FACEBOOK IN UNIVERSITY EDUCATION

Abstract

The article described and shared experience in the use of social networks, particularly Facebook as a learning environment for students in Computer Systems and Technologies in the University of Ruse, Bulgaria. The choice of this particular social network among the many available and used in everyday life is justified and the main problems and questions that may arise when using the social network in education are formulated: Is it necessary or not all participants in the group to be friends in Facebook?; Is it necessary teachers to be friends with their students and to share or not with them their privacy in social networking? Is it a good idea for teachers to connect with their students in their digital world?; Can teacher/professor - student friendship improve the educational process or teacher have to be an authority figure?; Is it possible the usage of Facebook to discourage face to face contact?; Where is the limit of separation of social space from training space?; How and who to manage Facebook Wall - the center of the Facebook group, publishing content types, participants, content of different types - text, files, images, video and audio materials as well as links to other resources. Each member of the group may opines content, commenting and discussing, and also he himself to share content. Learning management systems (LMS) and usage of Facebook group in education are compared on the bases of the following criteria: User authentication; Ownership; Content; Interaction; Assessment tools; Relationship between content and interaction. On the bases of this comparison, on the bases of our experience in the education in IT courses and according to the statistical results of the collected data from a survey with our students during the last three years it can be said that despite the significant differences between the Facebook group and the traditional LMS, there seems to be grounds for using the Facebook group as an alternative to an LMS. A Facebook group has several distinct advantages over a conventional LMS, as well as some major disadvantages for learners and educators. Using a Facebook group as an LMS challenges the learners and the educators to provide original and creative solutions for learning in this environment. It is easier for the students to use Facebook group instead of new environment such as LMS. They feel free and comfortably in Facebook. In no case, however, it is impossible actual face to face education to be displaced by education in Facebook. All described features of social networking in this publication relate to the use of Facebook as a tool to support the traditional learning process and to make it more attractive for the new generation students today.

Headnote

Abstract: The article described and shared experience in the use of social networks, particularly Facebook as a learning environment for students in Computer Systems and Technologies in the University of Ruse, Bulgaria. The choice of this particular social network among the many available and used in everyday life is justified and the main problems and questions that may arise when using the social network in education are formulated: Is it necessary or not all participants in the group to be friends in Facebook?; Is it necessary teachers to be friends with their students and to share or not with them their privacy in social networking? Is it a good idea for teachers to connect with their students in their digital world?; Can teacher/professor - student friendship improve the educational process or teacher have to be an authority figure?; Is it possible the usage of Facebook to discourage face to face contact?; Where is the limit of separation of social space from training space?; How and who to manage Facebook Wall - the center of the Facebook group, publishing content types, participants, content of different types - text, files, images, video and audio materials as well as links to other resources. Each member of the group may opines content, commenting and discussing, and also he himself to share content.

Learning management systems (LMS) and usage of Facebook group in education are compared on the bases of the following criteria: User authentication; Ownership; Content; Interaction; Assessment tools; Relationship between content and interaction.

On the bases of this comparison, on the bases of our experience in the education in IT courses and according to the statistical results of the collected data from a survey with our students during the last three years it can be said that despite the significant differences between the Facebook group and the traditional LMS, there seems to be grounds for using the Facebook group as an alternative to an LMS. A Facebook group has several distinct advantages over a conventional LMS, as well as some major disadvantages for learners and educators. Using a Facebook group as an LMS challenges the learners and the educators to provide original and creative solutions for learning in this environment. It is easier for the students to use Facebook group instead of new environment such as LMS. They feel free and comfortably in Facebook.

In no case, however, it is impossible actual face to face education to be displaced by education in Facebook. All described features of social networking in this publication relate to the use of Facebook as a tool to support the traditional learning process and to make it more attractive for the new generation students today.

Keywords: social network; e-learning; learning management systems.

I. INTRODUCTION

The two main tasks of universities are education and research. The pursuit to improve the quality of education is a challenge for lecturers that forces them to always look how to make lessons more interesting and get students to participate more. The ways lecturers can present their lessons has increased greatly with the rapid development in technology and IT. Hence e-learning has emerged as a way to support the standard lessons. The new methods used for teaching are always guided by students' interests and the newly developed technologies. Web based LMS have become increasing popular since the advent of the Internet. Their purpose is to support and improve e-learning within the institution. All LMS are different and thus they can be used in various ways. However, a common idea behind LMS is that e-learning is organized and managed within an integrated system. Different tools are integrated in a single system, which offers all necessary tools to run and manage an e-learning course. All learning activities and materials in a course are organized and managed by and within the system. LMS have not stop developing since they were first introduced and they are still a topic of interest both for users and developers, who continue to improve them. Anything with online tools and applications in LMS seems popular because users are able to access those without limits of space or place.

