Using Facebook as an Informal Learning Environment

INTRODUCTION

While traditional face-to-face instruction offers numerous advantages for learning, it is constrained by time and space. Many course schedules do not accommodate an instructional strategy that includes discussing non-textbook topics that are frequently on television and radio, in the newspaper, and/or online. Providing contemporary, real-world examples of concepts taught in class is an established method for demonstrating the relevance of course content and reinforcing the need of staying abreast of current issues.¹ Expanding course topics to include contemporary issues beyond the core content also may expand students’ perspectives and illuminate the need for lifelong learning. A second challenge to making course content more relevant to students in a traditional classroom setting is the logistical difficulty of including guest lecturers. Experts external to the college or school can provide unique perspectives, but it can be challenging to schedule and bring them to campus, especially if they are located a great distance from the campus.

When used as a teaching tool, new social media applications may offer distinct advantages for teaching today's students. The use of social media applications in teaching and learning has garnered substantial interest among educators. Attributes of openness, collaboration, and user-generated content, combined with social media's immense popularity among college-aged students have made applications like Facebook and Twitter attractive to college instructors.² Research is needed regarding specific strategies for achieving instructional objectives. Three prior studies of social media within pharmacy education have described how Facebook and Twitter can be used for learner interaction.^3-5 The activity described in this paper, however, used a different teaching strategy based on an informal learning environment.

Informal learning experiences occur outside the context of formal education settings and offer ways of engaging students in academic content without the time constraints of the formal curriculum.⁶ While extracurricular programs and book clubs provide opportunities for informal learning, social media offers the additional advantages of an informal, mobile setting and less rigid time constraints as class discussions can be held outside of regular class times.

Course directors of the University of Kentucky pharmacy management and leadership course wanted to broaden student exposure to national thought leaders, as well as devise a strategy for introducing contemporary business and management issues not typically addressed in depth in the course. The course provides a fundamental overview of a variety of business, management, and leadership topics such as accounting, marketing, human resources, strategic planning, and organizational behavior. It is critical for pharmacy graduates to maintain professional competence in their knowledge and skill sets and this involves staying abreast of emerging issues that affect all aspects of the provision of patient care.⁷ Accreditation guidelines for pharmacy educators also call for strategies that broaden the professional horizons of students through various means including the use of guest lecturers.⁸ External guest experts can provide a broader and more diverse student experience and those guests can be accommodated easier through asynchronous environments.⁹

To address the goals of including guest experts in online presentation of contemporary topics, the course directors designed an informal learning strategy using a course Facebook group page. Facebook was selected as the delivery medium for 3 primary reasons. It was a simple to use tool for sharing content online and promoting discussion. Because of the social rather than academic nature of Facebook, it created the informal learning environment desired for this activity. Also, Facebook was a feasible platform for bringing students together with external experts and thought leaders already active on Facebook.

DESIGN

The 2 primary objectives of inserting the Facebook learning activity into the course were: to expose students to contemporary topics in pharmacy management, leadership, and business; and to expose students to the perspectives of external experts in the field of pharmacy management and leadership. The Management and Leadership Facebook group was created as a closed group by one of the course directors who also served as the page administrator. Three external experts in pharmacy management and leadership were invited to provide an “outsider's” perspective on course content. In addition to their practice and leadership experience, these guests were influential thought leaders in pharmacy and the social and administrative sciences. They were provided with the objectives of the activity and asked to make at least 1 post during the semester, but were welcome to contribute as much as they desired.

During the first class session of the required spring 2011 pharmacy management and leadership course, the course directors provided an overview of the Facebook group and instructions on how to join. Also, the group's URL and instructions were e-mailed to the 128 third-year students enrolled in the course. The uniform resource locator (URL) also was included on the course syllabus and posted on the course Blackboard site. The page administrator received join requests and approved them within 24 hours. The course syllabus contained a description of the Facebook activity that included the following points:

1. Joining the group is optional and any material presented or discussed within the group will appear only on examinations in the form of extra credit questions.

2. Group members, course directors, and guests will see only Facebook profile information made available according to each student's privacy settings.

3. Course directors will not become Facebook friends with students during the course.

Because this activity used an informal approach to learning, one of the key decisions made during the instructional design phase was not to follow commonly accepted principles for encouraging student participation and engagement in online communication forums. Instructional designers and educators must give special consideration to the use of social media applications (Facebook in particular) for educational purposes because many students dislike the requirement to use these applications for educational purposes.¹⁰ This is understandable given that Facebook is currently one of, if not the most, “social” of contemporary Web applications. Much has been written by instructional technologists and social media experts regarding the potential “creepy treehouse” effect of requiring students to participate in manufactured social media groups. A “creepy treehouse” occurs when an authority figure (ie, instructor) forces those below him/her (ie, students) into social or quasi-social situations. To some, required participation and interaction in arenas typically described as personal is resented because it infringes upon their peer social space.¹⁰ The potential of the Management and Leadership Facebook group to cause this effect was strongly considered during the design stage.

A second key instructional design decision that also defied general design principles was not to require students to make a specific number and/or type of posts to the Facebook group or even to participate. The type and level of online student interaction for a course generally depends on guidelines set forth by the instructor.¹¹ In contrast to the more structured, traditional forms of online-based discussion, this activity was intentionally designed to mimic the “fluid” and “natural” informal environment that has evolved on social media sites like Facebook.¹² While not requiring students to interact on the group site likely reduced some students’ exposure to shared content and interaction with guests, that tradeoff was necessary to maintain the informality of activity.

This optional activity was presented to students as a means to learn about a more diverse set of contemporary topics pertaining to pharmacy management and the opportunity to dialog with experts and thought leaders outside of the University of Kentucky. With regard to course grades, the only incentive offered to students was the possibility that bonus questions on course examinations might pertain to posts on the Facebook group.

