Title: A review on Facebook as a user-generated content environment in tertiary education

Authors: Vasiliki Timonidou; Maria Zotou; Efthimios Tambouris; Konstantinos Tarabanis

Addresses: University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Str., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece ' University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Str., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece ' Department of Technology and Management, University of Macedonia, Periohi Loggou-Tourpali, 59200, Naousa, Greece ' Department of Business Administration, University of Macedonia, 156 Egnatia Str., 54006, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract: In tertiary education, new learning processes, technologies and tools are increasingly applied to encourage and underpin students' involvement. Lately, these include the use of Facebook where users are participators instead of observers. The main aim of this paper is to investigate Facebook's usage for content generation in tertiary education. For this purpose, we review 19 relevant published cases to investigate the tools used and activities realised, the instructors' role as well as benefits and problems encountered. The paper concludes that students use tools like the Wall and multimedia uploading to ask questions, discuss and share resources. The role of instructors remains essential but is conversed to a facilitator initiating discussions and providing course-specific material. Finally, there is evidence that students' participation increases and they learn better. However, Facebook does not provide appropriate tools for educational purposes while privacy remains a main obstacle to its wider adoption.

Keywords: Facebook; user-generated content; social networking websites; participative web; tertiary education; content generation; multimedia; student participation; learning improvement; privacy concerns.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMILE.2013.053601

International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, 2013 Vol.1 No.2, pp.164 - 183

Received: 02 Oct 2012
Accepted: 31 Oct 2012

Published online: 28 Feb 2014 *

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