The Human Factor: The Connection Between Social Networking and Learning

Retaining and engaging students oremployees is a goal so important to organizations that they investsignificantly in employees and consultants to develop talent managementstrategies. A study of Facebook use among university students, published lastyear, examined one way that social media use can help. (See References at theend of this column.) The researchers found that student participation in anonline social network may, in and of itself, lead to positive learning outcomesthat could support the goals of retention and engagement in a universitysetting.

The Facebook factor

The design of the study wasrelatively simple. Using a combination of focus groups and surveys, researchersasked university students a series of questions related to how often they usedFacebook, how socially accepted they felt, how comfortable they were with theculture of their university, how they felt about themselves, how satisfied theywere with university life, and how successful they’d been in meeting their ownacademic goals. The intensity of the students’ Facebook use served as astand-in for their level of engagement in social networking.

On average, the students who tookpart in the study spent just under an hour and a half on Facebook every day, mostlyconnecting to their friends from high school and their current collegeclassmates. The study did not suggest that the students intended to useFacebook to support their academic endeavors.

Even so, the data showed thatparticipation on Facebook seemed to support the students’ success in theuniversity in two ways. First, and not surprisingly, engaging with otherstudents on Facebook supported social acceptance of their peers. Second,engaging with other students in the university helped them acculturate to theuniversity. It’s easy to imagine how this might come about, with studentssharing their planned activities on their Facebook pages, some of which wouldoccur within the university. Social acceptance and acculturation, the studyfound, were related to enhanced self-esteem, satisfaction with the university,and proficient academic performance.

What this means for your organization

The researchers never intervened inthe students’ Facebook use. They didn’t encourage or discourage its use, nordid they suggest alternate ways or reasons to use the tool. So, it’s likelythat the outcome is the result of students using the tool in the way that’smost natural to them. The researchers go on to suggest that, if a universitywanted to enhance the effect, they might develop some interventions thatincorporate Facebook as part of their orientation or pedagogical approach.

The findings – enhancedsatisfaction with the university and academic performance – have interestingimplications for training professionals and those charged with talentmanagement, in addition to university staff. And the suggestion that plannedactivities within the tool might lead to greater success is a familiar one tothe many training professionals who work to construct experiences in socialmedia in the hopes of positive learning outcomes.

Since both students and other agegroups widely use Facebook in their daily lives, it’s easy to imagine that theeffect might extend to other age groups and be useful for other organizations. Whynot build on an already existing effect provided by a free tool?

Some objections

Well, organizational policies, forone. Some organizations discourage or outright disable the use of Facebook andother social media on work computers. Also, an extended period of company timespent on social networking is probably just unacceptable. And, let’s face it,the content on Facebook is not guaranteed to be HR-friendly.

Also, in a corporate setting, Facebookinteractions between the company and employees could do more harm than good. It’seasy to imagine a well-meaning HR department accidentally alienating employeeswith policies requiring employees to disclose their social media accounts, or askingemployees to “Like” a company post, and so on. One way to mitigate the risk isto replace popular social networking tools with internal company-sanctionedtools, but in that case, the company might not get as robust an accidentaleffect. After all, the students who responded to the survey probably logged inwith the simple intention of having fun with their friends, and they accidentlyexperienced some positive learning outcomes.

Conclusion

The findings are intriguing, andpotentially useful beyond the original scope of the study, but for a somewhatsurprising reason. Often, as training professionals, we believe that we need toplan a strategy for using social media to enhance learning. In this case, itlooks like a hands-off approach is reasonable, and it may even supportretention and engagement.

References

Yu, A.Y., Tian,S.W., Vogel, D., Kwok, R. (2010). Can Learning Be Virtually Boosted? Aninvestigation of online social networking. Computers& Education, 55, 1494-1503.