Professor-student friendship on facebook

CUHK undergraduates’ attitudes

WU, Ka Chun Eymon (1009632403)CHIU, Ho Pak Irwin (1009614763)CHIANG, Ka Chon (1009618033)AU-YEUNG, Wai Kai (1009632073)

Facebook Widely used in modern society

A former Missouri public school student was molested by a teacher decades ago

Debate - whether it is suitable for teachers and students to have private friendships or online communications in the US

In August of 2011, the debate reached legal territory

Background

State of Missouri initiated a law take effect on August 28th ban private or exclusive online teacher-student relationships

(including facebook friendship)

Teachers cannot establish, maintain, or use a work-related website to communicate with students, unless it is available to school administrators and the child’s legal custodian, physical custodian, or legal guardian

Hot debate in the United States and elsewhere

"Amy Hestir Student Protection Act"

Should there be absolute boundaries for teachers in their online relationships?

Is teacher-student relationship online an evil?

Currently, there are 3 818 120 facebook (fb) users in the Hong Kong

#38 in the ranking of all fb statistics by country

Hong Kong Facebook Statistics

Facebook penetration in Hong Kong is 53.85% (in the whole population)

Among Internet users, 78.26% are fb users

Total number of facebook users in Hong Kong is reaching 3818120 as at Oct 21, 2011

Growing by >160 100 in the last 6 months

Users & Demography of Hong Kong

There are a large number of facebook users in Hong Kong, including students in universities and secondary schools

Can interact with large group of people easy via facebook

More research on the social interaction via facebook between teachers and students should be carried out to investigate its effect on students and hence as a guide to education policy

However, currently there is not much research on teacher-student friendship on facebook in HK

To investigate CUHK undergraduate students’ attitudes towards professor-student friendship on facebook (Aim: to describe the current situation)

To investigate the relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and student engagement at university (Hypothesis: positive relationship)

To investigate the relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship)

Research Objectives

To investigate the relationship between having professors as facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship)

To investigate whether communication between students and professors via facebook will affect communication in the real world

To investigate whether students’ friendship establishment with professors on facebook will affect professor-student relationship in the real world

In a research concerning “Using Twitter to Support Engagement in the College Classroom” in 2009, it had been found that there is a positive relationship between student engagement in social media and their success in school

Current findings

To investigate the relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and student engagement at university (Hypothesis: positive relationship)

To investigate the relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship)

To investigate the relationship between having professors as facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship)

To investigate whether facebook friendship establishment between students and professors will affect real-life relationship (Hypothesis: positive relationship)

Hypothesis

Questionnaire (online and paper)

Try to distribute questionnaires to undergraduate students from different faculty and in different year of study to minimize any bias from convenience sampling

Data collection lasted for about 2 weeks

Questionnaires collected: 531

Methodology

Data demography

Results

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

People may select more than one checkbox, so percentages may add up to more than 100%.

Need to have sense of humor Need to be willing to help students Need to know each other beforehand Need to have at least some real-life verbal

communication beforehand Common beliefs or cooperation in a task

may not be necessary

Conclusion – to be fb friends

Tools Paired t-test

determines whether responses from the same group differ from each other in a significant way (i.e. not by chance)

Unpaired t-test determines whether responses from the 2

independent groups differ from each other in a significant way (i.e. not by chance)

Data analysis

Can facebook friendship affect real-life professor-student relationship?

Group   Not friend on facebook yet     If profs not accept friend req  

Mean 5.32 4.63

SD 2.33 2.51

SEM 0.1 0.11

N 531     531 

Paired t test results

P value and statistical significance: • The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0001• By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be

extremely statistically significant.

