S.K.S. Cheung et al. (Eds.): ICHL 2012, LNCS 7411, pp. 253–264, 2012. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2012

Exploring the Potential Benefits of Facebook on Personal, Social, Academic

and Career Development for Higher Education Students

Kenneth Wong, Reggie Kwan, Kat Leung, and Fu Lee Wang

Caritas Institute of Higher Education kfwong@cihe.edu.hk

Abstract. At present, Facebook is a free and one of the most popular social networking sites. Its primary purpose is to provide an online communication platform for users to make new friends and interact with them. It may be an ideal platform for online learning community with great potential to facilitate student guidance and counseling work. In this paper, we present findings from a small scale study exploring the potential benefits of Facebook on personal, social, academic and career development. Data were collected from interviews and messages written by the students on Facebook. The results indicated that both students and teachers would benefit from this new approach. The potential benefits of Facebook for students are not only limited to academic development but also in personal/social development and career development.

Keywords: Facebook, comprehensive guidance service programme, academic and career development, social networking.

1 Introduction

In 21st century, the development of the new technology is changing rapidly. Students begin to use communication tools like web-based channels and Web 2.0 applications. Graduates need to develop different generic skills in order to enter and thrive in the global knowledge economy. We have to prepare our students for unforeseeable jobs, to use technologies that have not been invented. Preparing our students to work, learn and live in the uncertain and unpredictable world is perhaps one of the greatest responsibilities and challenges higher education institutions all over the world are facing. Personal, academic and career developments in higher education should open up new ways to help students prepare for an increasingly complex and uncertain world. The new approach should have powerful insights that can translate into enhanced skills and attributes useful for students in all areas of life.

Nowadays, Internet has become inseparable with our daily life. In fact, the growing demand of Web 2.0 applications has suggested a new direction of collaboration and communication among people. Activities such as chatting with friends online and updating their information are very popular among students. Web-based tools such as blogs, wikis, instant messengers, sharing of videos and photos and social networking provide students with countless ways to connect with friends, share their experiences

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and insights, and engage with others (Luo & Smith, 2011). For example, the majority of students in our institute has a Facebook account and is a regular user. They use Facebook to communicate with each other, make new friends and maintain friendship.

The Hong Kong Education Reform has been carried out for over ten years. The student guidance service policy has adopted the model of Comprehensive Guidance Service Programme (CGCP) initiated by Gysber in United State (Lee & Wong, 2008). The CGCP aims to help all students to attain basic knowledge, skills and attitude in the four areas namely personal, social, academic and career developments. It emphasizes on the united effort of all school personnel to create a positive learning environment enriched with care, trust and mutual respect (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2003). Since the use of Facebook is so popular among our students, it would be useful to explore the potential for the use of student guidance and counseling work. In this paper, we will discuss the findings of a small scale study and explore the potential benefits of Facebook on personal, social, academic and career developments.

2 Facebook

Launched in February 2004, Facebook has become a popular social network website. Recently, Huffington Post (2011) reported the top 1,000 websites (announced by Google) that Facebook was the most popular website in 2011. According to the Facebook press (2011), the number of people using Facebook has grown drastically (Fig. 1) and now Facebook has more than 800 million active users, half of which login to Facebook every day. The main purpose for Facebook is to provide an online communication platform for people to make new friends and interact with them. Moreover, Facebook features such as wall, status, photo sharing, news feed, tagging, instant messaging and video attract curious users who love to explore new activities. They are willing to use Facebook as a communication tool (Suki et. al., 2011). In fact, Facebook features are also suitable for encouraging collaborative and shared knowledge among students and teachers. Some teachers are now using Facebook to perform collaborative learning activities and share learning resources (Wang, 2010).

Fig. 1. The rapid growth of Facebook active users in recent years

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3 Personal, Academic and Career Development in Higher Education

In 1990, the Education Commission suggested in its Report No. 4 that the “Whole School Approach to Guidance” should be implemented in schools to improve education quality (Education Commission, 1990). This model, which has adopted the model of CGCP (Fig. 2), aims at enlisting the collaboration of all teachers to create a caring learning atmosphere which in turn maximizes students’ potential, develop their self-esteem and foster their healthy growth (Gysber & Henderson, 1997; Gysber, 2005).

