Social Media Adoption in Education: A Systematic Review of Disciplines, Applications, and Influential Factors

Abstract

Employing social media applications for instructional activities has become a trendy topic, with a relatively large number of studies published yearly. However, identifying the factors influencing social media adoption and having a clear taxonomy that guides further research are neglected in the extant literature. Understanding which specific disciplines use specific social media applications also requires further investigations. Therefore, this systematic review retrieved and analyzed 713 studies published on social media adoption that relied on “Technology Acceptance Model” (TAM) as the basic model. After critically evaluating the collected publications against the inclusion and exclusion criteria, 45 studies were eventually shortlisted for in-depth analysis. The main findings indicated that most of the analyzed studies collected data from students enrolled in the business discipline. Facebook is found to be the primary application used in most of the analyzed studies for educational purposes. The influential factors affecting social media adoption were classified into three distinct groups, including external factors, behavioral intention antecedents, and moderating factors. We have also classified the behavioral intention antecedents into three distinct clusters, including user, social, and technology aspects. The majority of the existing literature was conducted in individualistic settings with limited exposure to collectivistic societies. This review is believed to provide a quick grasp of the disciplines, applications, and determinants influencing social media adoption in higher education.