Content posted to the Facebook group by the course directors and guests covered a variety of contemporary issues from a diverse set of sources. Content for posts was not pre-selected, was not regularly scheduled, and did not necessarily coincide with topics on the course schedule. Postings were at least tangentially related to business, leadership, or pharmacy, and were intended to stimulate/encourage self-reflection or further contemplation of the issue.

EVALUATION AND ASSESSMENT

Of the 128 students enrolled in the course, 100 (78%) joined the Facebook group. The 3 external guests contributed 6 posts and 12 comments to students’ posts (Table 1). Posts pertaining to marketing, public relations, and the impact of severe weather garnered the most online interaction among students. Students also contributed original posts pertaining to social media and reputation, hospital public relations, traits of a good boss, and a career advice article regarding what not to say as a boss. Because the objectives of this activity were not directly focused on cognitive or ability-based learning outcomes, they were difficult to assess; thus, a mixed-methods approach consisting of a student questionnaire, results on examination questions, and a focus group was used.

DISCUSSION

This study examined the effectiveness of using Facebook to extend course content and involve external guest experts. Students who were eager to learn aspects of pharmacy business management and/or engage with outside experts were provided that opportunity. This optional activity appeared to be popular among the students. Almost 80% of students joined the group, which was somewhat surprising given the anecdotal evidence that many students are uninterested in or consider business management topics irrelevant to their career choice. The incentive for potential extra credit (albeit minimal) may have prompted many to join who may not have otherwise done so.

Student interaction in the form of posts and comments was relatively small, but not unexpected given the lack of a requirement. In addition, the nature of Facebook communications is somewhat different from other communication media. The Facebook culture is not one of high interaction among all users, as students tend to consume more online content than they post.¹⁶ There is an abundance of one-to-many broadcasting, but relatively little user-to-user interaction. The majority of interaction (determined by frequency of wall posts) occurs among a minority of users.¹⁷ Even users with 500 Facebook friends do not interact with the majority of them. On average, women will comment on 26 friends’ posts while men only comment on 17 friends’ posts.¹⁸

Although 78% of the students enrolled in the course joined the group, student engagement in the Facebook group was unequal as many of them reported reading less than half of the posts. Because of the informal learning design with no participation requirements and because of anecdotal evidence that many pharmacy students are not interested in business topics, we expected participation and engagement to come primarily from students with a greater interest in the topics and/or a greater commitment to learning the profession. The majority of students also indicated they joined because of extrinsic motivation (eg, bonus questions) versus a smaller number that joined due to intrinsic motivation (eg, desire to learn more). The course directors speculate that the minority of students who joined for intrinsic reasons were likely students most interested in business, management, and leadership in general.

The Facebook group provided a platform to expose students to contemporary issues pertaining to pharmacy practice, management, business, and leadership that otherwise might not have been broached in the course. Several of the topics were beyond the scope of the course and delved into case-specific conversations regarding the roles of pharmacy managers. As indicated on the questionnaires and during the focus group, the topics provided a glimpse of a different world from that they are accustomed to learning about in pharmacy school. Furthermore, it permitted student exposure to and interaction with experts external to the university, which would have been impractical to implement otherwise. Students valued the different perspectives provided by these external experts.

Based on student feedback, the majority of students who participated appreciated this specific informal learning strategy of using Facebook. Although student use of Facebook is high, it is not universal. Many students have chosen not to create a Facebook account or have deactivated one they had for a variety of personal reasons. Some students may have valid reasons for not using Facebook and any instructional strategy that uses that platform could potentially disadvantage those students.

Although the course directors were pleased with the results of the activity, minor modifications will be made for the next offering of the course. The first modification will be to include more guest experts, thought leaders, and practitioners. The number of invitations was intentionally low for the first offering to ensure that the activity did not become overwhelming for students. Along with the invitation to guests, we will include a schedule of examinations, breaks, and school holidays to prevent posts during times when students are unlikely to read them. Based on feedback from the questionnaire, conversations from the Facebook feeds may be used as examples or for in-class assignments as applicable.

A few limitations existed in the evaluation of this activity. With regard to student performance on examinations, there was no control for group differences between those who participated in the activity and those who did not. However, several students who joined the group only read a small percentage of posts yet the results were still significant. Furthermore, students typically study for examinations together and content from the Facebook page could have been shared with students who did not join the Facebook group. There may have been a selection bias regarding students who participated in the focus group, as those students were a convenience sample from the class as a whole. In addition, the number of focus group participants was minimal. A larger focus group and/or additional focus group sessions may have yielded different information. Finally, even though the participants were informed that the evaluators were not seeking praise or validation of the program, some may have felt pressure to offer positive comments because the course directors were present.

While this informal learning strategy was appropriate for the objectives of the activity, it may or may not be applicable to other courses with different objectives. For instructors who may want to emulate this in their courses, the “creepy treehouse” effect should be considered strongly. Requiring participation and/or setting minimum interaction parameters may cause students, particularly those not on Facebook and those with privacy concerns, to resent the activity. Based on our feedback from students, any type of requirement for using and posting to Facebook would have negatively altered their perception of and the way they approached the activity. The informality of the learning environment appeared to be one of the primary elements of its success. An instructional strategy that depends upon a more formal strategy requiring lengthy, frequent conversations, and written interaction by all students should probably use a different medium.

SUMMARY

An informal learning strategy of using a Facebook group to expand course content to contemporary topics not included in class, and to include outside experts and thought leaders, was successful. This learning strategy also provides a way to model professional communications via social media. Optional participation with no interaction requirements was a key instructional design element that enabled the informal learning environment. The design was specific for this activity's goals and may or may not be applicable for other courses with different learning objectives.