The ITx 2018 Programme may change without notice

Use of Facebook to Enhance Student Engagement in Undergraduate Higher Education

Wednesday 11:40am - 12:10pm, CITRENZ Conference (Upstairs 1 (Signal))

Many researchers have commented on the extent of the suitability of Facebook as a means of interaction between students and staff in higher education. The purpose of this paper is to conduct an initial exploration of this topic amongst undergraduate students.

This research is an extension of two earlier pieces of research conducted by the authors that explored the use of Facebook for (a) interaction between students and staff in undergraduate courses in the wake of a crisis event and (b) interaction between students and staff in professional masters students in a context that was not in the wake of a crisis event at the same institution.

This paper explores the use of Facebook for interaction between students and staff in undergraduate courses, without being in the wake of a crisis event with the aim of being able to explain the differences in the findings of the earlier studies. This was done through summarising the findings of the two earlier studies and analsing the responses of 990 undergraduate students to the question of how they felt about using Facebook to interaction with students and staff.

The findings of this paper are consistent with the findings of the study based on the perceptions of professional masters students that included that the use of Facebook in this context is best limited to interaction between students and that its use should not be mandatory. Implications for further research were identified including the need to further explore the perceptions of undergraduate students and to explore the issues surrounding Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs and the desire or need for privacy surrounding the use of social media.

Speaker