What Higher Educational Professionals Need to Know about Today's Students: Online Social Networks.

In this study, the author specifically focused on the most popular social media website—Facebook—and investigated the nature of student learning engagement associated with Facebook activity. Data pertaining to student Facebook use and activities were collected. Pearson’s correlation coefficient was used to measure the relationships between Facebook instructional methods and grades. A linear regression was also performed to analyze the predictors of student grades. An empirical study of Facebook users (n= 134) during the 2011-2012 academic year revealed that course-based Facebook use had a significant positive effect on student learning engagement and grades. This study concludes that Facebook use in instruction assists students in achieving better grades, higher engagement, and greater satisfaction with the university learning experience. Thus, the author recommends the use of Facebook as an educational communication and interaction tool to enable faculty to assume a more active and participatory role in teaching and learning.

[1]  Josh Pasek,et al.  Facebook and Academic Performance: Reconciling a Media Sensation with Data , 2009, First Monday.

[2]  Yuehchiu Fang,et al.  Benefits of Web 2.0 in the College Writing Classroom , 2010 .

[3]  Cliff Lampe,et al.  The Benefits of Facebook "Friends: " Social Capital and College Students' Use of Online Social Network Sites , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[4]  Greg Heiberger,et al.  Have You Facebooked Astin Lately? Using Technology to Increase Student Involvement , 2008 .

[5]  Maged N Kamel Boulos,et al.  The emerging Web 2.0 social software: an enabling suite of sociable technologies in health and health care education. , 2007, Health information and libraries journal.

[6]  Danah Boyd,et al.  Social Network Sites: Definition, History, and Scholarship , 2007, J. Comput. Mediat. Commun..

[7]  A. Astin.  Student involvement: A developmental theory for higher education. , 1999 .

[8]  Paul A. Kirschner,et al.  Facebook® and academic performance , 2010, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[9]  Reynol Junco,et al.  Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between multiple indices of Facebook use and academic performance , 2012, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[10]  Philip Barker,et al.  Designing Interactive Learning , 1994 .

[11]  Thomas C. Reeves,et al.  Meaningful interaction in web-based learning: A social constructivist interpretation , 2007, Internet High. Educ..

[12]  Huseyin Uzunboylu,et al.  Walking in two worlds: From e-learning paradise to technologically locked-in , 2011 .

[13]  Matthew K. O. Lee,et al.  Online social networks: Why do students use facebook? , 2011, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[14]  S. Cotten.  Students' Technology Use and the Impacts on Well-Being. , 2008 .

[15]  Yousef Ahmed Eyadat,et al.  World Journal on Educational Technology , 2022 .

[16]  Kevin R. Guidry,et al.  Engaging online learners: The impact of Web-based learning technology on college student engagement , 2010, Comput. Educ..

[17]  Cliff Lampe,et al.  Connection strategies: Social capital implications of Facebook-enabled communication practices , 2011, New Media Soc..

[18]  Peter Pirolli,et al.  Do your friends make you smarter?: An analysis of social strategies in online information seeking , 2010, Inf. Process. Manag..

[19]  Stephen Downes.  E-learning 2.0 , 2005, ELERN.

[20]  A. Chickering,et al.  Seven Principles for Good Practice in Undergraduate Education , 1987, CORE.

[21]  Cheri J. Simonds,et al.  I'll See You On “Facebook”: The Effects of Computer-Mediated Teacher Self-Disclosure on Student Motivation, Affective Learning, and Classroom Climate , 2007 .

[22]  Charles Juwah,et al.  Interactivity in computer-mediated college and university education: A recent review of the literature , 2004, J. Educ. Technol. Soc..

[23]  Atsusi Hirumi,et al.  Designing a Mobile Game for Home Computer Users to Protect Against “Phishing Attacks” , 2011 .

[24]  D. Villiers.  Academic Use of a Group on Facebook: Initial Findings and Perceptions , 2010 .

[25]  Sandra L. Calvert,et al.  College students' social networking experiences on Facebook , 2009 .

[26]  R. Hartshorne,et al.  Investigating faculty decisions to adopt Web 2.0 technologies: Theory and empirical tests , 2008, Internet High. Educ..

[27]  Kevin R. Guidry,et al.  Engaging Online Learners: A Quantitative Study of Postsecondary Student Engagement in the Online Learning Environment , 2009 .