Michelle Marie T.

Ochoa
English 10

October 1, 2014

Facebook as an Extended Academic Platform and Its Effects on Student Involvement

Facebook as an Extended Academic Platform
Society today lives in a digital age. Through innovations in technology, and connectivity via the
internet, social media and social networking sites (SNS) become more relevant in the lives of the people.
Among the various social networking sites available to date, Facebook (FB) is known to be one of the
most popular SNS.
The popularity as well as the accessibility of the site, especially to the youth, allows for the use of
Facebook as an extension of the formal academic setting by means of creating an avenue of learning and
interacting outside the classroom.
With the variety of usages that Facebook provides, no wonder its utilization is extending itself in
the field of education. Developing technologies such as Facebook are slowly being integrated in the
academic world. A formal example of this comes from the Waterloo Regional District School Board,
Ontario in 2010, where they embrace the access of social media in education in the belief that these will
uphold the learning agenda of the students. Likewise, the American Psychological Association (2009),
mentions that these technologies provide an easier access to multimedia presentations that can
accommodate for various types of learning styles (p.456).
The evolution of technology going side by side with education becomes more pertinent in the
Philippines. Current research from the website Quintly, by Maximillian Nierhoff (2013), shows that the
number of Facebook users has reached the 30 million membership threshold According to some statistics
from Get Hooked 360 (2013), around 40% of the Facebook users in the country are young adults, with
ages ranging from 18 to24 years old. A bulk of the population comprising of teenagers 13 to 17 years old,
compose around 15% of the Facebook users in the Philippines (Get Hooked 360, 2013).
These figures imply that majority of the Filipino youth are oriented towards using Facebook. The
ages of the majority of the Facebook users also fall under the typical age bracket of college students here
in the country. The move of utilizing Facebook for academics among college students is already being
observed, although formal studies about this matter, contextualized in the Philippine setting, have yet to
be conducted.
Student Involvement
This study deals with the academic use of Facebook and its effect on how the students engage in
their studies. To better understand the research, the study will be anchored on Alexander W. Astins theory
on student involvement, including the five postulates that comprise it. Based on the theory, this study
links the UP Diliman Freshman students use of Facebook to their relative level of student involvement in
terms of preparation before class.

Michelle Marie T. Ochoa

English 10

October 1, 2014

Student involvement, defined by Astin (1984), is the amount of physical and psychological
energy that the student devotes to the academic experience. This theory of Astin is broken down into five
different points or postulates:
1) Involvement refers to the investment of physical and psychological energy in
various objects.
2) Regardless of its object, involvement occurs along a continuum; that is different
students manifest different degrees of involvement in a given object.
3) Involvement has both quantitative and qualitative features.
4) The amount of student learning and personal development associated with any
educational program is directly proportional to the quality and quantity of student
involvement in that program.
5) The effectiveness of any educational policy or practice is directly related to the
capacity of that policy to increase student involvement.
These postulates, especially the third, fourth, and fifth, provide a basic structure and criteria as to
how Facebook fares as an extended academic platform to UP Diliman Freshman students. It can be
hypothesized that if Facebook is being continually used as an extended academic platform, then the
students overall Facebook use is more extensive and thus lessening their involvement in preparation for
class. Junco (2011) mentioned that the handful of studies already conducted about this have contradicting
results. However, he was able to show that some activities in Facebook improve on their student
involvement, while others have a negative effect on it.
For data gathering, an online survey will be used to gather information on the behavior of
freshman students towards the use of Facebook as a means of broadcasting or receiving academic
announcements, and their effects on the extent of Facebook use and involvement in preparing for class.
The projected sample size is 50 students, ideally with 50% male and 50% female respondents. In support
with the survey, interviews of around 2 to 3 students will be done to ensure the validity of the results, as
well as to concretize findings.
Research Problem
What effect does the use Facebook as an extended academic platform have for Freshman UP
Diliman students, in terms of student involvement?
Hypothesis
If students use Facebook as an extended academic platform then student involvement then there
will be a positive effect, improving student performance.

Michelle Marie T. Ochoa

English 10

October 1, 2014

References

Astin, A. W. (1984). Student Involvement: A Developmental Theory for Higher Education. Journal of
College Student Development, 40(5), 518-529.
oklar, A. N. (2012, April). Evaluations of Students on Facebook as and Educational Environment.
Turkish Online Journal of Qualitative Inquiry, 3(2), 42-53.
Fewkes, A. M., & McCabe, M. (2012). Facebook: Learning Tool or Distraction? Journal of Digital
Learning in Teacher Education, Volume 28(3), 1-7.
Get Hooked 360. (2014). Facebook Reaches 30 Million Users in te Philippines. Retrieved August 30,
2014, from Get Hooked 360: http://www.gethooked360.com/facebook-reaches-30-million-usersin-the-philippines/
Junco, R. (2011). The Relationship between Frequency of Facebook Use, Participation in Facebook
Activities, and Student Engagement. Computers & Education, 162-171.
Junco, R. (2011). Too Much Face and Not Enough Books: The Relationship between Multiple Indices of
Facebook Use and Academic Performance. Computers in Human Behavior, 1-12.
Limayem, M., Rouis, S., & Salehi-Sangari, E. (2012). Impact of Facebook Usage on Students' Academic
Achievemnt: Roles of Self-Regulation and Trust. Electronic Journal of Research in Educational
Psychology, 9(3), 961-994.
Nierhoff, M. (2013, February 4). Facebook Country Stats February 2013 - Top 10 Countries Lose Users
Due to the Ongoing Account Cleanup. Retrieved August 30, 2014, from Quaintly:
https://www.quintly.com/blog/2013/02/facebook-country-stats-february-2013-top-10-countrieslose-users/