Students’ Perspective of the Role of Facebook in Their Studies

The purpose of this research was to examine students’ perspective of their use of Facebook to further their studies. There were two major findings relating to usage of Facebook: personal, and academically. Students used Facebook to stay in touch with people and wanted to keep Facebook separate from their academics. Colleges and universities have used social networking sites for a variety of purposes. For instance, college administrators at Ithaca College, Middlebury College, Mars Hill College, and the University of Florida have used Facebook groups, profiles, and pages to promote their departments, services, and recruitment initiatives (David, 2010; Villano & Gullon, 2009). The faculty and staff at the University of Florida claimed to have increased their graduate admissions because of the implementation of a Facebook program in which faculty and staff talk to prospective graduate students through Facebook group discussions about graduate programs (David, 2010). Facebook can be used for educational purposes. Mazman and Usluel (2010) developed a structural equation model explaining how students could use Facebook for educational purposes, and sought the students’ views of Facebook in relation to its educational usage. The educational usage of Facebook has a positive relationship with its use for communication, collaborations, and resource or material sharing (Maxman & Usleuel, 2010). Facebook users and non-users were significantly different: Facebook users had lower GPAs and spent less time studying than non-Facebook users (Kirschner & Karpinski, 2010). Students feel an impact on Facebook on their academic performance; most indicate a negative impact: they procrastinate and are easily distracted by Facebook. These users also had poor time management skills. For those students with positive impacts, Facebook was used to form study groups or as another form of communication with their peers. Some studies (e.g., Hung & Yuen 2010; Schroeder & Greenbowe, 2009) have reported on the implementation of social networking sites into the curriculum. Hung and Yuen (2010) found that the students favored using their social networking sites, especially for knowledge sharing, interactions, collaborations, and learning activities. Also, a majority of students used the sites every week. The students also stated a strong sense of class community. Schroeder and Greenbowe (2009) studied how students used Facebook in an introductory organic chemistry class. All students in the class were required to use WebCT and participation in the Facebook group was optional. The activity between WebCT and the Facebook group revealed 400% more posts on the Facebook group than on WebCT, with no further discussions on WebCT after one month. As a deadline for an assignment was approaching, activity on the Facebook group would increase. Also, students were not asking their peers for answers, but instead were asking for assistance from the instructors. However, Schroeder and Greenbowe (2009) did not compare the final grades between the Facebook users and the students who did not join the Facebook group. McCarthy (2010) assessed student use of Facebook incorporated into a design course and concluded most students used Facebook to learn more about people they met in person and in