Identifying the use of online social networking in higher education

Abstract

Online social networking (OSN) is a range of activities enabled by social technologies and operationalised by a group of people. More recently, web 2.0 social technologies have been widely used to facilitate OSN. OSN is currently popular mostly for non-educational purposes among young generations categorised as Digital Natives. It can be appropriated and repurposed to support teaching and learning delivery. Despite the availability of implementation cases, studies on the effectiveness of the deployment are still lacking. Therefore, based on a critical literature review, this study investigates which OSN activities are relevant in the education context and what social technologies can support these activities. Specifically, four OSN activities that have been identified and relevant in the education context are content generating, sharing, interacting and collaboratively socialising. The study finding provides a general guide for academics who want to use OSN in improving their teaching and learning.