That's what friends are for: Creating an online community of, and for, first year students to increase retention

Price, J

That's what friends are for: Creating an online community of, and for, first year students to increase retention

Price, J

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: ASCILITE 2011 - The Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, 2011, pp. 1032 - 1038
Issue Date:: 2011-12-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Price, J	en_US
dc.date.issued	2011-12-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	ASCILITE 2011 - The Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education, 2011, pp. 1032 - 1038	en_US
dc.identifier.isbn	9781862956445	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/30885
dc.description.abstract	Research has demonstrated that involvement in learning communities is important for student engagement and retention (Bailey and Alfonso 2005). This paper describes the use of Facebook to create an online community for first year students in a Journalism course that had recently increased in size and in terms of student diversity. A Facebook group was set up one month before the beginning of semester. New students were invited to join the group, which was supported by the subject coordinator and student peer mentors. Students participated throughout the semester and showed very high levels of peer interaction and engagement. The paper describes the outcomes for students, including a substantial improvement in student retention. © 2011 Jenna Price.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	ASCILITE 2011 - The Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education	en_US
dc.title	That's what friends are for: Creating an online community of, and for, first year students to increase retention	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
utslib.for	1302 Curriculum and Pedagogy	en_US
dc.location.activity	Hobart, Tasmania
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences/Journalism Program
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US

Abstract:

Research has demonstrated that involvement in learning communities is important for student engagement and retention (Bailey and Alfonso 2005). This paper describes the use of Facebook to create an online community for first year students in a Journalism course that had recently increased in size and in terms of student diversity. A Facebook group was set up one month before the beginning of semester. New students were invited to join the group, which was supported by the subject coordinator and student peer mentors. Students participated throughout the semester and showed very high levels of peer interaction and engagement. The paper describes the outcomes for students, including a substantial improvement in student retention. © 2011 Jenna Price.

Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/30885