English abstract
This study aimed to explore the current situation of social networks utilization at Oman Educational Portal to communicate with parents, define the constraints that effect these communication tools, and propose suggestions and recommendations to reinforce its role, as a case study in Muscat Governorate, by developing a concept enhance the role of social networks of Oman Educational Portal in communicating with parents.
In order to achieve the goals of this study, a Questionnaire of (50) items divided over three domains was administrated; the First: current practices and services in the social networks of Oman Educational Portal, second: impediments to parents' communication through social networks, third: suggestions and recommendations proposed to enhance the role of the social networks of Oman Educational Portal in communicating with parents. The population of the study comprises (744) respondents including (661) parents and (83) database specialists and employees in Oman Educational Portal. The study adopted the descriptive research approach. Data processing was made by using arithmetic means and standard deviations of the population, and unilateral variation analysis to examine indicators of variances.
The Results of the study indicated that the rate of assessing the first domain concerning the current practices and services of the social networks of Oman educational portal is medium, whereas the results of the second and third domains were high in general.
In respect of the impact of the study variables namely gender, academic qualification, willayat and role of the respondents: the investigation findings indicate that: there are statistically significant differences at the level a (0.05) attributed to the gender variable in favor of females in both the first and second domains. There are statistically significant differences attributed to the academic qualifications variable in favor of holders of diploma and bachelors degree in the first domain.
There are statistically significant differences attributed to the Willayat variable in favor of Muscat, Muttrah, Al Ammrat and Qurayat willyats under the first domain and in favor of Al Ammrat under the second domain. There were also significant differences in favor of Willayat Muscat, A'seeb, and Al Ammrat under the third domain. There are no statistically significant differences attributed to the respondent's role variable across all domains and questionnaire's scale as a whole.
In the light of the study findings in both of its theoretical and practical aspects, a concept was proposed for activating the role of social networks of Oman Educational Portal in communicating with Parents.
