2014 International Conference on Teaching and Learning in Computing and Engineering
Facebook as a Tool: Exploring the use of Facebook in Teaching and Learning
Mohd Nihra Haruzuan Mohamad Said, Lokman Mohd Tahir, Mohd Fadzli Ali
Faculty of Education
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, Skudai, Malaysia
nihra@utm.my
Abstract— In this paper, we explore the use of Facebook as an
alternative to learning management system for tertiary
teaching and learning purposes in a Malaysian university
context. Three embedded approaches for Facebook were
implemented, namely for mixing information and learning
resources, mixing expertise and mixing context of learning.
Each of embedded approaches was analyzed through two
ways: within and cross-case analysis. The results from cross-
case analysis indicate that Facebook has the potential of mixing
affordances of technical, social and pedagogical for teaching
and learning, and thus can deliver positive tool for teaching
and learning but can also be a negative tool if it is not
appropriately utilize.
Keywords; Facebook; Social Networking Site, Tertiary
Teaching and Learning
I. INTRODUCTION
In today’s climate, students entering university are no
longer isolated learners [12]. Their engagement with digital
learning resources and social networking sites (SNS) are
strong forces in education today [12][13][14][15]. In fact,
many of them have experienced social networking activities
prior to entering the university and the tertiary classroom,
which indirectly exposes them to the culture or ‘habitat’ of
digital learner [17], whereby students contribute as much as
they take [9]. These are often students who have grown up
with technology in a world requiring them to be highly
connected, such as Facebook [13].
In recent years, Facebook has been cited as the most
popular SNS with more than 1 billion active users per month
[8], [19]. In Malaysia, 13.3 million or 45. 5 per cent of the
total population in the country is Facebook active users
which put Malaysia on the 8th spot in Asia and 21st place in
the world [3]. This is not surprising as more teenagers and
youth joining Facebook in Malaysia are aged between 18 and
24 or 34.5 per cent of the total population [3], where they use
Facebook platform to get together to broadcast information
or status, sharing and tagging photos, and communicating
their lifestyle.
Although, Facebook is not specifically designed for
educational purposes, there is steadily growing number of
studies that investigated the use of Facebook in education
especially on the aspects of information sharing, and usage
frequency [8], [19]. Recently, few studies have started to
explore the use of Facebook in teaching and learning, where
most of studies are reported within the context of tertiary
education in which Facebook is used as formal instructional
learning environment [1], [2], [11], [13], [16].
978-1-4799-3592-5/14 $31.00 © 2014 IEEE 120
DOI 10.1109/LaTiCE.2014.29
A study done by Noraffandy Yahaya et al. [11] reported
that the postings on Facebook invited more immediate
feedback from students and they were found to be more
actively participating and collaborating in writing complex
English tasks. Another similar study conducted by Abdullah
[1] revealed that students interacting with practitioner
designers in Facebook help improved their design work
because of designers’ consistent feedback of which were
troublesome to be carried out through university’s formal
learning environment.
Nevertheless, some studies also reported negative aspects
of Facebook, for example, unprecedented scale of
information sharing on Facebook can link to undesirable
outcomes as “jealousy, increase in social tension, social
overload, isolation and even depression” [6, p.2]. Other
studies indicate that Facebook users achieved a lower
academic achievement (e.g. GPA) because of their time
spent per week on Facebook were longer than studying
compared to non-users [7].
Recent studies also indicate that Facebook has a mixture
of pros and cons or can also be known as ‘double-edged
sword’ for teaching and learning [8] [16]. It can be useful
tool for teaching and learning but also can be catastrophic if
it is not appropriately utilize. However, with the increasingly
students as well as teachers are using Facebook, this study
was intended to explore its potential as an alternative for
learning management system within the tertiary teaching and
learning context. Thus, this paper present cases which are
drawn predominantly from Manca and Ranieri [8], namely
mixing information and learning resources, mixing expertise
and mixing context of learning via Facebook in teaching and
learning.
II. METHODS
The research in this study employed interpretive methods
with data collected from Facebook page was analyzed
through two ways: within-case analysis and cross-case
analysis, in order to reveal meaningful insight of how
Facebook was used, what the perceived affordances were,
and its limitations towards students’ learning.
III. PARTICIPANTS
The students participating in the research were Malaysian
undergraduate full-time pre-service teachers, namely Science
and Computer with Education (Mathematics) (SPT) and
Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL); and part-
time in-service teachers from Islamic Studies (SPI) and Sport
Science (SPS). The students in each programme were in the
final year of their study and were enrolled in a Computer
Education course known as Teaching Methods in Computer 31 years and above 36
Science, which was conducted under the Department of Education level Undergraduate- Final Year 80
Sciences, Mathematics and Creative Multimedia, Faculty of
Education, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (see Table 1).
IV. TEACHING APPROACHES
Table 1 Background of participants
The teaching and learning of Teaching Methods in
Characteristics N Computer Science consisted of conventional face-to-face
Programme of Full-time Mathematics (SPT) 18 lectures together with Facebook participation. The course ran
study Full-time TESL (SPL) 18 for 15 weeks, comprised of 13 weeks of lectures, and one
Part-time Islamic Studies (SPI) 22 week each of mid-semester break and study week. During
Part-time Sport Science (SPS) 22 the course, students in each programme were formed into
Gender Female 53 groups of 4-6 students. The Facebook group activities were
Male 27
designed to enable groups in each programme to participate
Ethnicity Malay 62
Chinese 14
online and be involved in discussion. The designed Facebook
Indian 4 page and related activities for the course are explained as in
Age 19-23 years 15 Table 2.
24-30 years 29

