Social media for learning exploring the role of students’ online collaborative practices in the development of their productivity
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Date
2022
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Université De Larbi Ben M’hidi Oum EL Bouaghi
Abstract
Facebook is considered to be one of the most popular platforms for online social networking among university students, who are attracted to such spaces more than any time before. At first glance, the use of social media platforms seems to be a waste of time; however, it is believed to help students develop important knowledge and social skills. It provides various opportunities for students to, flexibly, interact beyond classroom walls. The ever-growing popularity of such spaces launches the debate among educators, who view these online tools as a clear opportunity to develop innovative ways of teaching and learning. The current study brings together the areas of collaborative learning and their academic performance. It attempts to find out whether undergraduate students at the Department of English at Larbi Ben M'Hidi University use Facebook effectively as a learning environment that could support their educational matters in the form of collaboration with one another. Therefore, in an attempt to address this issue, data were collected with qualitative and quantitative methods. At the outset, an observation took place throughout the entire period of our research in an attempt to understand what type of content students usually share and interact with, how they interact, and, most importantly, how they collaborate within a virtual space, and the result showed that Facebook is the most powerful educational strategy, which students learn in groups for achieving collaboration and common goals. Amid our observation, we conducted questionnaires that were submitted to undergraduate students at the Department of English. The results reveal that students believe social media platforms, particularly Facebook, to be an essential environment to support their educational matters. It provides students with promising opportunities to interact, share academic content, and boost their productivity inside and outside the classroom.
Description
Keywords
Collaborative Learning, Productivity, Learning Environment