Donlan, Leah

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Intention versus reality: Exploring the use of Facebook for teaching andlearning in three sports marketing modulesThe infiltration of social media into our everyday lives has transformed the way in whichpeople communicate, do business and is even beginning to change the way in which highereducation institutions teach their students.  The new generation of students are ‘digitalnatives’ (Prensky, 2001), having grown up with an array of new technologies and as such theyexpect the use of multiple information media (Aragon, 2007).  Of the hundreds of socialnetworking sites available online, Facebook is the most well-known and most widely used,with over 500 million active users worldwide (Facebook, 2011).  Previous studies alsosuggest the pervasiveness of Facebook use among student populations, with Connell (2009)reporting that 92% of respondents in a sample of US college students use Facebook.Similarly, Facebook was found to be the most popular social networking site used by studentsin studies by Smith and Caruso (2010) and Hoyer et al (2010).  Therefore, the purpose of thispaper is to explore the views of students at a UK university, regarding the use of Facebook forteaching and learning purposes.  This paper will also present early reflections on the use ofFacebook as a tool for teaching and learning in marketing.  Within the study, Facebook pageshave been created for three modules in sports marketing (two at undergraduate level and oneat postgraduate level).  In light of the work-in-progress nature of this study, further research isplanned to explore the views of students on using Facebook within the sports marketingmodules and whether/how they would like to see Facebook used for university modules in thefuture.  As such, the overall aim of this multi-stage project is to build our understanding ofways in which social networking sites can enhance our teaching in the field of marketing.The use of technology in the teaching of marketing is not a new phenomenon and manyhigher education institutions use learning management systems such as Blackboard andeLearn within their teaching and learning activities.  One criticism of such learningmanagement systems is that they tend to encourage an instructivist approach to teaching(Salavuo, 2008), while social networking sites allow for greater interaction, both student-teacher and student-student.  Social networking sites such as Facebook allow students tointeract with each other and with module materials outside of the classroom and can thereforecreate a greater number of learning opportunities (Boostrom et al, 2009).  In a study ofTurkish university students, Baran (2010) found that 84% of respondents felt that Facebookcould be used for information sharing relating to their studies, a view echoed by Boostrom etal (2009), who identified that information sharing and interactivity characterised positivestudent experiences with social networking sites for educational purposes.  However, despitesome support for the use of Facebook, students in Baran’s (2010) study were undecidedoverall as to whether Facebook was of high value to teaching.Over 60% of student in Baran’s (2010) study felt that communicating with classmates via amodule Facebook group helped to motivate them in their learning.  However, in contrast tothis, a recent study from Ohio State University suggests that students who use Facebookspend less time studying and have a lower grade point average than do those students withoutan account (Grabmeier, 2011).  There is also some concern reported among academics whofeel that the way in which so called Generation Y students use social networking sites will noteasily translate into an educational context (Bull et al, 2008).  An additional concern over theuse of Facebook for teaching and learning purposes is that Facebook is often seen by studentsas a private space (Connell, 2009) for their social activities, which is not to be invaded bylecturers.  The problem of mixing personal and educational was overcome by Boostrom et al(2009), who used a segregated social networking site (Ning.com) for their modules, thereforebenefitting from the interactive features of social networking sites without the potentialbarriers of student reluctance to merge personal and professional identities.If social networking sites are to be successfully used in teaching and learning withinmarketing, a key requirement is to get students to “buy in” to the process and to encouragestudent ownership of pages (Hoyer et al, 2010) so that there is an added value over and abovetraditional teaching materials.  The keys to effective learning in social networkingenvironments have been identified by Salavuo (2008) as participation, presence andownership.  It is therefore apposite to consider, as the present study does, the views ofstudents regarding the use of social networking sites for university work, so as to maximisethe probability of students valuing, participating in and taking ownership of module/coursesocial networking sites or pages/groups.This study explores the views of students regarding the use of social networking sites and theuse of Facebook pages set up for a series of modules in sports marketing.  In order to examinethese issues, a multi-stage mixed methodology is employed.  The first phase of the researchinvolved an online survey of students at a large UK university, regarding their current use ofsocial media and their views on using social networking sites for study purposes.  In total, 112useable responses were received.  Of course, there are limitations to using online surveys,particularly in terms of failing to reach those students who do not engage or feel comfortablewith technology.  Equally, those students with a strong interest in the topic will be moredrawn to completing the online survey than those who are less interested or ambivalent to thesubject (Duda and Nobile, 2010).  Particularly when exploring the potential for using socialmedia for teaching and learning in marketing, the potential omission of views from studentsnot making regular use of technology represents a limitation of this research.  Therefore,further research using more traditional survey or interview methods is advocated.  The secondstage of the project involved the development, updating and monitoring of Facebook pagesfor three sports marketing modules.  Finally, the third phase of research involves a series offocus groups with students of sports marketing to explore their experiences of using Facebookin conjunction with their modules and their thoughts on the future use of such technology forteaching and learning.  While stage one represents the large scale collection of quantitativedata, focus groups were selected in order to explore in detail the views of students in theirown voice – that of the digital native.Of the 112 respondents to the online survey, 69% were male and 31% female, which may beindicative of the sports focus of degree courses studied by the targeted students.  Threequarters (75%) of respondents were aged between 18 and 21, with 96% being full-time (bothundergraduate and postgraduate) students.  No claims are made about the generalisability ofthis sample to other student populations.  