Title: Undergraduates' Facebook use: evidence-based practice to implement social media in education

Authors: Nicola L. Ritter; Erhan Delen

Addresses: Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, MS 4225 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4225, USA ' Department of Educational Psychology, Texas A&M University, MS 4225 TAMU, College Station, TX 77843-4225, USA

Abstract: Researchers have identified students' perceptions of Facebook as an educational tool; however, researchers have only begun to scratch the surface in how to use Facebook as an educational tool. The purpose of this study is to understand how to use Facebook as an educational tool based on college students' current Facebook usage. A total of 200 undergraduates responded to an online questionnaire. This study shows undergraduates are willing to use Facebook in their coursework. However, students dislike the idea of blending their social and academic lives on Facebook. This study offers suggestions on how educators can integrate Facebook features into their course, to minimise students' concerns. Furthermore, the study discusses how using Facebook as an educational tool reinforces 21st century skills and how educators can evaluate Facebook components using quality matters standards.

Keywords: social media; Facebook; higher education; learning management systems; LMS; online learning; undergraduate students; online privacy; 21st century skills; quality matters; technology integration; e-learning; electronic learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMILE.2013.057463

International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, 2013 Vol.1 No.4, pp.387 - 405

Received: 30 Apr 2013
Accepted: 08 Jul 2013
Published online: 28 Feb 2014 *

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