Insights from using a subject specific Facebook group for student engagement and learning

Gardner, A; Willey, K; Meng, Q

Insights from using a subject specific Facebook group for student engagement and learning

Gardner, A

Willey, K

Meng, Q

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Publication Type:: Conference Proceeding
Citation:: 6th Research in Engineering Education Symposium: Translating Research into Practice, REES 2015, 2015
Issue Date:: 2015-01-01

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Field	Value	Language
dc.contributor.author	Gardner, A https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2764-591X	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Willey, K https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1478-0346	en_US
dc.contributor.author	Meng, Q	en_US
dc.date.available	2015-06-05	en_US
dc.date.issued	2015-01-01	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	6th Research in Engineering Education Symposium: Translating Research into Practice, REES 2015, 2015	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36633
dc.description.abstract	Although discussion boards have been available in the Learning Management System (LMS) for several years, they have not served well as a means of extending student engagement outside class time. The social media site Facebook was incorporated into an Engineering Mechanics class with the aim of increasing subject specific student engagement. This paper reports a small preliminary study exploring the effect of the introduction of the Facebook group. These students found the Facebook group increased the frequency of their engagement with the subject material compared to other subjects, and they considered it valuable because almost all students and the instructor were involved. However, students emphasised that the Facebook group was a supplement to, and not a substitute for, the face-to-face lecture and tutorial sessions. This study confirmed the value of undertaking focus groups with students to assist interpretation of data collected by more objective methods such as social network analysis.	en_US
dc.relation.ispartof	6th Research in Engineering Education Symposium: Translating Research into Practice, REES 2015	en_US
dc.title	Insights from using a subject specific Facebook group for student engagement and learning	en_US
dc.type	Conference Proceeding
dc.location.activity	Dublin, Ireland
pubs.embargo.period	Not known	en_US
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Civil and Environmental Engineering
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology/School of Computer Science
pubs.organisational-group	/University of Technology Sydney/Strength - CRIN - Realtime Information Networks
utslib.copyright.status	open_access
pubs.publication-status	Published	en_US

Abstract:

Although discussion boards have been available in the Learning Management System (LMS) for several years, they have not served well as a means of extending student engagement outside class time. The social media site Facebook was incorporated into an Engineering Mechanics class with the aim of increasing subject specific student engagement. This paper reports a small preliminary study exploring the effect of the introduction of the Facebook group. These students found the Facebook group increased the frequency of their engagement with the subject material compared to other subjects, and they considered it valuable because almost all students and the instructor were involved. However, students emphasised that the Facebook group was a supplement to, and not a substitute for, the face-to-face lecture and tutorial sessions. This study confirmed the value of undertaking focus groups with students to assist interpretation of data collected by more objective methods such as social network analysis.

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

http://hdl.handle.net/10453/36633