Online Learning Facebook Integration Pilot

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
The Integration of Social Networking with
Online Learning: A Pilot Study & Looking to
the Future
Presented By:
Derek Malenczak, MS, CPRP
Amy Spagnolo, PhD, CPRP
Fae Cushing, AS
March 13, 2017

Rutgers School of Health Professions
Learning Objectives
By the end of this workshop, attendees should be able to:
1. Identify benefits of integrating social media with online
learning
2. Describe a pilot evaluation of an online course enhanced by
Facebook
3. Explain Social Networking (SN) trends of Rutgers University
students

Agenda
• Background: Online Learning & Social Networks
• Pilot Project Description
• Social Network Survey: Description and Results
• Looking to the future, Q & A

What We Know
• Online learning is prominent
• Fall 2014:
– 5.8 million students enrolled in at least one distance learning
course
– More than a quarter (28 percent%)
– 3.9 percent increase (Allen & Seaman, 2016)
– Slowest rate in more than a decade
– “People that are never going to do online, are never going to do
online” (Allen, 2016)
– One-in-seven (14%) students took all of their courses online
• "Exclusively" at a distance.

Rutgers School of Health Professions Poulin & Strout, 2016

Use of Social Networking Sites
• Young adults: heaviest users of social media by a substantial
margin
– 90% of them use social media
– 78% increase from the 12% who were using social media in 2005
(2015, Pew Research Center)
• 82% use Facebook
• 55% uses Instagram
• 32% use Twitter
• Yik Yak: 1,600 college campuses (2015, Business Insider)
• Snapchat: 18 to 24 year olds accounted for about 45% of
Snapchat customers (2015, eMarketer)

What about combining both? (online education
and social media)
• Medical Education, Systematic Review
– Cheston, Flickinger, & Chisolm, 2013
• Social Media in Higher Education, Literature Review
– Tess, 2013
• Social Networks and their Role in Informal Learning
– Drlik & Beranek, 2016
• Enriching Higher Education with Social Media, Development
and Evaluation of a Social Media Toolkit
– Gülbahar, Rapp, Kilis, & Sitnikova, 2017

What Prompted this Workshop?
• The Problem: Student Engagement
• RU Online Learning Conference, January 2016
– “High Touch Hybrid Courses – Incorporating Social
Media and Experiential Learning in Hybrid Courses”

Why Facebook?

Average Daily Time Spent on Social Networks

Why This Course?
• Emerging Trends and Topics in Psychiatric
Rehabilitation
• “This course will expose students to new and
emerging ideas, findings, models, and issues in a
variety of topic areas in the psychiatric
rehabilitation field.”
• “These topic areas represent critical components
of the recovery process for persons with severe
mental illness, and essential components of
practitioners knowledge base.”

Pilot Overview
• Private Facebook group
• Participant compensation
• Two types of assignments
1. Answers to Discussion Forum questions and
responses to classmates (4 assignments total)
2. Three-paragraph summaries of news articles related
to emerging trends discussed in the course (4 total)

Pilot Results
• 7 students began in the pilot
• 1 student withdrew from course mid-
semester, 6 completed the pilot
• Comparison grades of students in pilot vs.
non-pilot
– Discussion forum Grades
– Activity Assignment Grades
– Final Grade

Facebook Pilot Grade Comparisons*
Total
Class
Non-
Facebook
Facebook
# of Students 26 20 6
Forum Grades 85.85 83.35 94.17
Activity
Grades
91.91 90.08 98.04
Final Grades 84.86 83.44 89.62

Pilot Feedback
"I felt a connection to the other students for the
first time in an online class - I felt like there was more
camaraderie. I also like the visual aspect, and the ease
in reading other people's posts and responses.
Everything is right there in front of you…"

Pilot Feedback
“I thought the pilot group was really cool…
Sometimes it even reminded me to do my own work… I
think one thing that gets mixed up with college kids
"addiction" to social media is the fact that just because
we are on social media doesn't mean we think any less. I
rather scroll through my newsfeed and stop on a random
post about the brains function or a persons life story... I
think social media is such a powerful tool because it can
reach so many people by a few clicks. Having the pilot
group was a cool way to integrate social media, It was
definitely a unique way to connect to my school work
rather then a classroom."

Pilot Feedback
"I think social media integration is a great way to
get students involved in classes because of the constant
notifications you get when other students post, which
makes it hard to ignore your class work. It also
encourages students to post resources that everyone
can easily see and access."

Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
Social Network Survey

Social Network Survey
• 3 classes Spring 2016 semester (n = 45)
o Emerging Trends - Web & Classroom (28)
o Intro Course – Classroom (17)
• 2 classes during the Fall 2016 semester (n = 23)
o Practicum – Classroom (6)
o Intro Course – Classroom (17)
• Completed surveys n= 68
• Rate level of usage of “The Big 4” SN platforms
o Facebook, Twitter, Instagram & Snapchat

Facebook Usage
7%
19%
6%
4%
24%
40%
Never had an account
Had an account at one time,
no longer active
Use sporadically (< 1
time/month)
Use regularly (at least once a
month, up to once a week)
Use frequently (more than
once a week, not every day)
Use daily (just about every
day)

41%
27%
10%
9%
7% 6%
no longer active
time/month)
day)
Twitter Usage

Instagram Usage
18%
6%
7%
13%
15%
41%
no longer active
time/month)
day)

Snapchat Usage
28%
6%
5%
13%13%
35%
no longer active
time/month)
day)

Number of Students Using Platforms Frequently/Daily
43
9
38
33
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Facebook Twitter Instagram Snapchat

Would you support social network integration into
your online classes?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Don't Know
No
Yes

Do you think you would spend more time engaged with
your online classes if social networking were integrated into
the course?
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40
Don't Know
No
Yes

Social Networking Survey Themes/Feedback
The Positive
Theme 1: Good vehicle for communication - Aids in
fostering relationships between classmates and
staff.
• "I think it could be a way of connecting to people on a
level they are more likely to be receptive to."

Theme 2: Innovative – Students felt that it would help
them to focus on schoolwork, those with low
attention spans reported that they might have a more
immediate and interesting way to engage with the
material.
• "I think it would be a great way to learn and would
potentially help me to focus on my school work more
especially if it were an online class."

Theme 3: Creative way to share current events and
class information - Daily themes and scheduled
class discussions were raised as viable options to
be included.
• I think that [social media] could be a good outlet to
bring people together. If they join groups together they
can join based on their interests, not a demand."

The Negative
Theme 1: Participant Presence on Social Media – Not
everyone is on social networking sites, nor do they
want to be.
• "It may help with different viewpoints and outlooks but it
may be a little too modern."
• "It would put individuals who don't have social media in a
difficult if not impossible position. Students would have to
accommodate the class… because they don't have
access to social media."

Theme 2: Separation of personal life/school life -
Mixing social and academic experiences would not
lead to a positive end.
• "I like keeping my social media separate from work and
school (unless I am really close friends with a classmate
or coworker). This is the reason why I don't support the
social media integration in online classes. I go on social
media to get away from stress of work and school, not to
have it added to the stress."

Theme 3: Privacy issues – Concerns were raised by
numerous students.
• "I think people wouldn't want schools knowing or
accessing their social media profiles for privacy
reasons."

Theme 4: Increased potential for distraction – Students
felt that it would be difficult to concentrate on the task
at hand.
• “Generally I don't agree with online classes, I like face-
to-face classes. People may get too distracted if online.”

Looking to the Future
• Social Networking integration with online learning holds
promise in:
– increasing and improving student engagement with course content
– Increasing and improving interactions among participants (peers and
instructors alike)
• One LMS is attempting to do this now
– https://notebowl.com/

References
• Allen, E. & Seaman, J. (2016). Opening the Textbook: Educational Resources in U.S. Higher Education 2015-
2016, Babson Research Group.
• Asano, E. (2017).How Much Time Do People Spend on Social Media? Social Media Today. Accessed at:
http://www.socialmediatoday.com/marketing/how-much-time-do-people-spend-social-media-infographic
• Cheston, C., Flickinger, T., Chisolm, M. (2013). Social Media Use in Medical Education: A Systematic Review.
Academic Medicine, 88 (6), 893–901. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0b013e31828ffc23
• Drlik, M. & Beranek, L. (2016). Social Networks and Their Role in Informal Learning. ECSM2016-Proceedings of
the 3rd European Conference on Social Media.
• eMarketer.com. (2015). Millennials Smile for Snapchat: Young millennial internet users account for 45% of
Snapchat users. Accessed at: https://www.emarketer.com/Article/Millennials-Smile-Snapchat/1012324
• Facebook 4th Quarter 2016 earnings report. Accessed at:
https://s21.q4cdn.com/399680738/files/doc_financials/2016/Q4/Facebook-Reports-Fourth-Quarter-and-Full-Year-
2016-Results.pdf
• Gülbahar, Y., Rapp, C., Kilis, S., & Sitnikova, A. (2017). Enriching Higher Education with Social Media:
Development and Evaluation of a Social Media Toolkit. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed
Learning, 18, 1, 23-39.
• Poulin, R. and Straut, T. (2016).WCET Distance Education Enrollment Report 2016. Retrieved from WICHE
Cooperative for Educational Technologies website: http://wcet.wiche.edu/initiatives/research/WCET-Distance-
Education-Enrollment-Report-2016
• Perrin, A. (2015). Social Media Usage: Pew Research Survey. Accessed at:
http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/10/08/social-networking-usage-2005-2015/
• Shontell, A. (2015). How 2 Georgia fraternity brothers created Yik Yak, a controversial app that became a ~$400
million business in 365 days. Business Insider. Accessed at: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-inside-story-of-
yik-yak-2015-3

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