Abstract:

The main objective of the current manuscript was to determine, compare and evaluate the use of WhatsApp as instant messaging mobile application, as well as to identify the degree of satisfaction among the students using such tool as a learning complement. A second objective was to evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of this social media. This communication presents an observational study based on the first-year undergraduate students from the physics course and master’s degree students from a transversal and common subject called “Basics and tools for modeling technical-scientific research processes”. The size sample of the study was 302 students from 2017 to 2019, being 277 from the the engineering degree (N1 = 154 in 2017-2018 academic year; N2 = 123 in 2019-2020) and the remaining students from master’s degrees (N = 25 in 2019-2020). The chronology followed was, firstly, the creation of a WhatsApp group managed by the teacher. Secondly, the distribution of the link for the incorporation into the group, being explained the voluntarily and the aim of such community. Thirdly, the use of this social media as a communication tool, to tutorize the students, to report news and to solve doubts and questions among the teacher and students. In this sense, the different activities and problems proposed were both theorical and practical. Finally, at the end of the teaching period, the students were asked to fill an anonymous survey via online to check the frequency of use, the purpose of this use and their personal opinion on the implementation of this social media as a learning tool. The results of the incorporation of this instant messaging tool were diverse, although some questions outstood out of the survey. Results from questions based on usability of the social media have showed that 100% of the students considered this methodology as an useful tool to learn faster. Regarding the tutorize, 83.2% of the undergraduate students (medium age of 19 years old) used the tool for such purposes, asking questions and receiving an instant feed-back from the teacher. Meanwhile, only 46.4% of the master’s degree students used the social media for the different objectives, such as asking questions about theorical concepts. Moreover, questions about using other platforms, such as Moodle, for tutorize purposes indicated that 42.9% of the masters’ students used a combination of WhatsApp and Moodle. It is noteworthy that for the free answer question "what do you think of the WhatsApp group for the subject?", the fluency and effectiveness in communication, access and exchange of information at any time and place or the motivation of the students stand out as the most common response. Based on these results, it is possible to consider that the undergraduate students have a greater availability and predisposition in using this social media for educational purposes. And, this social media also might encourage the student’s incorporation in the teaching-learning process. Finally, it could be concluded that this social media might be very useful for interaction and exchange of information, as well as being a suitable tool for the education.

Keywords:

WhatsApp, e-learning, new methodologies, students' opinion.