Fig. 2. Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Programme Framework (Gysber, 2005)

The Education Bureau encourages schools to implement a comprehensive student guidance service and to make it as part of the Education Reform by integrating the service with other sub-systems at school, such as management and organization, teaching and learning, staff development and parent education (Education and Manpower Bureau, 2003). Now, all teachers and staff in primary and secondary schools should involve in guidance work to provide a nurturing and caring environment for all students (Hui 2000, 2002; Yuen et. al., 2000). Moreover, apart from implementing in primary and secondary sectors, the comprehensive CGCP model is also used in higher education. The Department of Education in the State of Iowa, United State (Iowa, 2001), has developed a resource guide for comprehensive counseling and guidance programs. The purpose of this guide is to provide counselors, student service personnel and administrators in Iowa’s K-12 schools and

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community colleges with practical resources for designing and/or improving locally established comprehensive counseling and guidance programs (Fig. 3). In the UK, another comprehensive tool Self, Opportunity, Aspirations and Results (SOAR) is used to help teachers operate and contextualize ideals of Personal Development Planning (Kumar, 2007). Although there is no specific student guidance policy in the higher education sector, similar approaches have been proposed by some community colleges for sub-degree students (QEGS, 2012).

Fig. 3. Four components and three domains of Program Component in CGCP (Iowa 2001)

4 Facebook in the Education and Guidance Program

Since Facebook is an existing social networking platform in which many college students are actively involving, it can be used to promote a virtual learning community. Arrington (2005) found that 85% of college students are using Facebook as a college network. Muñoz & Towner (2009) suggested that students are “comfortable” with Facebook and they want regular on-line discussions with faculty members. In addition, a study from Michigan State University (Lampe et. al., 2011) argued that Facebook might be used as an informal tool for students to organize their classroom experiences. In Hong Kong, some teachers use Facebook as a learning platform to enhance students’ exploration skills in science. Other studies (Wang, 2010; Vivian, 2011) claimed that Facebook could effectively support collaborative learning and potentially support student learning and peer networking.

Since Facebook is free and is open to the public, users can post messages, make comments, upload photos and share resources. Teachers can use Facebook to ask

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students questions, share their viewpoints and encourage students to discuss about various issues and to express their concerns. Students can collaborate with others on a particular topic of mutual interest. More specifically, Facebook has many specific features that are distinguished from other forms of websites, such as ICQ, blogs and wiki.

On the other hand, the potential benefits of social networking are not only for academic development, but also for career, personal and social developments. For example, most students are socially connected via existing social networking sites. If counselors add clients as “friends”, they can encourage clients to share their own problems. Furthermore, Moreno (2011) investigated whether symptoms of depression could be found through Facebook messages by college students. They found that those who received online encouragement from friends were more likely to discuss their symptoms of depression openly on Facebook. Therefore, Facebook could be an innovative channel for identifying students at risk for depression. Another study noted that Facebook could empower social capitals (Ellison et. al., 2007). The strong linkage between Facebook and high school keep the connection between alumni and the college community. Such connection could have strong payoffs in terms of jobs, internships, and other opportunities. Colleges show high incentive to explore ways to encourage this sort of usage (Vallor, 2011).

5 Findings and Discussion on the Small-Scale Study

In order to explore the potential benefits of Facebook on students’ academic, personal, social and career developments, we conducted a small-scale study in the first semester of this academic year. Students’ messages and comments on Facebook were collected and analyzed. After the preliminary analysis, semi-constructed interviews with 13 students were conducted.

5.1 Students’ Messages and Comments on Facebook

Recently, a research about Facebook is conducted in our institute in the last academic year (Wong, 2011). The purpose of this study is to investigate how Facebook enhances collaborative learning and knowledge building in this virtual community. By the end of the semester, 723 messages posted by students in the corresponding groups were examined. The results indicate that students and teachers have gained benefit in two main areas. Firstly, Facebook allows group members to share information and ideas conveniently and serves as a platform to communicate easily among group members. Secondly, Facebook allows various kinds of collaboration within a conductive environment and it also allows the teacher to track progress of the contributions by group members.

Furthermore, posts on students’ own Facebook page were analyzed. Although the content of the majority of the posts could be categorized into causal communication and photo sharing caption, some posts were quite meaningful. For example, some students like to discuss on ad hoc issues (Fig. 4); others share their academic stress, discuss about their assignments and ask the teacher questions. These findings indicate that students partly use Facebook as a learning platform to enhance collaborative learning and perform academic tasks.

