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Jogging Head: Employing Google+ 1 IIUM Students’ Perception for the Use of Google+ in Bettering Communication Skill Siti Natrah Bt Bactiar (0918444) Kulliyyah of Human being Science (Communications) International Islamic University Malaysia Instructor: Mdm Norazah Md. Idrus The english language for Academic Writing Section 14 6th January 2012 Employing Google+ two Abstract

Just for this study, it is purpose is usually to examine whether social networking web page such as Google+ can really be used effectively simply by students in improving their very own communication skill by employing quantitative research in which a sample of 25 respondents consisting of undergraduate IIUM students from the key Gombak grounds for study were employed where respondents were given questionnaires which were given away through email and Facebook.

The questionnaires were required for order to solution two research questions regarding what rewards can learners gain from using Google+ so as to improve interaction skills and exactly how can IIUM implement Google+ as a way for students to improve their particular communication abilities and results from the study located that the greater part agreed that Google+ may help improved students’ communication abilities and that they are positive that IIUM will certainly implement this method by bringing out Google+ within learning material, similar with e-learning.

Thus, through this analyze, it can aid researchers who want to study for the usage and impact of social networking sites specifically Google+ around the development of academic communication between university students in Malaysia and in addition for IIUM on methods to expand the learning environment by simply tackling about new ways that could aid the training process simply by integrating education and social networking sites resulting in a great interactive and fun way of learning between lecturer and students.

Applying Google+ three or more IIUM Students’ Perception for the Use of Google+ in Increasing Communication Skill After the launch of Internet in 1960’s (Brown, 2008, s. 30), the earth saw a change in how societies connect to each other device birth of Facebook or myspace in 2006 (pp. 32), it includes changed just how people in the 21st century would exchange their views as more and more folks are communicating and developing their very own relationship on-line.

Majority of youths today use their period communicating with their particular friends in social networking sites (SNS) as compared to other online communication tools just like emails, conversation forum and chat rooms as it enables you to gain fast feedback having its realtime meaning capabilities and a higher reply rates, letting them improve their interaction between each other (Goddard , Geesin, 2011, p. 51).

Even though most youths especially students today are connecting online with their friends and families daily through various channels of communication including personal computers, laptop computers, Smart phones, mobile phones and so on, it will not indicate that their conversation skills happen to be improving. Rather, many of them showed a lack of self confidence and persuasiveness during school presentation and public speaking as most shows signs of nervousness and lack of understanding and understanding of their topic especially when they must present it in front of their very own class.

Furthermore, some of them exhibited poor team-player image by not engaging actively in group discussion and freeriding other group members in doing their project. For this exploration, the purpose of this kind of study is to examine whether social networking site such as Google+ can really be applied effectively by students in improving all their communication skill. Thus, two objectives happen to be generated out of this, which are to examine how college students devote their very own skills, some willingness in using their online community site Applying Google+ 5 Google+) in improving all their communication skills especially in a team or group centered discussion to be able to prepare these people for the significant world and examine factors affecting all their use, which leads to the advancement two analysis questions (RQ): 1 . What benefits can easily students gain from using Google+ as a way to improve communication abilities? 2 . Just how can IIUM apply Google+ as a way for students to improve their interaction skills? According to Watson, Besmer and Lipford (2012), Google+ is a social networking internet site, similar to Facebook or myspace, MySpace and Twitter with an added feature for group-based sharing establishments (+Circles).

Social Networking Sites (SNS) helps users to produce an online profile that can be seen by the community which allows active communication between user great or her circle of friends. As stated by Boyd and Ellison (2007) (as cited in Greenhow , Robelia, 2009): An online social network site (SNS) is a web-based service that allows visitors to (1) create a general public or semipublic profile in a bounded program, (2) articulate a list of others with who they talk about a connection, and (3) perspective and traverse their set of connections and people made by others within the system (p. ). Meanwhile, connection is defined as the means of sending or obtaining information, such as telephone lines or pcs (Oxford English Dictionary, 2007). However , in mass interaction studies, Connection refers to the ability to reveal beliefs, principles, ideas and feelings in which it is seen as an dynamic process in which people attempt to talk about their interior states with other people by using symbols (Samovar, Porter, , McDaniel, 2010, pp. 14, 21).

Therefore, an effective interaction consists of a chance to convey a concept that is realized by the market verbally and non-verbally this sort of Using Google+ 5 while through gestures, facial expression and positions and that which in turn requires a dual end communication. As more and more youths happen to be connected to their particular digital gadgets, their network relationships have expanded from offline or face to face romance to online relationship. Thus, many studies have been completed study around the usage and impact of social networking sites (SNS) on users’ social expansion.

