The use of Facebook as an assisting tool in teaching computer science courses

Abstract

This paper describes the results of a study in which two Facebook pages were investigated as assisting tools in teaching two computer science courses. The intention was to measure the importance of utilizing a social networks widely used by students for improving the engagement factor of students with the course content. The results of the study showed that students although use Facebook for social purposes such as exchanging messages, their use of the course pages was of less significance. Students, although followed the pages as expected, their engagement was only for the purpose of seeking announcements or questions listed by the instructor, i.e. they used the page as a bulletin board.