A Course Facebook Page Increases Student Engagement with Course Content Deborah J. Good, Ph.D. Dept. Human Nutrition, Foods, and Exercise Jie Li, Ph.D. Department of Statistics Virginia Tech

Facebook is too big to ignore Billion Facebook Users Worldwide Billion access through mobile devices 0 83% of year olds have a Facebook page 0 50% of this demographic goes on Facebook as soon as they wake up, and log 100+ minutes per day 0 Noyes, D. (2014). The Top 20 Valuable Facebook Statistics – Updated June from media/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/ media/top-15-valuable-facebook-statistics/

Students use Facebook during class 0 Distraction to themselves and others! 0 Facebook users have a 20% lower GPA than non-users 0 Facebook users spend less time studying per week than non-users 0 Kirschner and Karpinski, 2010

Question 0 Can Facebook be used as a pedagogical tool? 0 If so, what is the best practice for doing so? 170 joined the page initially (69.4% of the class) Currently 495 members in its 3 rd year. No grade difference in students who joined versus those that did not

Course Description and Methods 0 Metabolic Nutrition-HNFE Junior/Senior Level Course 0 Required for Human Nutrition, Foods and Exercise majors. 0 Approximately students per year 0 Methodology 0 Pre-survey on Facebook page interest (year 1) 0 Facebook metrics (years 1 and 2) 0 Post-survey on Facebook page usage (years 1 and 2) 0 Statistical Analysis (Dr. Li)

Year 1 versus Year 2 0 Year 1: Professor made the posts—usually science daily news articles, fun facts about vitamins/minerals etc. 0 Year 2: Professor continued to make her posts, but a Facebook Creative Assignment was added to the course 0 Students generated material for Facebook posts

Did you join the Facebook Page? ** 113 additional members in 2015 Currently 495 members Few “unlike” the page Do you plan to remain a member after the semester ends?

Student Self-Reported Engagement with the page is similar in both years N.S. How often do you read the posts? Year 1Year 2

Facebook Metrics tell a different story…

Year 2 Student Posts

Student versus Professor Post Metrics

Students prefer their own posts… A.B. Do you read the Facebook posts? Do you ever prefer posts by students or the professor? P = 2.19 x P = 3.85 x

Students were more engaged with professor’s posts in year 2 Student “likes” of Professor Posts ***

Future Plans for Assess whether Facebook content can increase student learning 0 Six-12 posts will be made during the course-some will be discussed in class, and some will not (at least 2 per exam). Two extra credit questions will be added to each exam testing student learning (3 exams). 0 Assess whether students gain a perceived increased ability to convey scientific information via social media 0 Assess whether learning style impact usage and learning with the page.

Conclusions 0 Majority of students were interested in, and joined a Facebook page for the course 0 But for 2013, students were passive “friends”, never fully engaged. 0 For 2014 class, a creative content assignment is being used to increase student engagement with the page. 0 Students reporting that it is “fun” 0 Lots of “views” 0 More “likes” than for posts by the professor last year.