Iranian Students’ Acceptance of SHAD as an Educational Social Network: A Focus on Gender and Educational Level

The main goal of this study was to investigate Iranian high-school students’ acceptance of SHAD as an educational social network based on Davis’s TechnologyAcceptance Model (TAM) considering their gender and educational level. ۴۲۸ highschool students participated in the study. The sample included ۲۰۷ junior and ۲۲۱ senior high-school students and ۱۹۴ male and ۲۳۴ female students. They completed Educational Social Network Acceptance Scale (ESNAS) adapted to the context of the study to measure the participates’ acceptance of SHAD as an education social network. ESNAS has ۳۰ items and five components based on TAM: external variables, perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, attitudes, and intention to use.The data were analyzed by Multivariate Analysis of Variance (MANOVA). The results showed that generally the students do not accept SHAD as an educationalsocial network despite its perceived ease of use. Further analysis revealed significant differences in students’ acceptance of SHAD as an educational social network considering their gender and educational level. The result implied acceptance of SHAD as an educational network by male and senior high-school students. The findings have practical implications for the ministry of education and materials developers and draw their attention to the key role students’ perceptions of the social networks designed for educational purposes play in students’ intention and actual use of that network for their studies.