1. INTRODUCTION
An increasing number of educators are considering the use of social
media as a pedagogical tool because of its popularity among college
students. However, most of these educators are still uncertain as to how
to integrate this technology into the management curriculum in order to
help students improve their understanding of business cases (Khadijah,
Rahman, and MohdNasir, 2011). Online social technology is embedded with
four primary technical features: sharing, grouping, conversation, and
relationships (Hu and Gollin, 2010). These features correspond with four
essential elements of case-based learning, which are sharing knowledge,
learning in groups, constantly exchanging information with other group
members, and building constructive relationships (Chen, Chen, and
Kinshuk, 2009). If used properly, social technology could be an
effective tool to help students acquire skills in analytical and
diagnostic thinking, develop strong persuasive skills, and make
decisions under conditions of uncertainty (Hackney, McMaster, and
Harris, 2003; Lee et al., 2009). Educators can also benefit by using
social technology to reach more case-based learners. In order to realize
the potential of using social technology, educators and administrators
need to first promote its use for case-based learning. In the meantime,
they need to assess the efficacy of this technology in case-based
learning applications.
The primary purposes of this preliminary study are to (1)
understand users' perceived usefulness of social technology for
case-based learning and (2) assess the potential impact of it on
users' case-based learning performance. Goodhue and Thompson (1995)
suggest that information technology is more likely to have a positive
impact on users' performance and usage if the capabilities of the
information technology match the tasks that the users must carry out.
Therefore, this study will adopt the task-technology fit perspective to
examine how these four technical features, sharing, grouping,
conversation, and relationships, would contribute to the use of social
technology for case-based learning. The aim of this study is to
determine if online social technology is a good fit as an online
learning technology for business students to acquire case-based learning
skills and knowledge.
Section 2 will first examine literature related to these four
technical features or constructs, and pose specific research questions
on their potential influence on the use of social technology for
case-based learning. Section 3 will discuss the experimental setting,
data collection procedure, and data analysis methods. Section 4 will
present the results from the data analysis to answer the proposed
research questions. The remaining sections will present study
limitations and proposed future research, as well as scholarly and
practical implications.
2. LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Social Capital and Case-Based Learning
Social capital is the actual and virtual resources accumulated via
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbNHCn2gHQ4
Informatics.
Charlie C. Chen is an associate professor in the Department of
Computer Information Systems at Appalachian State University. He has
authored more than 50 referred articles and proceedings, presented at
many professional conferences and venues. Dr Chen has published in
journals such as Communications of Association for Information Systems,
Behaviour and Information Technology, Journal of Knowledge Management.
Table 1: Demographic Profile
Features Numbers Percent
Gender
Male 41 35.34%
Female 75 64.66%
Major
Accounting 71 55.04%
Management Information 0 0%
System
Marketing 19 14.73%
Finance 36 27.91%
International Business, 3 2.33%
Logistics and
Transportation
Human Resources 0 0%
Real Estate 0 0%
Operation Management 0 0%
Experience in using online Social Networking Sites
such as Facebook, Hi5, Twitter, YouTube
Less than 1 year 5 4.31%
1 to 2 years 32 27.59%
2 to 3 years 30 25.86%
3 to 4 years 15 12.93%
4 to 5 years 17 14.66%
More than 5 years 17 14.66%
Experience in using Edmodo
Less than 1 year 116 100%
Experience in using Edmodo as a case-based
learning tool
YES 116 0%
Experience in uploading photos on Edmodo
YES 110 95.6%
NO 5 4.4%
Table 2: Reliability of the Model Constructs
Constructs Cronbach's alpha
coefficient
Sharing 0.640
Grouping 0.946
Conversation 0.849
Relationship 0.944
Perceived Task-Technology Fit 0.909
Perceived Performance Impact 0.866
Utilization 0.799
Table 3: The Influence of Factors on the Perceived
Standardized
Coefficients
Independent Variable Beta t Sig. *
Constant 15.4 0.878
Sharing Feature .226 2.314 0.000
Grouping Feature .248 1.272 0.000
Conversational Feature .325 1.629 0.000
Relationship-building .358 1.687 0.000
Feature
* p < 0.05, [R.sup.2] = 0.471
Dependent Variable: Perceived Task-Technology Fit
Table 4: The Influence of Factors on the Performance Impact
of Edmodo
Standardized
Independent Coefficients
Variable Beta t Sig. *
Constant 0.083 0.934
Perceived Task- 0.354 4.026 0.000 *
Technology Fit
* p < 0.05, [R.sup.2] = 0.125
Dependent Variable: Performance Impact
Table 5: Summary of Answers to Research
Question Answer
Question 1: Do case-based learners consider online social YES
technology an appropriate case-based learning tool because
of its relationship-building feature?
Question 2: Do case-based learners consider online social YES
technology an appropriate case-based learning tool because
of its sharing feature?
Question 3: Do case-based learners consider online social YES
technology an appropriate case-based learning tool because
of its grouping feature?
Question 4: Do case-based learners consider online social YES
technology an appropriate case-based learning tool because
of its conversational feature?
Question 5: Do case-based learners improve their learning YES
performance if they consider the use of social technology
for case-based learning useful?
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