Table 2 Facebook page related activities

Design Descriptions Type of assessment Ways Weeks

Approach Mixing information and learning resources. Sharing information and x FB announcement
1 All lectures notes and course materials were made available references and notification 1-3
through Facebook page similar to learning management Assignment submission x FB contents channel
system (LMS). The essence of approach 1 is to use Article reports x FB info channel
Facebook as alternative to LMS.
Approach Mixing expertise.
2 Approach 2 is specifically designed to foster peripheral and x Within group (open to
emergent interactions occurring on Facebook through Open debate and students of similar 4-7
different actor, such as different users or teachers and as discussion programme)
well as other practicing professionals. The essence of x Across group (open to
approach 2 is to move away from closed inter-group all students in the
discussion but encourage open discussion that can be course)
viewed and access by public users. Hence to invite more
feedback.
Approach Mixing context of learning.
3 Approach 3 is designed to enable students share their x Within group (open to 10-12
personal and academic interests and aspirations, thus Peer feedback and students of similar
mixing different contexts of learning, social and personal comment programme)
life. The essence of approach 3 is to allow students to post x Across group (open to
on Facebook page or their wall related to affective all students in the
communication (e.g. group reinforcement, encouragement course)
and support).

case analysis where within-case analysis describing how

V. THE PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of
Facebook in teaching and learning as well as identifying its
potentials and limitations. In addition, this study also aimed
to answer question regarding ‘what are the perceived
affordances and limitations of Facebook in tertiary teaching
and learning?’
VI. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
This study collected data from multiple resources,
namely students’ post entries on Facebook page, interviews
and survey. Data were analyzed using within-case and cross-
Facebook was used within individual cases and the perceived
affordances by students. In individual case, Wolfram Alpha
[20] was used to get an overall overview of Facebook page
usage. Wolfram Alpha is a comprehensive expert-level
computational engine that analyze data and generate reports
across thousands computer domain including social
networking sites i.e. Facebook [20]. Report generates from
wolfram Alpha for Facebook comprises personal analytics
data such as status, photo, post and structure of friend
network [20].
For overall findings, cross-case analysis was conducted
to summarize the common findings from individual cases

