Saudi Students’ Perceptions of Social Networking (Facebook) Being Used in Online Instruction
Abstract: Establishing a learning community with a high sense of social presence is an important element of online learning. Social networking platforms integrated within asynchronous instruction are an innovative approach to building online learning. This study-in-progress has chosen to examine Facebook as the social networking platform because it has become a common and popular form of social interaction. Therefore in order to determine the quality of Facebook as a good supplement for online instruction, the purpose of this study is to investigate online students’ perceptions of Facebook as a preferred tool for asynchronous instruction regarding sense of community & social presence. The target audience of this study will be Saudi university students. This study would involve examinations of relationships among these perceptions and demographic variables like age, gender, computer proficiency, discipline, GPA, frequency of using social networking, and educational level.