fact that a range of other social media sites, such as WeChat, YouTube, Weibo, or Bilibili are
also widely used by university students. Therefore, to address the social phenomenon of
university students neglecting their studies due to their addiction to social media, this study seeks
to broaden the types of social media sites investigated while narrowing the size of the study
sample. By investigating the usage of social media, this study is to find out the understanding on
the effect of social media usage on the learning of Dedan Kimathi University of Technology
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1.3 Statement of research Purpose
The purpose of the study is to describe the impact of social media usage on daily learning as
perceived by university students of Dedan Kimathi University for the academic year 2021.
2. To find out the extent of social media use among university students
3. To describe the impact of university students' use of social media on their daily study
Research Question 1:
1. Gender
2. Academic year
3. Average GPA?
Research Question 2:
What is the use of social media among DEKUT students in terms of:
1. Purpose
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2. Time
3. Type?
Research Question 3:
What is the degree of social media effect on DEKUT students’ daily study in terms of:
1. Motivate to learn
2. Class concentration
3. Assignment efficiency
4. Memorization of knowledge?
Research Question 4:
What are some suggestions for DEKUT students to use social media wisely in terms of
Research Question 5:
Is there a significant difference in the extent of social media use among DEKUT students by
gender?
1.5 Hypotheses
H0: There is no significant difference in the extent of social media usage among DEKUT
students by gender.
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H1: Female students’ usage of social media is greater than male students.
The research design is to assess the impact of social media on the education system of TVET
institutions in Kenya. Assessment of use of social media in Kenyan institutions will lead to
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The extent of social media
use
1. Purpose
2. Time
3. Type
After a thorough understanding and consideration of the topic of this study, there may be some
possible limitations in this study. Firstly, this study adopts random sampling, and the sampled
sample is not representative of the population under study, which may create problems related to
selection bias. Second, due to time and cost constraints, the sample size selected for this study
was not sufficient, so the results of the study may not achieve the desired precision. Finally, the
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presence of self-reported data on the questionnaire of this study may be influenced by
Daily learning:
The day-to-day process of acquiring knowledge and skills through the outside world or from
oneself.
Social media:
The virtual communities and online platforms that people use to create, share, and exchange
Use extent:
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CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW
2.0 THE EXTENT OF SOCIAL MEDIA USE
2.1 Purpose
that have significantly broadened the purposes for which they use social media. The diverse
purposes (Black et al., 2009). According to the previous research, 45.9% of university students
use social media for contact, 17.7% for information, 15.2% for learning materials, 14.6% for
watching videos and online shopping, and the remaining 6.6% for games (Bakir & McStay,
2018). On the one hand, when university students use social media for education or accessing
academic resources, they can communicate with teachers more conveniently and improve the
skills of mutual cooperation (Bakir & McStay, 2018). On the other hand, when students use
information for entertainment and relaxation, they tend to become addicted, which is manifested
by browsing social media without a specific purpose, and in this case, social media can have a
negative impact on their daily study and life (Bakir & McStay, 2018).What’s more, a previous
study showed that, in general, women are more likely to use social media in searching for
information, and they are more likely to update their status and comment on other people's posts
2.2 Time
Social media usage time is the amount of time spent browsing social media as part of the length
of Internet usage, and one minute out of every three minutes of global Internet usage is spent on
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social media (Tankovska, 2021). Social media usage time is also a unit of measure to assess the
extent to which people focus on the social software within their cell phone screens and give up
their increasingly connected lives. It can be measured by monitoring the total amount of time
users spend on social media each day, monitoring the concentrated time of day people use social
media, and the frequency of checking social media updates. According to the research, 31.7% of
university students use social media for 1-2 hours per day, while 22% of respondents use social
media for 2- 4 hours per day, exceeding the average daily study time and the maximum 30
minutes per day recommended by experts as a healthy amount of time (Coyne et al., 2020).