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and inform the affordances of Facebook in terms of create a group in FB [and] then we use FB to discuss [give
technical, social and pedagogical that generally recognized idea] and [give] information”. The information delivered in
from the cases. Table 3 illustrates an outline of the cases for Facebook page was not limited to pre-defined contents but
data analysis. also from various sources as well as from students’ inputs.
This is supported by student B stated, “…like last time, when
Table 3 An outline of cases for data analysis we got task for coursework, we will find it online and present
[share] in FB…”
Case Description Approach Sources Wolfram Alpha analysis (Fig. 1) visualizes the connected
1 Mixing Course FB posts, Wolfram network of Facebook page between students of different
information and analysis, interviews, programme of studies. The analysis shows that full-time
learning surveys students such as SPT and SPL were quite distant from part-
resources time students from SPI and SPL, in terms of blending their
2 Mixing expertise Group FB posts, Wolfram information and resources. This is supported by student C,
analysis, interviews,
surveys
who said, “…their information and resources sometimes
3 Mixing context of Programme FB posts, Wolfram quite funny, for example their label name for the
learning analysis, interviews, group…Adam Hawa…although we have same activities, we
surveys just look at how they conducted their activities in FB”. Full-
time students also stated that they felt uncomfortable
blending their information and uploaded contents with part-
VII. FINDINGS time students due to the fact that it can be easily misguided.
Student D stated, “I felt uncomfortable because it was so
A. Case 1: Mixing information and learning resources messy and difficult to identify info…”
By mixing information and contents, some students also
In this case, several channels were used to deliver course
concerned that their shared contents for the course can be
contents and learning resources. These channels were created
seen or downloaded by their Facebook friends, although they
using Facebook group facilities but using different labels
had been informed with the open policy of the course. They
such as learning resources, assignments and discussion.
felt unsafe and preferred their work to be in private or close
Although, this resembles traditional learning management
channel. Student E explained, “…need to adjust in terms of
system (LMS) format, however, contents uploaded were not
sharing [contents]…some of it must be in private...”
only from teacher but also from students’ contributions. As
reported by student A, “from the notification... and if we got
any message [due to] lot of assignment... my friends will

SPT SPI

SPL
SPS

Figure 1 Analysis of Facebook network

discussion where it can be viewed and accessed by public

B. Case 2: Mixing expertise
In this case, Facebook page and group facilities were
used to explore the affordances of open discussion at two
levels: within students’ group of studies and across group of
studies. The aim of discussion activities were to foster
different roles of interactions and to move away from
traditional forum-based closed discussion to more open
users. Based on Wolfram Alpha analysis, more than half of
total students in the course (based on the roles of social
neighbors and social gateways, the terms that were produced
by Wolfram Alpha to denote different social roles in
Facebook network) did not have connection with other
student in other programme of studies while only four
students which were known as social connectors had

