SOCIAL MEDIA INFLUENCE ON LEARNING EFFECTIVENESS AMONG PUBLIC AND PRIVATE SENIOR SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN OGUN STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study investigated the influence of social media platforms on the learning effectiveness of senior secondary school students in public and private schools in Abeokuta South and Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Areas of Ogun State, Nigeria. Anchored on the Uses and Gratifications Theory and Social Learning Theory, the study adopted a descriptive survey design. A multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select four secondary schools (two public, two private), from which 400 Senior Secondary students (200 public, 200 private) were drawn through simple random sampling. Data were collected using the researcher-developed Influence of Social Media on Learning Effectiveness Questionnaire (ISMLEQ), validated by experts and tested for reliability using the test-retest method. Data were analysed using mean, standard deviation, independent samples t-test, and effect size statistics at the 0.05 level of significance. Findings showed that social media exerted a broadly positive influence on learning effectiveness for both groups (public school mean = 18.77, SD = 0.21; private school mean = 18.78, SD = 0.17), and that the hypothesis of no significant difference between public and private school students was retained (t(398) = -0.383, p = .062 > .05). The study concludes that institutional ownership does not significantly moderate social media's influence on learning effectiveness, and recommends deliberate, teacher-guided integration of social media into instruction across both school types.