2.3 Type
Social media is versatile and has different types of activities that have different impacts on
university students. Based on the communication characteristics of social media, they can be
divided into social, media sharing and academic discussion categories (Buzeta et al., 2020).
Types of social categories such as Facebook, Wechat, and QQ allow users to interact with
information and connect online in a variety of ways. Media sharing categories such as Instagram,
Weibo, and Bilibili focus on sharing pictures and videos. Academic discussion categories such as
Quora and Email are platforms that provide academic discussions, conversations, and questions.
The social type dominates as a connecting tool for university students with a 58% usage rate (Lai
& Tai, 2021). In addition, junior university students tend to use media sharing social media
platforms that are highly entertaining to enrich campus life, while senior university students tend
to choose academic platforms to learn about the research topics and teaching contents of other
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THE EFFECT OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON DAILY STUDY
Learning motivation refers to the behavior that triggers and maintains students' learning and is
also a motivational tendency for students to complete certain academic goals. Study have shown
that when people disclose themselves through social media, the nucleus acumens area of the
brain related to people's addiction symptoms will be more active, making people easily addicted
to social media and losing interest in other things (Chester et al., 2020). Statistics show that 52%
university students delayed or interrupted their original study schedules due to their addiction to
Class concentration is the ability of a person's brain activities to focus on the content of the class.
Since universities do not have too many restrictions on students' use of mobile phones, university
students are increasingly using social media during class, and they always want to open social
media during class to check for new updates or messages (Spence et al., 2020). The study found
that 72% of university students use social media in class, and 89% of them use social media for 2
to 10 minutes, which seriously affects class concentration (Wang et al., 2015). At the same time,
the study also found that the class concentration of heavy and long-term media multitaskers is
Assignment efficiency refers to the amount of learning tasks that students complete in a given
amount of time. Previous research has shown a negative correlation between social media time
spent and assignment efficiency, with social software such as Facebook, where audible or visual
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alerts when messages are received interrupting the process of message formation for users on
task and causing them to spend time recalling the interrupted messages (Brooks, 2015). 31.7% of
university students' reliance on social media can extend to late nights, leading to sleep
deprivation and poor mental performance the next day (Kolhar et al., 2021). While studying
under fatigue, people tend to have difficulties in concentrating and become less responsive, with
Memorization is the ability to recognize, retain and reproduce what is reflected in objective
things. Students' ability to memorize knowledge can be divided into long-term memory and
short-term memory. When multiple messages appear, only the messages that are noticed will
enter the brain's short-term memory and then be stored as long-term memory through review
(Spence et al., 2020). Study found that the short-term memory duration of university students
with high social media usage is reduced by social media interference, which leads to the
tendency to forget things (Spence et al., 2020). In addition, with the introduction of social
applications for learning, more and more university students are using reposts and uploads of
images to store knowledge. Students tend to go through uploaded images rather than
independently recall them when solving academic problems, which negatively affects their
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2.1 Time of use control
Controlling the duration of social media use refers to the process and behavior of managing the
user to impose or voluntarily influence the duration of social media use according to the given
conditions and goals (Brevers & Turel, 2019). From a psychological point of view, knowing that
one should not spend too much time on social media, but always closing the page and then
opening it again is a kind of dependent compulsion, mainly due to mental emptiness and weak
will power (Coyne et al., 2020). For one thing, university students can divert attention with other
things by making the schedule fuller (Coyne et al., 2020). For another, using time management
software, university students can forcefully compress the time they spend on social media
Manage the number of social media and limit them to a certain range. A survey of the number of
social software per Internet user in each age group found that the largest group of mobile Internet
users aged 15-19, which have downloaded an average of 84 social media apps (Lai & Tai, 2021).