122
connection with other students in different programme. Also,
28 students were found to have more than 500 friends. The
highest recorded number of friends in the network was 3155
and the lowest was six. These students were known as social
outsiders (see Table 4).
Table 4 Facebook roles
Roles Descriptions
Social A social insider is a friend who
Insiders shares a large of number of friends.
Social A social outsider is someone who
Outsiders shares at most one friend.
Social A social connector is someone who
Connectors connects together groups of friends.
Social A social neighbor is someone with
Neighbors a small number of out-of-networks.
Social A social gateway is someone with a
Gateways large number of out-of-network
friends.
Total
In traditional forum-based discussion in which students
have a clear defined role and a certain kind of expectations in
completing the discussion, in open-based Facebook
discussion, some students were seen to go beyond closed
discussion into sharing and tagging their member of network
into their discussion activities using the share and tag
buttons. Also the perceived interesting and good comments
or ideas can be identified through the total number of likes
received. As stated by student B, “…the number of like you
received for post indicated that the post somehow interesting
or worth it to be share and also it can boost confident…”
C. Case 3: Mixing context of learning
In this case, Facebook page was used to host different
presentation of the students’ works. Although the idea of
presentation in Facebook might resembles classroom
presentation, the different was students were required to post
on Facebook page or their wall related to affective
communication (e.g. group reinforcement, encouragement
and support) of related presentation. Based on analysis of
258 of total Facebook wall posts using Wolfram Alpha, 43 or
17 per cent of total postings were using affective words
followed by social words (126 or 49 per cent of total words)
and emotional words (87 or 34 per cent of total words) (see
Table 5).
Table 5 Types of communication
Type Descriptions
Affective words e.g. group reinforcement,
encouragement and support
Social words e.g. joke, humor and off-
topics
Emotional words e.g. greeting, please, thanking
and the use of emoticon
Total
It is interesting to note that students used less affective
words compared to social and emotional words in Facebook
page wall. Social words consists of joke, humor and funny
way of expressing ideas and emotional words using
emoticon were evidenced across all comments and
feedbacks. Students also were seen to take informal
conversation approach although the activities were related to
formal academic assessment. As highlighted by student D, “I
N
think yes… because posting in FB should be more public
28
meaning informal…” This is also supported by student E that
3
said, “I believe… just let it go and we will be able to see
more things [comments]…I think we can see more natural
4 things [comments] occur… in a discussion…”
VIII. DISCUSSION
40
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of
5 Facebook in teaching and learning leading to understanding
its potentials and limitations for teaching and learning. Some
common affordances of Facebook based on the analysis of
80 previous cases are addressed next.
A. Technical affordances
In terms of technical aspects of using Facebook, most of
students did not have any problem at all because the students
were familiar with the environment due to the fact that they
were existing Facebook users. However, some students
reported difficulties in finding and locating certain functions
or information in the course Facebook wall due to Facebook
did not support traditional threaded forum discussions.
An important issue raised by students was to keep their
academic contents safe and secure. This is because Facebook
page was accessible to anyone in their network or their
mutual friends, so the concern was genuinely in protecting
their academic works prior to the evaluation of the teachers.
Some students also did not want their network friends to see
their comments in the course and highlighted the importance
of privacy or confidentiality of certain aspect of activities
(e.g. discussion).
The students also raised some issue regarding
advertisement of certain product that they can see in their
Facebook page wall shared by students in the course.
Although the course encouraged open policy, the need of
some restrictions especially on third-party programs (e.g.
games and products) should be taken seriously to avoid
distractions on learning and misuse by students.
B. Social affordances
In terms of social affordances of Facebook that
evidenced in the course and mentioned by students were the
N sharing, tagging and like button functions of Facebook that
43 fostered informal interactions and learning in the course. By
blending the formal and informal aspects of learning,
126 students felt the activities were natural and welcoming for
them to make posting without any hesitation or worry to
87 make mistake. Such interactions were clearly evident in Case
2 and 3, where some students tagging their other friends for
258 help and support. Also some students provided additional
123
resources as in Case 1 by sharing other learning resources
that were not limited to pre-defined contents in the course.
C. Pedagogical affordances
In terms of pedagogical affordances of Facebook for
teaching and learning that were identified in this study
resembled the traditional learning management system but
with exception that Facebook allows more natural reflection
from students through its informal nature of interactions
through postings and sharing. Facebook also promotes
different way of thinking for teaching where traditional
teaching and learning in formal education tend to separate
the aspect of ‘life’ from ‘studying’ and ‘home’ from
‘lectures’, and teachers’ who use Facebook for teaching are
appeared to unconsciously replicating and reinforcing these
roles in their teaching [16]. The affordances offer by
Facebook for blending students’ personal and academic
interests provides a new level of thinking for teachers to
utilize it and translate it into appropriate learning activities.
IX. CONCLUSION
The purpose of this study was to explore the use of
Facebook in teaching and learning leading to understanding
its potentials and limitations for teaching and learning. It is
appeared that Facebook has the potential of mixing
affordances of technical, social and pedagogical for teaching
and learning although Facebook is designed for socialization
through creating friends network. Eventhough, Facebook has
many potential benefits for teaching and learning, it also has
several concerns that need to be considered when planning it
in teaching. Facebook’s nature of informal interactions might
contradict to the formal nature of teaching and learning, and
thus need careful thinking. This research indicates that
Facebook can be positive tool for teaching and learning but
can also be a negative tool if it is not appropriately utilize.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
The authors would like to thank Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UTM) and Ministry of Education (MoE)
Malaysia for their support in making this project possible.
This work was supported by the Fundamental Research
Grant Scheme (Vote No.4F171) initiated by UTM and MoE.
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