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

Menzies, Rachel; Petrie, Karen; Zarb, Mark

Abstract

Many students are looking to appropriate social networking sites, amongst them, Facebook, 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 presents student opinions of the use of a Facebook strategy within higher education through the use of focus groups. 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 the site. The development of further guidelines for the use of Facebook for education is encouraged and recommendations are provided.

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

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 9, 2015
• Online Publication Date: Sep 9, 2015
• Publication Date: Jan 31, 2017
• Deposit Date: Mar 13, 2017
• Publicly Available Date: Mar 13, 2017
• Journal: Education and information technologies
• Print ISSN: 1360-2357
• Electronic ISSN: 1573-7608
• Publisher: Springer
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 22
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 39-53
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9436-y
• Keywords: Facebook; Communication; Online; Student collaboration; Social networking; Education
• Public URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10059/2211