Abstract:

The study aims to identify the status of employing social media networks in the educational process, to investigate the obstacles to their employment in the educational process, and to propose suggestions that can address the shortcomings in their utilization in the educational process from the perspective of faculty members. The researcher used the descriptive approach and employed a questionnaire as a study tool that distributed to a sample of (130) faculty members from King Saud University. The most prominent findings of the study were that the status of using social media networks in the educational process, from the perspective of faculty members, was good, with an average mean of 3.86. There were obstacles to employing social media networks in the educational process from the perspective of faculty members, with an average mean of 4.02. The results also showed strong agreement on the proposed mechanisms for activating social media networks in the educational process, with an average mean of 4.41. It also showed strong agreement for equipping all facilities with internet connection and appropriate devices and providing training programs for faculty members and students to deal with social media networks, and for developing course content to be appropriate for utilizing the social media networks, and for encouraging students to create groups or blogs among themselves to achieve educational goals. The study concluded with a set of recommendations directed to the Ministry of Education and faculty members to benefit from social media networks in the educational process.

Keywords:

Social Networks, Educational Process, Faculty Members, King Saud University.