The current globalised era has witnessed its impacts on human ways of living, especially young people whose life is much dependent upon innovative technologies. This aspect definitely affects their styles and preferences of learning. The use of social media sites is among the most interesting and common activity of today's young people. Social media tools allow social interactions and networking. Key moment at the beginning of the 21st century, after LMS, is the arrival of social networks (2004 Facebook). Facebook, the biggest and most well-known social network worldwide, was not initially designed for educational purposes but its unique characteristics, such as grouping around specific areas of interest, knowledge sharing, group discussions and self-expression, brought it to the attention of lecturers as a potential learning environment [8, 9].

In 2010, Facebook created closed groups that allow asynchronous and synchronous interactions between members, allowing them to share information. The Facebook group contains very similar components to a LMS, and thus raises the possibility that Facebook could turn into a learning environment and serve as an alternative LMS.

II. LEARNING MANAGEMENT SYSTEM OR FACEBOOK GROUP

Learning Management System is a global term for a computer system specifically developed for managing online courses, distributing course materials and allowing collaboration between students and teachers. An LMS will allow you to manage every aspect of a course, from the registration of students to the storing of test results, as well as allowing you to accept assignments digitally and keep in touch with your students [12]. The students' privileges are usually more limited than those of the lecturer. Students registered for the course can view the content and download it. They can take part in interactive activities that take place in forums and in some cases may also contribute content to specific parts of the site, such as special collaborative repositories defined for this purpose by the lecturer. Different learning management systems have different user interfaces and different features.

A large number of LMS are known today, commercial or free ones, offered as SaaS in the cloud or installed, as well as plenty of private developed LMS to meet the needs of specific organizations [10]. LMSs are used by academic institutions and companies to manage, track, and deliver courses and training programs. One of the fastest growing software sectors over the last decade, it is now a billion dollar plus industry with hundreds of competing offerings [2, 7]. Whatever type LMS is chosen, experience shows that they all have a lot of restrictions. In general lecturers do not get full use of a LMS, since they only use it once to publish content at the beginning of the course and then to eventually publish the students' results. Other functionalities of LMS are rarely used thus turning such systems into undesired expense. Moreover, LMSs are very expensive systems because even the so-called "free" open source systems require adaptation and ongoing maintenance by skilled technical staff. Another disadvantage of LMSs is the fact that in many institutions the course is deleted from the LMS server after it ends in order to save storage space. In some cases the student loses the permission to enter the learning environment after the course has ended, making access to the course materials no longer possible.

The following functions are compulsory in all LMS:

* Content management system - allows the lecturer to upload different type of content items: texts, presentations, scanned articles, audio-visual materials. It also enables the materials to be organized in an appropriate structure, planned by the lecturer.

* Interaction management system - this system manages the interactions between lecturer and students and between students themselves. It allows to open asynchronous spaces for collaboration or synchronous communication using chat and other online tools.

* System or tools for managing and assessing students (for administration) - provide administrative tools for recording students' activity, tasks, grades, and feedback. They also provide user reports that support the lecturer in measuring the level of the students' participation and in assessing the students' achievements.

* Enough disk space to store information and content of all courses and information about users and their interaction with the LMS.

* Social space to maintain the communication between participants in the learning process. Interaction between users is extremely important because it helps to keep students motivated, provides mutual support between them and encourages constructive learning.

Does Facebook offer the same or similar functions? In general, Facebook does cover most of the functions that LMSs offer, it offers better and more flexible resources for some functions but lacks in other aspects [1, 3]. The main advantage of Facebook over LMS is the fact that it is a very popular social network that we use in our everyday life. Figure 1 shows the most popular social networks as measured by a combination of their total number of customers, active users and online presence [11]. Statistics shown in [5,6], as of January 2017, also agree that Facebook is one of the most preferred social networks by the current generation.

The following questions arise when considering Facebook as a form of LMS:

* Is it necessary for all participants in the group to be friends in Facebook? No, this is not necessary, since the administrator of the group can invite all students that are part of the course to the group via their university email. [4]

* Is it necessary for teachers to be friends with their students and share their private life with them in a social network? It is totally acceptable that some of the participants in the group, particularly lecturers, might not want to share their private life with everyone else in the group. To avoid this, each user must make sure he/she has set up the necessary privacy settings on his Facebook profile.

