Interaction on distance education in virtual social networks: A case study with facebook

Abstract

The way as people communicate and interact each other have been changing, especially with the expansion of the internet and the use of social networks. Motivated to a better understanding of this phenomenon in the educational sphere, this research aimed to identify the perception of high school students and tutors about the use of virtual social networks on a distance education course offered in public Brazilian high schools. This work is characterized as a hybrid qualitative study case, classified as pre-dominantly quantitative, but exploratory and descriptive research. The study case survey data was obtained by questionnaires and the data were collected by an anonymous online survey application filled by students and tutors that participated in the course. The main results confirm what is presented by the most current research on the topic: the use of closed groups in virtual social networks contributes in a significant way for the interaction among the participants and for the involvement of the students in the course.