The Use of Alternative Social Networking Sites in Higher Educational Settings: A Case Study of the E-Learning Benefits of Ning in Education

Distance education as a primary means of instruction is expanding significantly at the college and university level. Simultaneously, the growth of social networking sites (SNS) including Facebook, LinkedIn, and MySpace is also rising among today’s college students. An increasing number of higher education instructors are beginning to combine distance education delivery with SNSs. However, there is currently little research detailing the educational benefits associated with the use of SNSs. Non-commercial, education-based SNSs, such as Ning in Education, have been recently shown to build communities of practice and facilitate social presence for students enrolled in distance education courses. In order to evaluate the largely unexplored educational benefits of SNSs, we surveyed graduate students enrolled in distance education courses using Ning in Education, an education-based SNS, based on their attitudes toward SNSs as productive online tools for teaching and learning. The results of our study suggest that education-based SNSs can be used most effectively in distance education courses as a technological tool for improved online communications among students in higher distance education courses.  The use of distance education courses as a primary instructional delivery option, especially in the higher education community, is expanding at an unprecedented rate. The 9.7% growth rate in the number of college and university students enrolled in at least one online class reported by Allen and Seaman (2007) significantly exceeded the 1.5% growth rate in the overall higher education student population during the same period. Simultaneously, the emergence and growth of commercial social networking sites (SNSs) such as Facebook, Friendster, LinkedIn, LiveJournal, and MySpace has been extensive and widespread (Boyd & Ellison, 2007). Facebook, for example, is currently the fastest growing commercial SNS in the world, with more than 300 million active user profiles (Facebook, 2009). Given the rising popularity of both distance education and SNSs, it seems logical to merge these popular two technologies with the goal of improving online teaching and learning (National School Boards Association [NSBA], 2007; University of Minnesota, 2008). Research has shown that distance education courses are often more successful when they develop communities of practice (Barab & Duffy, 2000; Journal of Interactive Online Learning Brady, Holcomb, and Smith 152 DeSchryver, Mishra, Koehler, & Francis, 2009) as well as encourage high levels of online social presence among students (Anderson, 2005). Fostering a sense of community is critically important, especially in an online environment where students often do not get the opportunity to meet face-to-face with other students or the instructor in the course. Since they facilitate the sharing of information—personal and otherwise—the technologies used in SNSs aid discussion and create intimacy among online students, as they have they ability to connect and build community in a socially and educationally constructed network (Educause Learning Initiative [ELI], 2007). In contrast to SNS, course management systems (CMS), such as Blackboard and Moodle, tend to be very focused and lack the personal touch and networking capacity that SNSs offer. For example, instructors using CMS may pose a question in an online discussion board and each student posts a response. However, these student posts are really not interactions at all, but merely question and answer sessions. Using an SNS that is user centered, rather than class centered, such as a CMS, has the potential to increase student engagement. SNSs can actively encourage online community building, extending learning beyond the boundaries of the classroom (Smith, 2009). A comparison of typical SNS and a traditional CMS appears in Table 1.