Understanding students' perceptions of the benefits of online social networking use for teaching and learning

摘要

The recent popularity of social technologies has motivated some university lecturers to use them for Online Social Networking (OSN) educational activities. These technologies have enormous potential to enhance the teaching and learning experience. However, there have been limited studies assessing how to effectively use social technologies and what the impacts are on students' learning experience, particularly with regard to their value in enhancing interactions. This paper focuses on students' experiences with using OSN for student-student and student-lecturer interactions. A total of nine focus group discussions with 46 students were held in Malaysian and Australian universities. A thematic analysis revealed that students identified a number of positive outcomes from using OSN to interact with each other and with their lecturers. The findings contribute to current understanding about how students leverage social technologies to enhance interaction among themselves, with their lecturers, and with the content of the course. (C) 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.