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Fig. 4. Ad hoc issues discussed on Facebook

5.2 Semi-structured Interview with Students

Thirteen students (5 males and 8 females) participated in the semi-structured interviews conducted by the researcher. They are all first-year students of Associate Degree in Social Work. According to the preliminary findings, all students agree that the Facebook is user-friendly and easy to use. Most students have only one account except two students who have more than two accounts. Only one student spends over two hours on Facebook every day. This student likes browsing friends’ updates and playing online games on Facebook. Other students use Facebook as a communication channel with friends. All students agree that their friends in the Facebook group are not the same as the people in other discussion forums because their friends are real and they know each other. Furthermore, most participants regularly use Facebook to communicate with each other, thus it has become a common platform among them. Students were already using Facebook for group discussion on assignments and projects before they participated in this study. They agree that they are willing to use Facebook as a learning and communication platform. These findings are consistent with the result of Wong (2011), a qualitative study which suggests that students are willing to use Facebook as a learning and communication platform and to perform academic activities.

Fig. 5. A personal photo posted by a teacher

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Furthermore, all students agree that Facebook improves teacher-student relationship if a teacher engages more in Facebook and shares more about themselves, such as their personal photos (Fig. 5). They may then look at the teacher from another perspective and regard the teacher as a friend. This helps develop good teacher-student relationship. However, if a teacher only focuses on students’ academic achievement but never shares about themselves, students may think that the teacher only concerns about their academic performance instead of really cares about them.

5.3 Limitations of the Study

The first limitation of this study is the small sample size. Since only 5 students were interviewed, the findings cannot be generalized to the population or to other social networking tools. Future research should further explore the use of various social networking tools in other contexts, such as other courses, other higher institutes and secondary schools.

6 The Potential Benefit of Facebook on Students’ Developments

6.1 Academic Development

The findings of the small-scale study show that students prefer using Facebook than other e-learning platforms (such as Moodle). They intentionally use Facebook as a learning and communication platform. Nevertheless, we believe that Facebook can help students’ academic development in the following aspects.

Fig. 6. The formation of learning group from students

Forming Learning Groups and Promoting Collaborative Learning. Facebook enables millions of people around the world to connect with each other and to share their knowledge and wisdom in the online community. Its interactive features, such as discussion forum, instant messaging, email and sharing of videos and pictures, create great potential for students to learn collaboratively. Facebook Groups is also a powerful tool for collaborative learning. Students can create a private group to work

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on various academic tasks and share their resources (Fig. 6). Participants in this study reported that they started using Facebook groups as learning groups even before the present study (since the first semester of the previous academic year).

Building Up Teacher-Student Relationship. Since Facebook is a social networking platform online, teachers can interact with students in a virtual community. Barrett & Berman (2001) found that clients would like their therapist more if the therapist shares his/her own personal experience. Similarly, if teachers can share their personal information and feelings on Facebook more, students may like them more. Shek (2009) found that teachers’ sharing would act as a role model and encourage students to do the same. This is one of the means to understand each other more and is likely to enhance teach-student relationship. On the other hand, Lau & Shek (2010) suggested that teacher-disclosure is more powerful when the teacher communicates with students in the humanistic approach (i.e. with empathy, genuineness and respect). Lau & Yu (2011) also stated that if teachers’ self-disclosure is used properly and carefully in teaching, it would have positive effects in teaching-learning contexts. Hopmeyer (2000) proposed 12 important guidelines for self-disclosure in all groups. Those guidelines, in which some of them are applicable to Facebook, include: (1) Self-disclosures should be positive; (2) Roles and/or boundaries have to be clear; (3) Share within the boundaries of privacy and personal comfort; (4) Use self-experiences to promote empathy; (5) Disclose early; and (6) Teachers should determine when to disclose. I agree with Lau and Yu (2011) that if a teacher uses self-disclosure in the humanistic approach to communicate with students on Facebook, the teacher-student relationship will be established. It is in line with the findings of the present study. Finally, interpersonal dynamics between teachers and students would also enhance learning (Rogers, 1969).

