Facebook and Myspace – Can they be of any help for Universities?
May 13, 2008
Facebook and MySpace are the hottest online communities in existence and now a program is being made to find out if such networking sites can offer some help to new students to settle into their university’s social and academic life.
At present, 95 % of 16-18 year youungsters intending to go to university are using social networking sites like Facebook and MySpace.
“Yet we know little about how this phenomenon impacts on the student experience and, in particular, if and how it helps them integrate into university life,” said Jane Wellens, Education Developer in the University of Leicester’s Staff Development Centre.
The students are highly influenced by academic and social integration into their university life and thus it governs their likelihood of withdrawing from their student courses.
Until now, the universities have focused on academic support rather than integration into the wider social world of the university.
One aspect of the research is to discover whether there are differences in the prolonged existence and environment of university friendships that students establish face-to-face as compared to those they make online through social networking sites.
Jane Wellens from University of Leicester comments “We recently used Facebook as a means of encouraging students on an online module to get to know one another. This raised many issues such as where the boundary between public and private space is, and how comfortable students (and staff) of different ages feel regarding the use of such technology,”
From the new examination, Wellens and her equals hope to establish how Leicester students are using Facebook as part of their group and education experience and whether joining the University’s Facebook group before they come to Leicester helps students to settle down more easily to university life.
As part of this project, researchers will find out if they can use these websites to help students integrate into university life.
This may affect the way the Universities uses their Facebook network. They might be able to bring new students together before their arrival, or to bring together current and new students to provide peer support, comments Dr Wellens
(ANI)
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