NURSING STUDENTS' PERSPECTIVE TOWARD THE ROLE OF VIRTUAL SOCIAL NETWORKS ON THEIR ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT IN TABRIZ UNIVERSITY OF MEDICAL SCIENCES

Virtual social networks have become an unrivaled means in the field of
information and communication technology and are one of the effective factors plays an important role
in the academic achievement of students in today's modern world. Accordingly, this study aimed to
determine nursing students' perspective toward the role of virtual social networks on their academic
achievement.
Materials & Methods: This study was a descriptive survey conducted on 356 nursing students in Tabriz
University of Medical Sciences in 2017. The participants were recruited using stratified random
sampling. A researcher-made questionnaire was used for collecting data. Descriptive statistics were
applied to the data by SPSS ver. 13 Software.
Results: while the majority of the participants expressed that virtual social networks have had a
constructive and positive role in both "inquiry" and "assignment writing" domains, they disclosed that
virtual social networks were destructive in the two other "grade promotion" and "concentration" domains
of academic achievement. Also, from the students' perspective, virtual social networks have had a
neutral impact on the "academic motivation".
Conclusion: It is a necessary requirement for officials of nursing education and other stakeholders to
adopt preplanned measures in line with guiding the students to make the most of the positive points of
virtual social networks and to prevent potential pitfalls and malicious consequences that their misuse
could bring with them