IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jscscx/v14y2025i3p183-d1615101.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Using WhatsApp in Distance Education: Assessing the Impact on Academic Interaction and Influencing Factors

Author

Listed:
  • Jose Miguel Romero-Saritama

    (Department of Biological and Agricultural Sciences, Private Technical University of Loja, Loja 110107, Ecuador)

  • Sandra Espinosa-Tapia

    (Department of Chemistry, Private Technical University of Loja, Loja 110107, Ecuador)

  • Antonio Palacios-Rodríguez

    (Department of Didactics and Educational Organization, University of Seville, 41013 Seville, Spain)

Abstract

WhatsApp has gained relevance in distance higher education due to its accessibility and ease of use, making it a valuable tool for academic support. This study analyzes the use of WhatsApp in this context, considering sociodemographic variables and factors such as subject and group size. The sample included 127 students from an Ecuadorian university, belonging to two subjects from different areas. With a multivariate quantitative approach, this study evaluated the dimensions of management, communication and interaction, learning, and the relevance and benefits of using WhatsApp. The data were analyzed using Mann–Whitney U and Kruskal–Wallis tests and a K-means clustering analysis. The results show a positive assessment of the use of WhatsApp (mean of 4.48/5), highlighting the academic benefits, especially its innovative and practical effect. Smaller groups presented a more favorable assessment, and women reported a greater inclination towards some key dimensions. The clustering analysis identified three groups of students with differentiated assessments. These findings suggest that WhatsApp, as a support tool in distance education, not only facilitates academic interaction, but also responds to the specific needs of students, its effectiveness being dependent on group size and other student characteristics.

Suggested Citation

  • Jose Miguel Romero-Saritama & Sandra Espinosa-Tapia & Antonio Palacios-Rodríguez, 2025. "Using WhatsApp in Distance Education: Assessing the Impact on Academic Interaction and Influencing Factors," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 14(3), pages 1-18, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:3:p:183-:d:1615101
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/183/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-0760/14/3/183/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:14:y:2025:i:3:p:183-:d:1615101. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.