It is these different types of social software that make university students addicted to various
virtual communities and receive an overloaded amount of information. A study found that
uninstalling frequent notification-type social media is beneficial for improving task efficiency
Having a clear purpose can rationalize the use of social media. Therefore, before using social
media each time, students should determine the purpose of their use. For example, the use of
social media for learning purposes proposed in the research, students can download software
specifically for English learning, memorize words through human-computer interaction and read
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posts from users sharing their learning methods, making social media a necessary tool for
enhancing learning (Kot & Dragolea, 2017). Previous research has found that precise
recommending learning content or reminding them when it’s time for a particular online study
SUMMARY
Nowadays, the increasing number of social media platforms are no longer limited to the initial
function of “socializing”, and they are gradually defined as spaces for various activities and new
environments where people can watch or browse content of interest. Through past survey data
analyzing university students' use of social media from three aspects of purpose, time and type,
we can see that social media has become an important part of university students' daily life and
using social media has become a habit of their life, some students even show obvious media-
dependent behavior. At the same time, social media, with its wide reach and high selectivity, can
even change people's lives and learning styles in a specific area and at a specific time. By
exploring past researches, the impact of social media on the daily learning of university students
is evident. Different studies have shown that social media use has a negative impact on
Therefore, it is necessary to control the length and preference of social media use as well as the
number of social media, and properly guide university students to use social media appropriately.
Moreover, gender differences in social media use are worthy of analytical exploration. Finally, it
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is also necessary to update to address the different issues of research results brought by the
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CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction
The research methodology chapter includes all the intended research methods and procedures
that tare to be used in the research design of the project. The chapter starts by introducing the
research design for the project and then sampling procedures and sample size determination
precedes. Finally, ethical considerations are outlined prior to qualitative and quantitative data
The researcher will use a descriptive-comparative design in the study, which aims to consider
two variables and establish a formal procedure to compare whether they are significantly
different (Villanueva, 2013). For this study, a descriptive-comparative design will be most
appropriate, because the study will compare the degree of using social media by male and female
The researcher will use a cross-sectional design in the study, which allows the researcher to
quickly collect large amounts of information from a wide range of participants (Cherry, 2019).
For this study, a cross-sectional design will be most appropriate, because the researcher can post
questionnaires about social media usage online to identify the extent of social media usage of
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All students presently studying at Dedan Kimathi University will be the study population.
According to the data on the official website of this university, there are approximately 2800
students enrolled. Due to the large size of the data and the limited economy and time, it is not
enough to investigate and collect data from all students at DEKUT, so this study will randomly
select 180 students as the study sample to provide the necessary information to assess the overall
situation. To ensure the fairness of the survey participants and the validity of the data, the
researcher will use simple random sampling method. which enables each sample in the
n r
The study will take place in the spring semester of 2021, with the educational institution being
Wenzhou Kean University, located in Nyeri, Kenya. According to DEKUT's official website, it
the professional curriculum and high-quality teaching resources of JKUAT, and has special
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attributes of internationalization, full English and high level. The subjects of the study are
DEKUT students. Currently, there are approximately 2800 students, including students from
Nyeri, Nairobi, Mombasa and graduates who are still attending courses and, according to the
university's website, there are no international students this year. DEKUT students are enrolled
computer science, visual design, and management science, and receive full English
communication and instruction. Compared with the traditional universities’ students selected for
most previous studies, the students of the Sino-US cooperative university are more distinctive as
The online questionnaire used in this study will consist of three parts: investigating the
respondents' level of social media use, investigating the impact of social media use on daily
learning, and finding suggestions for appropriate social media use. In this study, student
establish the reliability and validity of the selected sample. The closed-ended questions will use
multiple choice and Liker scales. Multiple-choice questions are used to describe the respondents'
level of social media use. In this research, Five-point attitude and frequency Likert scales were
used to describe the impact of social media use on respondents' daily learning and to find
suggestions. Thus, the Likert Scale (LS) can be shown in the figure below.