* Where is the line between social space from training space? -ideally none of the members of the group should share any posts or comments that are not related to the course material. This requires self-discipline of the members of the group.

* How and who to manage Facebook Wall - the center of the Facebook group - monitoring participants and the different content being published? - different content may be published on the group Facebook wall - text, files, photos, videos and links to other resources. Every member of the group can share his opinion about the published content and also post content himself.

III. COMPARISON BETWEEN LMS AND FACEBOOK GROUP

Our comparison is based on the main functions required in e-learning.

3.1 User identification

LMS

* Every user (lecturer or student) need to register into the system and use their username and password to access all resources.

* The system requires a separate registration which means that the user needs to add yet another account and password that he/she needs to remember, which is a disadvantage. Possible solution could be the use of the same registration that is used to login into the local network, but since LMS may need to be accessible away from the university, so this is not a full solution to the problem.

* All data collected as part of the registration is part of LMS, so they are stored into LMS's database which is secured and guarantees the security of user's personal data.

Facebook group [4]

* Participating in the group does not require a new registration.

* Students or lecturers that do not already have a Facebook account will have to register in order to participate in the group, which may cause inconvenience for them.

3.2 Ownership of the e-learning platform

LMS is installed, managed and controlled from the teaching institution. It has been developed or bought particularly for the needs of the institution.

* The e-learning platform is not free, the institution have to pay for it.

* The institution who own the platform are responsible for installing, setting up and administrating of the LMS.

* All contents of the LMS are stored in it and are owned by the institution unless otherwise agreed with the users.

Facebook groups are more or less neutral, but they all belong to Facebook. They are not owned by the institution, users or the creator of the group.

* The platform is free.

* No support is needed.

* There is a risk concerning the contents and the rights on them which are determined by Facebook's rules.

* Everything uploaded to the group is owned by the lecturers and the students, but also by Facebook.

3.3 Contents:

LMS

* Provides powerful tools for creating, storing and organizing different types of content specifically designed to serve the needs of an e-learning environment.

* The lecturer has the rights to create, post and delete content.

* Students only "consume" the content of a course.

* The lecturer determines the structure of the content in the LMS.

Facebook group [4]

* Less options for posting content, but it is possible to integrate content from other platforms.

* All members of the group have similar rights over the content - they can post, edit, delete content as well as invite new people to the group.

* The main disadvantage of Facebook groups is that the structure of the content is determined by Facebook. Top posts are the ones that were last commented or last added - the structure of the content is too dynamic which sometimes makes the wall disorganized and it is difficult to find what you are looking for. On the other hand, due to this dynamic environment, students interact with each other and actively participate in the discussions.

3.4 Interaction

Most, but definitely not all LMS, allow synchronized interaction and communication.

Facebook group [4]

* Members of the group can see who else is online at all times.

* All members of the group have constant access to group or private chats.

* The variety of options for communication between members of the Facebook group make it not only a study space, but a very social space which stimulates learning in an informal way.

3.5 Additional tools

LMS - provides many additional tools for teaching, as long as they have been stipulated and developed in the system.

* Grading of surveys and different types of tests.

* Access to statistics about users' activity.

* Access to students' grades.

Facebook group [4]

* No specifically designed tools.

* Provides build-in search, which is very convenient for the user.

* It is possible to generate statistic of users' activity, where 'liking' a post does not count as being active.

* Provides options for integration with other platforms, surveys and tests.

3.6 Link between content and interaction

LMS - elements of management of content are separated from elements of interaction. The lecturer can create content elements (e.g. presentation) or interaction element (e.g. creates a topic in the forum or initiates a discussion), but each of these elements acts on its own. There is not a direct connection between content and the relevant interaction elements.

Facebook group [4] - All element types are created by posting on the group wall, so there is no difference between their types and all members of the group can interact under all posts by liking or commenting under them. This way interaction becomes part of the content.

IV. EMPERICAL STUDY

Participants in this research are both male and female students from department of Computer Systems and Technologies, bachelor degree, University of Ruse, Bulgaria, in Databases and Information Systems courses, who actively engage with the social networking website Facebook and are over the age of consent. In total 297 students took part in the research during the last three years (2014, 2015 and 2016). 86.2% of them already had a Facebook registration and are using it actively, 8.4% did not have a registration but wanted to register and 5.4% did not want to register and would not like to use any other social network.

