Students' engagement on Facebook in undergraduate business courses: an experimental study

Abstract

There has been extensive research on the use of social networking sites, particularly Facebook, for enhancing student engagement. However, a detailed discussion on contexts has been largely ignored. The main objective of this paper is to examine the role of learning context in the success of student engagement by the use of social networking sites. The study has conducted three experiments and deployed Facebook as a communication channel and a discussion board in a first-year undergraduate business course, in a third-year information and communication technology (ICT) subject and in an executive MBA course. This research has compared the student engagement in mentioned contexts based on five principles of engagement. The paper presents lessons learned from these experiments that can be used by faculty and administrators in universities and educational institutes to design contexts in which social networking sites can achieve their potentials in improving student engagement and their overall academic experience.