Conducting Online Tutoring. Facebook is a web-based communication platform. Students may consult their teacher at any time and any place through online chat or message box on Facebook. It is also convenient for teachers to respond and track students’ academic problems. Fig. 7 shows an example how a teacher responds to a student’s enquiry on Facebook. Given enough feedback and support for students, students might be more confident and feel supported by the teachers. Teachers can also pay attention to individual student’s academic weaknesses and design remedial activities for them. It is a simple way to monitor and follow up students' learning progress.

Fig. 7. An example of student asking question on Facebook

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Enhancing Peer Learning. Meaningful interactions encourage peer learning, which according to Ng (2008), involves more than just sharing of ideas, knowledge and experiences. Peer learning can promote lifelong learning, as it is linked to generic capabilities of teamwork and interpersonal skills that is highly regarded by employers (Tan, 2003). Peer learning includes informal and formal. Informal peer learning occurs when students discuss about their assignments, lectures and projects in casual settings; formal peer learning occurs when a course requires group work. Therefore, Facebook can serve as a platform for students to conduct both informal and formal peer learning. Fig. 8 shows an example of sharing information about their project on Facebook.

Fig. 8. An example of students’ discussion about their project on Facebook

6.2 Personal or Social Development

All students should develop interpersonal skills, communication skills and responsibility. Although Facebook is a virtual community, students can develop their personal and social skills. Facebook enables individuals to share his/her interest through engagement in a particular interest group. It allows self-expression through the profile, which consists of multiple opportunities to share information about one’s cultural tastes, friendship networks, political affiliations and other aspects of the self (Ellison et. al., 2011). They also suggested that Facebook can play an important role in helping students maintain and develop their social networks, as well develop their interpersonal and communication skills. Gonzales & Hancock (2011) found that Facebook brings positive effects to self-esteem. Facebook may be helpful for students with low satisfaction and low self-esteem to overcome barriers (Ellison, 2007). Furthermore, students may use Facebook to share burdens or stress. When we examined the content of the students’ posted message, we found that students tend to express their stress and problems with peers. Facebook seems to serve as a platform for peers support as well. Fig. 9 shows an example of students sharing their stress on their presentation and assignment.

Fig. 9. An example of students posted message to share their stress

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6.3 Career Development

To help students to develop their career development, the Student Affair Office (SAO) in our institution provides resources to student to search for information and plan for their future career. Currently, many colleges’ SAO use Facebook as a resource center to provide such service. When we search for the title “University Career Development Facebook” in Google, over 480,000,000 sites are found. Fig. 10 shows the Facebook page of SAO Career Development Service from a university in Hong Kong. Their students can obtain a lot of career information on the website.

Fig. 10. Facebook page of The Career Development Service, SAO, PolyU (2012)

Furthermore, Facebook contains a large number of public and private professional groups (such as for teachers, doctors, engineers etc.). Students may take initiation to join a particular group or visit their corresponding website. Students can also form an interest group to prepare for their career development. Moreover, students can use Facebook features such as ‘page’ and ‘wall’ to prepare their own profile for self-introduction or make career planning. They can also set their Facebook profile as private or public.

7 Conclusion

With its popularity, Facebook motivates students' participation and enables students to share multimedia resources. Students can interact in small groups where they can communicate by text messages in both asynchronous and synchronous modes. The imminent launching of video conferencing on Facebook also has great potential in teaching and learning.

The guidance policy in Hong Kong has been changed from a remedial approach to a comprehensive approach. The comprehensive approach emphasizes systematic planning and the implementation of developmental, preventive and remedial guidance programs, with high degree of participation and collaboration among teachers. Indeed, it is significant that Facebook has potential benefits in enhancing learning and support in the comprehensive Student Guidance Service. Thus, a small-scale of study was

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conducted in our institute to investigate the potential benefits of Facebook on students’ academic, personal and career development. The preliminary findings of the present study show that students liked using Facebook to learn. They were encouraged to participate and engage more in learning. Moreover, students intentionally used Facebook as the main communication platform. If there had been more discussion on academic topics among students, peer learning would be promoted. Teachers also participated in Facebook to facilitate students’ discussion on academic topics. Furthermore, Facebook were used effectively to promote online community and enhance collaborative learning among students. It was helpful to build up teacher-student relationship particularly when a teacher adopted a humanistic approach and disclose more about his/her life stories on Facebook. The potential benefits of Facebook are not limited to academic development but also in personal, social and career development.

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