Students’ Uses and Gratifications for Using Computer-Mediated Communication Media in Learning Contexts

Authors

Zixiu Guo, School of Information Systems, Technology and Management, The University of New South Wales, AustraliaFollow
Felix B. Tan, Discipline of Business Information Systems, Faculty of Business and Law, Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
Kenneth Cheung, School of Information Systems, Technology and Management, The University of New South Wales, Australia

Abstract

Despite a growing stream of research into the use of computer-mediated communication (CMC) media in higher education, there remains limited understanding about the students’ motivations for using CMC alongside non-CMC media within a learning context. This article identifies seven dimensions of motivation from the perspective of uses and gratifications (U&G), including information seeking, convenience, connectivity, problem solving, content management, social presence, and social context cues. It was found that each CMC satisfied different motivations for its use, and that overall CMC best fulfilled information seeking, convenience, connectivity, and content management motivations. This study also identifies a number of similarities and differences between CMC and non-CMC media in terms of the motivations for their use. Finally, the study concludes with a discussion of the implications for Information Systems (IS) researchers, higher education, and organizations.

DOI

10.17705/1CAIS.02720

Recommended Citation

Guo, Z., Tan, F. B., & Cheung, K. (2010). Students’ Uses and Gratifications for Using Computer-Mediated Communication Media in Learning Contexts. Communications of the Association for Information Systems, 27, pp-pp. https://doi.org/10.17705/1CAIS.02720