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5 Strongly Agree 4.51-5.00
4 Agree 3.51-4.50
3 Neutral 2.51-3.50
2 Disagree 1.51-2.50
Legend: Strongly Agree (4.51-5.00); Agree (3.51-4.50); Neutral (2.51-3.50); Disagree (1.51-
platform called "Questionnaire Star" (QS). Then, the researcher shared the link to the
questionnaire through social media such as QQ and WeChat, where responses can be obtained
cost-effectively, for the target respondents to answer. The platform is able to provide the
researcher with a series of services such as data collection, survey results analysis and image
analysis.
Descriptive and inferential statistics will be used in this study to provide a clear and in-depth data
analysis. Data processing will use Microsoft Excel (MS E) to conduct relative charts and graphs,
and Microsoft Word (MS W) to do systematic data analysis. Frequency and percentage will be
used to describe the respondents’ demographic profile. Mean, standard deviation and ranking
will be used to calculate the student’s responses to the scaled questionnaires of the use of social
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media. T-test will be used to measure the differences by gender. The level of significance used
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RESEARCH BUDGET
NUMBE ACTIVITY COST (KSH)
R
1 PRINTING 700
2 TRANSPORT AND FOOD EXPENSES 500
3 TELLEPHONE AND INTERNET 1500
4 PHOTOCOPYING 400
5 COLLECTION OF SECONDARY DATA 400
TOTAL 3500
References
Book
Black, J., Bryant, J., Thompson, S. & Zhang, Yonghua (2009). Introduction to Media
Journal
Bakir, V., & McStay, A. (2018). Fake news and the economy of emotions: Problems, causes,
Bal, E., & Bicen, H. (2017). The purpose of students’ social media use and determining their
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Brevers, D., & Turel, O. (2019). Strategies for self-controlling social media use: Classification
and role in preventing social media addiction symptoms. Journal of behavioral addictions, 8(3),
554-563.
Brooks, S. (2015). Does personal social media usage affect efficiency and wellbeing? Computers
Buzeta, C., De Pelsmacker, P., & Dens, N. (2020). Motivations to Use Different Social Media
Types and Their Impact on Consumers' Online Brand-Related Activities (COBRAs). Journal of
Chen, X., Sin, S. C. J., Theng, Y. L., & Lee, C. S. (2015). Why students share misinformation on
social media: Motivation, gender, and study-level differences. The journal of academic
Chester, T., Ponnuthurai, S., Roland, D., Reynolds, S., & Moghraby, O. S. (2020). Social media
Coyne, S. M., Rogers, A. A., Zurcher, J. D., Stockdale, L., & Booth, M. (2020). Does time spent
using social media impact mental health: An eight-year longitudinal study. Computers in Human
Hanson, T. L., Drumheller, K., Mallard, J., McKee, C., & Schlegel, P. (2010). Cell phones, text
messaging, and Facebook: Competing time demands of today's university students. University
Kolhar, M., Kazi, R. N. A., & Alameen, A. (2021). Effect of social media use on learning, social
interactions, and sleep duration among university students. Saudi Journal of Biological Sciences.
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Kot, S., Tan, M., & Dragolea, L. (2017). The use of social media supporting studying.
Lai, C., & Tai, C. P. (2021). Types of social media activities and Hong Kong South and
Southeast Asians Youth’s Chinese language learning motivation. System, 97, 102432.
Obar, J. A., & Wildman, S. S. (2015). Social media definition and the governance challenge-an
Rhee, L., Bayer, J. B., Lee, D. S., & Kuru, O. (2021). Social by definition: How users define
social platforms and why it matters. Telematics and Informatics, 59, 101538.
Silius, K., Miilumäki, T., Huhtamäki, J., Tebest, T., Meriläinen, J., & Pohjolainen, S. (2010).
Students’ motivations for social media enhanced studying and learning. Knowledge Management
Spence, A., Beasley, K., Gravenkemper, H., Hoefler, A., Ngo, A., Ortiz, D., & Campisi, J.
