Evaluating the educational usability of Telegram as an SNS in ESAP programs from medical students’ perspective

This study aimed to investigate medical students’ evaluation of using Telegram as a Social Networking Site (SNS) in English for Specific Academic Purposes (ESAP) programs. To this end, the students’ explanatory responses about the merits and demerits of the SNS as well as their suggestions for improving its educational usability were collected. The qualitative data analysis of the students’ responses showed the merit codes of accessibility, data exchange, group learning, competitive atmosphere, peer-checking, and time-saving. The demerit codes emerging from the analysis were dependence and cheating, distrust, addiction, distraction, Internet problems, lack of supervision and lack of instruction. The codes derived from the students’ propositions were upgrading the SNS, dynamic atmosphere, blended-learning, teacher involvement, culture of using the platform, cooperative learning, appropriacy of the materials and type of the materials. The findings indicated that the trend of the students’ views about the merits of the site centered on technical categories, their views about the demerits of the system revolved mainly around behavioral categories and their propositions were closely linked to educational categories. The data analysis also showed significant differences in the perceived significance of the codes to the students with accessibility, Internet problems and type of the materials being the most prominent ones in the merit, demerit, and proposition codes respectively. From the findings, it can be concluded that educators should be encouraged to join the SNS to educationally support students, consider the merits and demerits of the SNS before employing it and improve the usability of the site based on the feedback they receive from students. The study suggests that a fine-tuned action plan be outlined with an eye to the technical, educational and behavioral requirements for using the SNS. It is also recommended that educators’ and students’ level and range of activities as well as ethical codes of conduct on the SNS be clearly stipulated in the course plan of programs involving the use of the site.