Title: Benefits and barriers in using Facebook for education: the role of private experiences

Authors: Michael Tscholl; Maximilian Sailer; Jan-Willem Strijbos

Addresses: Department of Educational Technology Research and Assessment, College of Education, Northern Illinois University, 1425 W Lincoln Hwy, DeKalb, IL 60115, USA ' Chair of Educational Science, Faculty of Social and Educational Sciences, University of Passau (D), 94032 Passau, Germany ' GION Education/Research, Department of Educational Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Social Sciences, University of Groningen, 9712 TG Groningen, The Netherlands

Abstract: Facebook holds considerable promise in an academic context, and to support its use in Higher Education, it is important to understand more about students' motivations and expectations. We present a large-scale (N = 870) study on the impact of private experiences and behaviours (importance, satisfaction, use frequency) on students' anticipation of Facebook's benefits for learning. We also study whether privacy concerns affect students' acceptance of Facebook in education. Using serial mediation analysis, we found that students who use Facebook intensely, and value it highly for their private lives also anticipate more educational benefits. We further found that privacy concerns have increased and affect educational Facebook use, including indirectly, because students who feel secure express more satisfaction with Facebook. Our findings support the conclusion that universities should encourage Facebook use but use practices allaying student concerns need to be developed.

Keywords: Facebook; higher education; privacy; social media; large survey.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSMILE.2025.150095

International Journal of Social Media and Interactive Learning Environments, 2025 Vol.7 No.2, pp.87 - 109

Received: 11 Oct 2022
Accepted: 04 Jan 2023
Published online: 01 Dec 2025 *

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