University Students Academic Usage of Facebook. Case Study: Licence 2 English Students, Mostaganem University

Abstract

last decade has witnessed the rapid popularity of social networking sites like Facebook and College students constitute a large population of Facebook users. Advancement in telecommunication and information technology has resulted in a tremendous impact on teaching and learning. Accordingly, university education has started to benefit from online learning platforms. The revolutionary progress that the internet has known is giving a modern dimension to the teaching process, thus, facilitating university students' learning. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the extent to which Facebook can be an effective means to distribute academic content to university students. Department of English of Mostaganem University is involved in this study. The Study combines quantitative with qualitative types of research. Quantitate research involves distributing a survey in the form of a questionnaire among License 2 students department of English as well as teachers to examine to what extent Facebook can be used for academic purposes. Qualitative research is dedicated to the analysis and observation of studens’ Facebook group page. The results showed that Students confirm that Facebook is a useful tool to distribute and share academic knowledge yet there are still many obstacles that hinder its use at the university context. On another hand, the present research suggests some helping solutions to enhance Facebook educational use among university students and their teachers. Future research may include a larger population from every Department of Mostaganem University to ensure generalizability of the study’s findings.

Keywords: Facebook Academic Usage, Licence 2 English Students, Students’ Facebook Group, Teachers’ Facebook Academic Usage