Engagement Patterns of High and Low Academic Performers on Facebook Anatomy Pages

Only a few studies have investigated how students use and respond to social networks in the educational context as opposed to social use. In this study, the engagement of medical students on anatomy Facebook pages was evaluated in view of their academic performance. High performers contributed to mo...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Akram Abood Jaffar, Mohamed Ahmed Eladl
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: SAGE Publishing 2016-01-01
Series:Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.4137/JMECD.S36646
Description
Summary:Only a few studies have investigated how students use and respond to social networks in the educational context as opposed to social use. In this study, the engagement of medical students on anatomy Facebook pages was evaluated in view of their academic performance. High performers contributed to most of the engagements. They also had a particular preference for higher levels of engagement. Although the students were deeply involved in the educational element of the pages, they continued to appreciate the inherent social element. The profound engagement of the high performers indicated a consistency between Facebook use in the educational context and better student performance. At the same time, the deeper engagement of high performers refutes the opinion that Facebook use is a distractor. Instead, it supports the notion that Facebook could be a suitable platform to engage students in an educational context.
ISSN:2382-1205