(2020). Social media use while listening to new material negatively affects short-term memory in
Tamir, D. I., Templeton, E. M., Ward, A. F., & Zaki, J. (2018). Media usage diminishes memory
Wang, Y., Niiya, M., Mark, G., Reich, S. M., & Warschauer, M. (2015). Coming of Age
(Digitally) An Ecological View of Social Media Use among University Students. In Proceedings
of the 18th ACM conference on computer supported cooperative work & social computing (pp.
571-582).
Website
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Cherry, K. (2019). What is a cross-sectional study? Retrieved August 05, 2022, from
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-a-cross-sectional-study-2794978
Perrin, A., & Kumar, M. (2020, May 30). About three-in-ten U.S. adults say they are 'ALMOST
https://www.pewresearch.org/facttank/2019/07/25/americans-going-online-almost-constantly/
Smith, A., & Anderson, M. (2020, July 31). Social Media Use 2020: Demographics and
https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2020/03/01/social-media-use-in-2020/
Tankovska, H. (2021). Daily social media usage worldwide. Retrieved August 05, 2022, from
https://www.statista.com/statistics/433871/daily-social-media-usage-worldwide/
Thomas, L. (2020). Simple random sampling: Definition, steps & examples. Retrieved August
Villanueva, J. (2013). Types of descriptive research. Retrieved August 05, 2022, from
https://www.slideshare.net/jeanniferbvillanueva/types-of-descriptive-research
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APPENDICES
Appendix I: SURVEY/ QUESTIONNAIRE WITH COVER LETTER
Dear Participants,
This research was conducted in response to the fact that university students have become the
most widely used group of social media in society. The use of social media has brought new
experiences and changes to today’s university students, but it can also have many negative
effects, especially on daily studies. My target is to learn about your social media usage and
impact of it on your daily study, and to suggest ways to use social media more appropriately.
The following questionnaire will require approximately 3 minutes to complete. All of your
answers and responses will be treated and reported in strict confidence. The researchers will not
be aware of your identity, and your name will never be published in relation to this research. If
you choose to participate in this project, please answer all questions as honestly as possible.
Participation is strictly voluntary, and you may refuse to participate at any time.
Thank you very much for your kind support and cooperation.
Respectfully yours,
Profile of Respondents
Part I: Direction:
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Your personal data is needed in this part. Please tick one box in each of the sections below:
Gender
o Male
o Female
Year level
☐ Freshman
☐ Sophomore
☐ Junior
☐ Senior
☐ Graduate
GPA
☐ <2.75 ☐ 2.75 – 2.99 ☐ 3.00 – 3.24 ☐ 3.35 – 3.49 ☐ 3.50 – 3.74 ☐ 3.75 – 4.00
What is the approximate amount of time you spend on social media each day?
o 1 - 3 hours
o 2 – 6 hours
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o 6 hours or more
o Facebook
o WeChat
o QQ
o Instagram
o Weibo
o TikTok
o BiliBili
o Quora
o WhatsApp
The purpose of this section is to measure the performance of your social media use on your daily
learning
A. Motivate to learn
2 - D: Disagree
3 - N: Neutral
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4 - A: Agree
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
B. Class concentration
☐ Yes ☐ No
I can’t concentrate in class and always want to open social media to check for new
messages.
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
C. Assignment efficiency
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
Due to staying up late using social media, I didn’t have enough energy to finish my
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
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D. Memorization of knowledge
Due to the use of social media, I have higher tendency to forget things.
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
Due to the use of social media, my ability to recall knowledge began to decrease.
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
I will use offload social media with frequent notifications to make my tasks more
efficient.
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
☐1 ☐2 ☐3 ☐4 ☐5
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2. Compared to normal classes how engaged are you to the teachers when you use social
media?
4. Do you believe your classmates are engaged throughout the classroom sessions?
5. Do you believe your classmates were engaged during virtual classroom sessions?
6. Are you satisfied with the university’s response to the use of social media?
8. What are your main reservations regarding use of social media in learning?
9. How happy are you with the amount of time you spend on social media?
10. What do you enjoy and dislike about social media at school at the moment?
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