Of the survey respondents, 97% of students reportedusing social networking sites, with Facebook being the most popular site, used by 95% ofthese respondents.  Using chi-squared tests, no significant difference was found between maleand female students in their likelihood of using social networking sites (χ2 = 0.455, p =0.500).  Student respondents reported using Facebook for a wide variety of activitiesincluding keeping up with what friends are doing (80%), posting status updates (67%), livechat (69%) and arranging events (63%).Somewhat in contrast with the views expressed in the literature about the information sharingpotential of social networking sites, only 30% of respondents reported using Facebook to postlinks/videos.  Over half of respondents reported being interested or very interested in postinglinks (82%), online tutorials (76%), discussing work with others (86%), commenting onarticles (81%) and accessing links/articles related to module content (90%).  A full table ofresults relating to students’ interest in using Facebook for a range of university modulepurposes is shown in Appendix 1.  It appears from this data that there is evidence of awillingness among respondents to use Facebook for university purposes.In line with previous studies, some resistance to using Facebook for university purposes wasnoted, with 33% of respondents saying that there is something which would put them off fromusing Facebook in such a way.  Among the most common reasons given were that Facebookis not as good as other tools for university work, that they would get easily distracted fromstudy by being on Facebook, a reluctance to let tutors see their personal pages and thatFacebook is something they use in their private life, not for study.  As such, the responses inthis study echo many of the concerns raised in previous literature.  Consequently, it may benecessary to modify the approach to the use of social media in the teaching of marketing toreflect these concerns, whilst embracing the benefits perceived by the majority of students.Within the second phase of the research, relevant links relating to topics discussed andpresented in class were posted by the module tutor on the three Facebook pages for modulesin sports marketing.  The pages were set up so that students could ‘like’ the page withouthaving to add the tutor as a friend.  Using Facebook analytics, the use of the pages wastracked and students were found to be regularly accessing them, with many links receivingover 50 impressions (clicks).  This suggests that many students were accessing the links morethan once.  However, while students were accessing the materials, no students commented onany of the links or posted any links themselves.  This stands in contradiction to the interactivenature of social media and highlights a lack of participation in two-way communication bystudents.  The effect achieved, with students simply accessing links, could consequently havebeen achieved through a regular learning management system.  Therefore, the focus groups inthe forthcoming phase of the study will explore the reasons for students’ lack of activeparticipation and examine if/how students would like to use Facebook on future modules.The experience of using the Facebook pages for these modules is contradictory to the surveyfindings, where there was interest among students in not only accessing but also posting linksand commenting on/discussing links.  This highlights a weakness of surveys eliciting self-reported intention; it is easy for respondents to claim that they would be interested in doingsomething, but it requires considerably greater motivation to actually engage in thatbehaviour.  Brenton (2009) suggests that the reason for the failure of many e-learninginitiatives may be an insufficient purpose for the intervention in the first place or a failure tobuild the online element into the day-to-day teaching and assessment on the module.  IfFacebook is to be a valuable tool for teaching in marketing, there is a need to find out how tofoster student ownership, participation and engagement with the designated module pages.The results of this study and the forthcoming focus group analysis will have implications formarketing educators as we try to unlock the educational potential of sites such as Facebook.This study is still in progress and therefore the results presented here are preliminary.  Furtherresearch is ongoing but the key conclusions thus far appear to be that there is interest fromstudents in using Facebook for teaching and learning purposes but the reality of its use inthree marketing modules indicates a passive reception of information by students, rather thanan interactive, information sharing experience.  The problem may be an issue of design andthe way in which the pages are currently set up and managed by the tutor, therefore a muchdeeper investigation into student motivations to contribute to the pages is in progress.ReferencesAragon, J. (2007) Technologies and pedagogy: How YouTubing, social networking, and otherweb sources complement the classroom, Feminist Collections 28(4) 45.Boostrom, R.E., Kurthakoti, R. and Summey, J.H. (2009) Enhancing class communicationsthrough segregated social networks, Marketing Education Review 19(1) 37-41.Brenton, S. (2009) E-learning – an introduction. In H. Fry, S. Ketteridge and S. Marshall (eds)A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 3rd edition, Routledge,Abingdon, 85-98.Bull, G., Thompson, A., Searson, M., Garofalo, J., Park, J., Young, C., & Lee, J (2008).Connecting informal and formal learning: Experiences in the age of participatory media.Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education, 8(2), 100-107.Connell, R.S. (2009) Academic Libraries, Facebook and MySpace, and Student Outreach: ASurvey of Student Opinion, Libraries and the Academy 9(1) 25-36Duda, M.D. and Nobile, J.L (2010) The fallacy of online surveys: No data are better than baddata, Human Dimensions of Wildlife 15(1) 55-64.Facebook (2011) Statistics, Available at: http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics(Accessed 28 January 2011]Grabmeier, J. (2011) Study finds links between Facebook use, lower grades in collegeAvailable at: http://researchnews.osu.edu/archive/facebookusers.htm [Accessed 26 January2011]Hoyer, J., Thompson, G., LeBleu, L. and Collard, T. (2010) An Analytical StatisticalAssessment of the use of Social Media Among Marketing and Public Relations Students inthe UK, France and USA. Paper presented at Academy of Marketing Conference, July 2010,Coventry, UK.Prensky, M. (2001) Digital natives, digital immigrants, On The Horizon 9(5) 1-6Salavuo, M. (2008) Social media as an opportunity for pedagogical change in musiceducation, Journal of Music, Technology and Education, 1(2/3) 121-136Smith, S.D. and Caruso, J.B. (2010) The ECAR study of undergraduate students andinformation technology, 2010. Available at:http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/EKF/EKF1006.pdf [accessed 26 January 2011]Appendix 1Table 1: How interested would you be in using Facebook for the following purposes related touniversity modules?

Intention .v. Reality: Exploring the use of Facebook for teaching and learning in three sports marketing modules

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