In addition , with the majority of social networking sites’ (e. g. Facebook or myspace ) users are children and young adults who continue to be in senior high school and university, studies include found that social networking sites can easily influence the academic and cultural development of the students (Naeema, 2011, Ahn, 2011, Golder, Wilkinson, , Huberman, n. d. ). In addition, Lampe, Ellison, and Steinfeld (2007) and Subrahmanyam and Greenfield (2008) mentioned that¦emerging adults’ usage of the internet is usually predominately cultural in nature, typically with people known by offline situations., as reported in (Reich, Espinoza, , Subrahmanyam, 2012, p. 364). However , the studies completed tend to focus on the usage of Facebook and its inference on the general academic and social development of the users. There were little studies conducted about Google+ (Watson, Besmer, , Lipford, 2012), an emerging social networking web page that was introduced by Google in mid 2011 (Pascopella, 2011) which provides a far more comprehensive features that are unique from Facebook . com such as +Circles that let us the user to discuss information that could only be well-known by picked group of close friends.

With Google+, students can easily gain significant benefits in comparison with Facebook having its features that can be used for group or group discussions. Furthermore with the lack of studies within the usage of Google+ by learners, little analysis was done to explore upon students use and willingness in employing social networking sites in improving communication skills. Applying Google+ 6th Method

Individuals For this study, a sample of 25 respondents for study were used which consists of undergraduate Intercontinental Islamic School Malaysia (IIUM) students from the main Gombak campus who also are currently currently taking courses come in the Gombak campus such as IRK, HS, KAED, WEBSIT, EDU, ICT, AIKOL and ENMS. The 25 respondents were chosen from students in EAW class of section 18 and those who may have answered the questionnaires which has been posted through Facebook.

Elements Respondents received questionnaires which were done through Google Travel (see Appendix 1) consisting of 12 questions that are broken into three sections with three compulsory questions on gender, Kuliyyah and level of examine of the participants while Section B involves questions upon having a social media account, consistency in modernizing their social media profile, end user of Google+ and period spent connecting to social network site and Google+ which can help to resolve the first objectives while for the third section (Section C) was used to answer the second objective and two research inquiries, one query using eight-element questionnaire employing Likert-like size was used and three various other questions on reason for applying Google+ and how IIUM can implement Google+ into their program.

Procedures The questionnaire was distributed to the 20 participants via email by providing these people the link to reach the set of questions from Yahoo Drive even though the remaining five respondents were provided with the hyperlink to the customer survey by submitting the link in own Fb profile. The idea and goal of the analysis were stated clearly inside the questionnaire for Using Google+ 7 respondents’ clarification as well as the questionnaire only took five minutes for participants to total. Data Evaluation Descriptive stats is used in analyzing the information and as the research instrument used in collecting the data was set of questions, it will engaged numbers making it simpler for your data to be quantified.

In descriptive statistics, eq such as proportions and charts such as bar chart will be used in describing the data since it will dedicated to the differences like the highest and lowest volume which will help in examining the frequencies of usage in social networking sites specifically Google+. Google Drive offered the assistance of analyzing the data and describing it through graphs. In addition to Google Travel, Microsoft Exceed will also be used. Using Google+ 8 Benefits The questions from the customer survey (See Appendix 1) will be generated in order to answer two research inquiries for this analyze which are 1) What benefits can college students gain by using Google+ in order to improve interaction skills? 2) How can IIUM implement Google+ as a way for pupils to improve their particular communication abilities? nd from your data that have been collected, 15 respondents (60 percent) concur that Google+ can be beneficial to students especially in improving communication skills whilst only two respondents (8 percent) strongly agree that Google+ can assist improve conversation skill. However, there is a balance between the quantity of respondents who also disagree that Google+ could be beneficial to college students in improving their connection skills with four participants (16 percent) expressed difference while another four respondents expressed good disagreement, since illustrated in the figure beneath: Figure you taken from Microsoft Excel Employing Google+ 9 Meanwhile, pertaining to the second research question (How can IIUM implement Google+ as a way for learners to improve their particular communication abilities? ), problem ‘If yes, how do you think it can be executed? is used to be able to identify just how students interprets the method for implementation of Google+ simply by IIUM with answers presented to them to check (See Appendix). The answers from the respondents are classified by the physique below: – Figure two taken from Ms Excel While respondents may tick more than one answer with this question, nearly half of the participants chose ‘introducing Google+ within learning material, similar with e-learning’ (48 percent) while ‘introduce even more team-based learning or collaborative learning through using Google+’ came a close second with 26 percent. Meanwhile, having a minor big difference of 3 percent is the response ‘making this compulsory for students to open a Google+ account’ (23 percent).

