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Hytten, Kevin James

College of Education and Social Services

Ed. D.

Astin's theory of student involvement served as the foundation for this study exploring the relationship of Facebook usage to engagement in known educationally beneficial activities. A mixed method research design was employed to both examine statistical relationships and describe how use of Facebook supported engagement in educationally purposeful activities. For the quantitative phase of the research a Web-based survey achieved a 43% response rate (n = 864). Challenges associated with the recruitment and attendance of focus groups resulted in a limited amount of qualitative data.
Results of statistical analysis revealed the number of friends in a student's Facebook network was positively correlated with several measures of engagement in educationally beneficial activities. Furthermore, themes identified from analysis of focus group interviews shed light on the statistical findings, enhancing the understanding of how Facebook use, in particular the size of a friend network, translated to increased engagement in educationally purposeful activities.
The results support Astin's findings that a student's peer network is perhaps the single most potent source of cognitive and effective development (1999a). In the current study Facebook was leveraged by students to increase the breadth of their peer network. Furthermore, there was a positive correlation between the size of a student's peer friend network and their engagement in activities known to support academic success. These observations also support the notion of several other scholars that learning is socially based and the peer influence on learning extends beyond the walls of the classroom (Pascarella & Terenzini, 2005).