**6. The teachers' attitudes about the use of social media in higher education**

The research conducted in the Republic of Croatia, in the institutions Algebra University College and University of Applied Sciences Baltazar Zaprešić in the year 2019, on the convenient sample of 73 teachers in scientific-teaching and associate positions as shown in the until now partially published research [3, 13].

It was necessary to investigate teachers' perception of social media and whether and to what extent teachers use social media for higher education. The subject of this research was social media and whether teachers use it for higher education. The goal was to examine how teachers evaluate the role and importance of social media as a communication channel for the needs of higher education.

The study aims to ascertain whether teachers use social media for higher education and demographic factors like age, gender, and the scientific field of the teacher's primary teaching and/or associated profession affect their use of social media for higher education, as well as teachers' attitudes, social influence, and anxiety when using social media.

The specially constructed survey questionnaire was designed according to the adapted UTAUT model [14]. The use of technology, in general, can be influenced by numerous factors; therefore, in 2003, Venkatesh et al., based on a review of eight models of earlier theories and by consolidating constructs, created and empirically validated the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT). According to the UTAUT model [13], behavioral intention (intention to use in the next 1224 months) and (actual) behavior, that is, technology use, are distinguished. It is assumed that behavioral intention is significantly influenced by:


While behavioral intention and facilitating conditions (a person's degree of belief that there is an organizational and technological infrastructure that supports the use of technology) significantly contribute to the actual use of the system.

The structure of the sample according to age was as follows: 0% of teachers were younger than 20 years of age, 8.2% were 2130 years of age, and the same proportion of teachers was 61 years of age or older. The largest share is teachers aged 3140, 39.7% of them, and teachers aged 4150, whose share was 30.1%. 13.7% of teachers were in the age group 5160.

The total ratio of participating teachers by gender was 56.2% of the male population and only 43.8% of the female population. The male gender was slightly more represented among teachers.

The results of this research showed that gender, age, and the scientific field of the teacher's profession do not significantly affect the actual use of social media by teachers, but there are statistically significant relationships between individual teachers' attitudes toward the use of social media, social influence, variations in anxiety during of social media use [13], expected work performance and teachers'

intention to use social media for higher education purposes on the frequency of teacher use of social media, as summarized in **Table 3**.

It is significant to notice that the results of this research showed that demographic characteristics of teachers such as age, gender, and the scientific field of the teacher's profession do not affect the frequency of teachers' use of social media for higher




#### **Table 3.**

*A summary of factors that (do not) influence the frequency of teachers' use of social media for higher education purposes; Pearson's chi-square test, N = 73 [3].*

education, and this is also the case with individual attitudes toward use, social influences, and anxiety during use. However, it is not negligible that at the same time the frequency of teachers' use of social media for higher education would have a significant positive impact on higher education institutions through the implementation of education for both teachers and students on the use of social media, which could reduce their feeling that the use of social media is for higher education a little scary.

Likewise, regarding the frequency of teachers' use of social media for higher education, it is significant that students believe that teachers should use social media for higher education, as well as support the faculty administration regarding the use of social media for higher education.

Additionally, the research showed that there is no statistically significant relationship between teachers'self-confidence when using social media for higher education purposes, organizational factors, facilitating conditions for using social media for higher education purposes, and the expected ease (effort, effort) of using social media for higher education purposes. And the frequency of teachers' use of social media for higher education purposes. However, the results also showed that there is a statistically significant relationship between the expected work performance of using 'the use of social media for study purposes enables students to achieve better results during their studies and the teacher's intention to use social media for higher education in the next 12 months and the frequency of teacher use social media for the needs of higher education.

To gain an even deeper insight into teachers' attitudes about social media to the needs of higher education, teachers were asked to select which characteristics of social media teachers consider being advantageous. More than half of the teachers'survey point out easier and faster access to information, when and where it is needed, sharing ideas and experiences, photos and videos, flexibility in choosing technologies, quick feedback, and the possibility of creating digital content, as the main advantages of social media. While less than 20% of them pointed out reliability in continuous use over a longer period and the possibility of testing existing teaching models as advantages. The results are presented in percentages in **Table 4**.

Also, teachers were asked to select which characteristics of social media teachers consider disadvantaged. More than half of the interviewed teachers pointed out fewer


**Table 4.**

*Characteristics of social media that teachers consider to be advantages, N = 73 [3].*

characteristics as the main disadvantages than as advantages and that; neglecting direct communication (face-to-face), the possibility of false identities, and privacy issues (lack of privacy … ), while less than 10% pointed out that they are monetarily quantified (everything becomes "business" and "numbers"), they hide behind technologies and concepts that have not yet been sufficiently defined/researched, become a type of used web, that is, a medium for people with a low level of digital skills, time and knowledge spent on using it, the speed of the program is incomparably lower than the speed of desktop programs, the content means nothing to itself, it is only electronic "waste." The results are presented in percentages in **Table 5**.


**Table 5.**

*Characteristics of social media that teachers consider to be disadvantages, N = 73 [3].*
