Woodley, Carolyn and Meredith, CaAtherine (2011) Engaging and retaining students - supporting student transition through social media. In: Proceedings of the International Conference on Information Communication Technologies in Education (ICICTE 2011), Rhodes, Greece, 07-09 July 2011. Fernstrom, Ken and Tsolakidis, Kostas, eds. University of the Fraser Valley, Abbotsford, British Columbia, pp. 637-648.

Abstract

Views about Facebook in education are varied. Facebook poses a threat to academic success (Thompson, 2009) and yet “certain kinds of Facebook use” can support study. Facebooking students may perform better than their unwired peers (Ellison et al., 2007) but little is known about the impact of social networking sites on the student experience (Madge et al., 2009). The temptation for universities to engage with students in Facebook is strong. Victoria University (VU) in Melbourne uses Facebook to engage and support students and is keen to explore how Web 2.0 technologies might provide alternative and additional approaches to enhancing retention. This paper examines VU’s Faculty of Business and Law Facebook site and offers a general analysis of Facebook usage.

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