A case study of Facebook use: outlining a multi-layer strategy for higher education.

Menzies, Rachel; Petrie, Karen; Zarb, Mark

Abstract

Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites, with over 1.23 billion users. Many students use Facebook as a platform to enhance their learning experience. A growing body of literature reports on the motivation of students and staff to engage with Facebook as a learning platform as well as mapping such activities to pedagogy and curricula. This paper outlines a Facebook strategy that has been embraced by the student body. Focus groups investigated the use of Facebook, which closely maps to the curriculum. Results show that the Facebook strategy is useful in promoting collaborative learning alongside the face-to-face delivery of content. Participants rebuked the perceived blurring of educational and social purposes, which is prevalent in the literature, with the current structure allowing a clear divide between their different uses of Facebook. The development of further guidelines for the use of Facebook for education is encouraged and recommendations are provided.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Publication Date: Jan 31, 2017
• Journal: Education and information technologies
• Print ISSN: 1360-2357
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-7608
• Publisher: Springer (part of Springer Nature)
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 39-53
• Institution Citation: MENZIES, R., PETRIE, K. and ZARB, M. 2017. A case study of Facebook use: outlining a multi-layer strategy for higher education. Education and information technologies [online], 22(1), pages 39-53. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9436-y
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9436-y
• Keywords: Facebook; Communication; Online; Student collaboration; Social networking; Education