Exploring Learners’ Attitude toward Facebook as a Medium of Learners’ Engagement during Covid-19 Quarantine

Abstract

The rapid transition to online teaching because of the global disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic exclaimed all the educators on finding the most efficient ways to teach in the presence of all rampant limitations caused in both social and academic lives. Facebook, as one of the favorite social networks, having hundreds of millions of users, is an enticing way for the teachers and students to form an online community. With this regard, the purpose of the present study is to explore the attitude and viewpoints of language learners toward implementing Facebook as a peripheral medium, besides the formal e-learning platform used in the classroom, to engage learners in language learning and explore its effectiveness in the process of teaching. Moreover, this study aims to explore learners’ attitudes through the lens of the sociocultural theory. To this end, participants were chosen based on availability sampling, and the online versions of two surveys, Facebook Online Survey and Usefulness and Effectiveness Survey were shared with them through Facebook wall posts and Google Drive. The quantitative and qualitative analyses of their responses are examined and the results are analyzed based on the sociocultural perspective. This study implied that Facebook can be employed as a motivating technology to engage learners and an effective tool besides the other online medium used during the global lockdown.

Exploring students’ perspectives on using live streaming on Facebook as project-based learning in Indonesian EFL classes

“…Machmud and Abdulah (2017) assist in EFL instruction; therefore, the teacher should first acknowledge the students' characteristics. The findings confirm Moghadam and Shamsi's (2021) study that engaging and motivating learners in distance learning should be through more exciting alternatives. The study's findings regarding using Facebook to involve learners in the learning process to move forward language teaching to be effective and lead to learners' learning and satisfaction.…”

The Relationship between Learner Attitude towards the Use of Facebook Social Networking Platform and Academic Achievement in Computer Programming in Public Secondary Schools, Nairobi County, Kenya

“…Further, Moghadam and Shamsi (2021) confirmed that students had a positive attitude toward the implementation of FSNP as a medium of learning in a recent study conducted in a language center for college students in Fasa, Iran, to explore learners' attitudes towards Facebook as a medium of engagement during the Covid-19 quarantine. According to Moghadam and Shamsi (2021), the students' positive attitude toward using FSNP for learning purposes was due to the platform's ability to increase students' confidence; engage students in motivating ways using chats, knowledge sharing through posts, document sharing, and live videos; provide an interpersonal and interacting learning community for both students and teachers; promote collaborative learning and support virtual learning in the aftermath of lockdown.…”

“…Further, Moghadam and Shamsi (2021) confirmed that students had a positive attitude toward the implementation of FSNP as a medium of learning in a recent study conducted in a language center for college students in Fasa, Iran, to explore learners' attitudes towards Facebook as a medium of engagement during the Covid-19 quarantine. According to Moghadam and Shamsi (2021), the students' positive attitude toward using FSNP for learning purposes was due to the platform's ability to increase students' confidence; engage students in motivating ways using chats, knowledge sharing through posts, document sharing, and live videos; provide an interpersonal and interacting learning community for both students and teachers; promote collaborative learning and support virtual learning in the aftermath of lockdown. However, like the study by Gamble andWilkins (2014), Faizi, et al (2018) which were exploratory in nature and involved university students who tend to use the SNPs more responsibly than those in high schools Moghadam and Shamsi (2021) did not address the relationship between learner attitude and academic achievement in a specific discipline like computer studies, particularly among students in public secondary schools in developing countries such as Kenya.…”

“…According to Moghadam and Shamsi (2021), the students' positive attitude toward using FSNP for learning purposes was due to the platform's ability to increase students' confidence; engage students in motivating ways using chats, knowledge sharing through posts, document sharing, and live videos; provide an interpersonal and interacting learning community for both students and teachers; promote collaborative learning and support virtual learning in the aftermath of lockdown. However, like the study by Gamble andWilkins (2014), Faizi, et al (2018) which were exploratory in nature and involved university students who tend to use the SNPs more responsibly than those in high schools Moghadam and Shamsi (2021) did not address the relationship between learner attitude and academic achievement in a specific discipline like computer studies, particularly among students in public secondary schools in developing countries such as Kenya. On the contrary, a conducted a descriptive survey research at the University of Port Harcourt that investigated undergraduate students' attitude towards the use of social media for learning purposes carried out by Williams and Adescope (2017) revealed no significant differences were observed between students in different faculties regarding their attitude towards social media and increased learning.…”

Facebook as a Promotional Tool for Learner Autonomy: Thai Pre-Service Efl Teachers’ Voices

“…This point is related to the study of Almohtadi and Aldarabah (2021), which suggests that students had positive and high attitudes toward Facebook in terms of its relative advantage, ease of use, compatibility, trialability, and observability. Similarly, Moghadam and Shamsi (2021) found that their participants rated Facebook as an appropriate teaching tool. Their primary reasons for using Facebook were to share their interests with friends, to develop social group relationships, to find native speakers for chatting purposes, to download multimedia content, and to learn English vocabularies through the liked or subscribed pages.…”