In contrast, ‘other’ only makes up of 3 percent or only checked simply by one surveys takers who explained that there is do not need use Google+. Using Google+ 10 Hence, with the results of the info collected coming from respondents will be illustrated in the figures above, it displays how the conclusions have responded the two exploration questions for this study. Throughout the answers from the participants, it can be looked at from the summary of the responses (See Appendix 2). Debate Based on the results from the survey, it can be deduced that a majority of participants viewed Google+ positively to be beneficial to IIUM students in improving their very own communication skill, especially in a team or perhaps group centered discussion.

This is also inline with the studies by simply Naeema (2011) where most Sultan Qaboos University (SQU) students which were asked, were willing to employ social networking sites for better academics communication and learning using agreed that social networking sites just like Facebook and other social networks good form of communication that permit groups to satisfy and discuss matters (p. 99, 100). This demonstrates students on the whole are accessible to new means of learning, since evident in IIUM students’ willingness to use social networking sites such as Google+ in improving all their communication expertise. In addition , regarding on how IIUM can put into action Google+ for individuals use in increasing their interaction skills, the majority of respondents recognized that IIUM will bring in Google+ as part of learning material, akin to e-learning which can be beneficial to the student. Unlike -learning wherever communication mainly occur involving the instructor or perhaps lecturer using their student (owner of the account) only, Google+ can offer a wide communication involving the lecturer plus the rest of his / her students and also students with the fellow classmates as long as there is a Google+ account. This is also just like naeema’s (2011, p. 101) viewpoint in which according with her, ‘by developing social network Using Google+ eleven technologies into the learning environments, students will be taught from one another, explore rules from experiences where learners at advanced levels can help beginners’. Similarities between methodology used plus the topic of research played out a role inside the outcome with this research.

The two researches utilized university students who are energetic users of social networking sites and both employed quantitative study especially survey using set of questions in gathering their data. In addition , the topic of research happen to be somewhat identical with each other with Naeema performing a study upon social networking as a tool to get extending academics learning and communication whereas for EAW research, it tackles about IIUM students’ perception on the use of Google+ in increasing communication skill. Using Google+ 12 Realization In conclusion, Google+ can be used by simply IIUM college students in enhancing their conversation skill while majority of participants agreed that Google+ will help improved their particular communication skill and their confidence in how IIUM may implement Google+ into their subjects.

In addition , through the data accumulated, it has as well fulfilled the objectives on this study since many of the participants asked were active users of online communities and who mostly used these websites such as Google+ to keep touching friends and families and in addition for educational communication. Through this, the goal of study which is to examine if social networking internet site such as Google+ can really provide effectively simply by students in improving their very own communication skill, have been clarified. Moreover, through this analysis, it can aid researchers who want to study within the usage and impact of social networking sites especially Google+ within the development of academic communication between university students in Malaysia because few studies has been performed on Google+ and its perceived usefulness in improving connection skills of students specially in Malaysia.

In addition , it can help IIUM on ways to expand the learning environment by simply tackling about new ways that could aid the training process simply by integrating education and social networking sites and expand their perspectives on online communities being not merely to establish and strengthen cultural relationship simply but it may also help college students in educational development resulting in an fun and entertaining way of learning between the lecturer and college students. As the analysis was performed through using limited volume of respondents with regards to sample used and the way for data collection, the study might not exactly have an increased reliability and it may not reflect the perceptions and views of all college or university and college students in Malaysia. Using Google+ 13

Thus, due to this restriction, this exploration can be improved in the future by changing the strategy that have been utilized by this research such as increasing the number of participants, changing the sample populace by choosing college students from every universities and colleges in Malaysia or perhaps changing the type of research through the use of qualitative analysis such as complex interview or perhaps focus group instead. As a result, by changing the methods used it can lead to a unique results with the study. In addition , by changing the purpose and objective with the study it may also direct the researcher to collecting different data and findings, for example , instead of looking at how Google+ can be used pertaining to academic expansion, the investigator can make an effort to study for the impact of Google+ within the academic achievements. Using Google+ 14 Referrals Ahn, T. (2011).

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Will Google+ Be the response for Secure Social Networking? District Administration, g. 1 . Applying Google+ 12-15 Reich, H. M., Espinoza, G., , Subrahmanyam, T. (2012). Friending, IMing, and Hanging out Face-to-Face: Overlap in Adolescents’ Offline and online Social Networks. Developmental Psychology, 48(2), 356-368. doi: 10. 1037/a0026980 Samovar, L. A., Assurer, R. E., , McDaniel, E. L. (2010). Connection Between Cultures (7th education. ). Boston: Wadsworth Cengage Learning. Watson, J., Besmer, A., , Lipford, H. R. (2012). +Your Sectors: Sharing Habit on Google+. Symposium about Usable Personal privacy and Secureness (SOUPS), (pp. 1-10). Washington. Using Google+ 16 Appendix 1 Employing Google+ 17 Appendix a couple of