Impact of Web technologies on student-lecturer connectedness

In academic sense connectedness is recognized as students’ active engagement in the academic and social opportunities at their school based on their understanding that teachers at school care for them as individuals, as well as for their learning (BritishColumia, 2012). The web as a modern technology for communication is now used universally and this spreading trend might affect student-lecturer connectedness. In this area, many studies have focused on the impact of using the internet and web applications on students and lecturers. These studies have widely investigated this impact on student’s achievements, attitudes and have also shown how the role and performance of the faculty has changed. This paper investigates how students’ uses of web technology to communicate with lecturers have impacted on either negatively or positively on their connectedness with the lecturers. 1661 students from 30 universities and educational institutions in Saudi Arabia participated in this research. Results of this research paper show that students find it easier to communicate with their lecturers by using web technologies such as e-mail social web applications. Additionally, web technologies have many benefits in terms of making students are more engaged in the classroom.