The empirical study of the current paper consists of an analysis of communication within 8 Facebook groups. Each Facebook group has around 70 student members and 1 or 2 lecturers. The logged communication covers between 4 and 6 months for each group. Almost all of the students participated in more than one group, but they completed and submitted only one questionnaire for our study. The idea about using Facebook groups in our educational process started from the first two groups, created and managed from the students. They invited us to participate in these groups and we found that this idea may be useful for the educational process. Our university has its own LMS and it is actively used (E-learning Shell 02 - http://e-learning.uni-ruse.bg). Every student in the university has registration in this system and it can be used during the four years of education here. We wanted to analyze and compare what the students think about using these two approaches for supporting education - Facebook group and our LMS.

Interestingly, figure 2 shows that main uses of Facebook outside of university classes include messaging and chats and checking friends' status updates, whereas educational purposes and applications are ranked at the middle.

Figure 3 shows that, while they are at the university and have classes, they access Facebook most often during their "spare" periods or lunch breaks and least often during or between class time(s). Thirty percent of the students answered that they never access Facebook while they are in a lecture or practical.

Students were asked about their use of the institutional LMS and social media respectively. The figures below show students' use of these technologies when communicating with the lecturer (figure 4) and with each other (figure 5).

Whereas students and lecturers primarily use the institutional LMS to communicate among each other, students clearly prefer social media when they communicate with fellow students. Also, it is interesting to see, that many more students use social media to help or receive help from fellow students than students who use the institutional system to communicate with the lecturer. Students were asked to write in plain text the specific tools they used for communication. More than 80 % specified "Facebook" and "Facebook messenger" meaning that "social media" in reality is almost entirely Facebook.

Students' answers about their motivation and how often they use the created social media groups are also interesting and important. 67% of students were actively engaged with the group every week and 27% every day. 94% answered that their interest and motivation were increased after using the Facebook groups. Some students wrote in other comments that the lecturer and also the fact that they can ask and receive information quicker, using messages and comments motivated them to do their best.

Figure 6 shows answers to a multiple-choice question about the most useful learning practices in the created social media groups. Students classify the options for sharing materials and fast communication in Facebook groups as the most useful. This is well proven as the dominant character of the posts within the groups are posts in which students share information with each other and questions. Students ask each other about practical issues, concepts, interpretations of assignments, solving problems etc. Whereas questions related to administrative issues can just as well be answered by a fellow student as by a lecturer, questions of the other two categories related to study technique and the course would best be answered by the lecturer rather than the students. Thus, it is interesting that the students ask each other these kinds of questions. There are numerous examples of students taking the role of a lecturer or instructor by helping fellow students understand an assignment or find the right solution. There are many examples where students are helping each other on the evening before a deadline. Students can receive help at the very moment they encounter a problem. Although these questions and answers may be simple, they can, however, be very important for the individual student. Many of the questions show problems that - if not solved - could prevent the students from moving on in their assignments. The students also wrote (in other comments) that it is very useful if the lecturer is part of the group and can participate in the comments and discussions.

V. CONCLUSIONS

Young people use social networks, particularly Facebook, constantly in their daily lives. They are accustomed to the social network, feel secure and comfortable in it. They post photos, status updates, comments, express opinions and are not afraid to ask questions and discuss various topics. Currently, the use of Facebook is still primarily for diversity, maintaining social contacts and entertainment, but the majority of respondents said they often use it for the purpose of their education as well. Yes, very often the use of social networking, especially during classes interferes with the learning process, but it cannot be denied, according to the results, that there is potential in using Facebook's groups for training purposes at the university. Students definitely prefer to use Facebook instead of university LMS and most of them responded that their participation in a Facebook group helped them understand and learn the material, which in turn resulted in achieving better exam scores at the end of the course. Moreover, by participating in the group students got to interact with more people and overcome their problems in communicating with the lecturers and their colleagues.

The survey results in the University of Ruse reveal that the use of Facebook group improves teaching by extending the communication outside of lectures and classes and helps students increase their interest and motivation. Most of the students are satisfied and they achieved more than they expected.

Despite the fact that Facebook group is a good alternative to LMS, actual face to face education cannot be displaced by education in Facebook. All described features of social networking in this publication relate to the use of Facebook as a tool to support the traditional learning process and to make it more attractive for the new generation students.

References

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