Confidence interval:• The mean of “Not friend on facebook yet” minus “If profs not

accept friend req” equals 0.68• 95% confidence interval of this difference: From 0.56 to 0.81

Intermediate values used in calculations:• t = 10.7089• df = 530• standard error of difference = 0.064

Therefore, professors not accepting facebook friend request from students may significantly undermine students’ intention to greet professors in normal circumstances

Group   Not friend on facebook yet  

  After being fb friend with pro  

Mean 5.32 5.87

SD 2.33 2.07

SEM 0.1 0.09

N 531     531  

Paired t test results

P value and statistical significance: The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0001 By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be

extremely statistically significant.

Confidence interval: The mean of “Not friend on facebook yet” minus “After being fb

friend with profs” equals -0.55 95% confidence interval of this difference: From -0.68 to -0.43

Intermediate values used in calculations: t = 8.5031 df = 530 standard error of difference = 0.065

Therefore, after being friend on facebook, students tend to have significantly higher intention to greet with professors

Taking the two statistical analysis into account, it seems online social relationship tends to be positively related to real-life social relationship

Like to be fb friends with professors (score: 5-8)

Don’t like to be fb friend with professors (score: 0-3)

Student engagement at university and their intention to friend professors on facebook

Group   Like friending profs  

  don't like friending profs  

Mean 6.18 4.98

SD 1.39 2.01

SEM 0.09 0.16

N 216     151

Intention to attend lessons

P value and statistical significance: The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0001 By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be

extremely statistically significant.

Confidence interval: The mean of Like friending profs minus don't like friending

profs equals 1.20 95% confidence interval of this difference: From 0.85 to 1.55

Intermediate values used in calculations: t = 6.7600 df = 365 standard error of difference = 0.178

Therefore, students who like to be facebook (fb) friends with professors tend to be significantly more willing to attend lessons

Group  

  Like friending profs  

  don't like friending profs  

Mean 6.18 4.98SD 1.39 2.01

SEM 0.09 0.16N 216     151

Intention to submit homework

Unpaired t test results

P value and statistical significance: The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0001 By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be

extremely statistically significant.

Confidence interval: The mean of “Like friending profs” minus “don't like friending

profs” equals 1.33 95% confidence interval of this difference: From 0.89 to 1.77

Intermediate values used in calculations: t = 5.9042 df = 367 standard error of difference = 0.225

Intention to submit homework

Therefore, students who like being fb friends with professors tend to has significantly higher intention to submit homework

Group   Like friending profs  

  don't like friending

profs  

Mean 5.82 5.12

SD 1.35 1.91

SEM 0.09 0.15

N 216     153

Intention to pay attention in classes

Unpaired t test results

P value and statistical significance: The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0001 By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be extremely statistically

significant.

Confidence interval: The mean of Like friending profs minus don't like friending profs equals 0.70 95% confidence interval of this difference: From 0.37 to 1.04

Intermediate values used in calculations: t = 4.1327 df = 367 standard error of difference = 0.170

Therefore, students who like being fb friends with professors tend to has significantly higher intention to pay attention in classes

  Group   Like friending profs  

  don't like friending profs  

Mean 4.57 3.71

SD 1.81 2.18

SEM 0.12 0.18

N 216     153    

Unpaired t test results

P value and statistical significance: The two-tailed P value is less than 0.0001 By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be extremely statistically

significant.

Confidence interval: The mean of Like friending profs minus don't like friending profs equals 0.86 95% confidence interval of this difference: From 0.45 to 1.27

Intermediate values used in calculations: t = 4.1507 df = 367 standard error of difference = 0.208

Therefore, students who like being fb friends with professors tend to has significantly higher willingness to answer professors’ questions (a measure of active participation in classes)

 Group  Like

friending profs  

  don't like friending

profs  

Mean 5.53 4.82

SD 1.73 2.02

SEM 0.12 0.16

N 216     153

Unpaired t test results

P value and statistical significance: The two-tailed P value equals 0.0004 By conventional criteria, this difference is considered to be extremely

statistically significant.

Confidence interval: The mean of Like friending profs minus don't like friending profs equals

0.70 95% confidence interval of this difference: From 0.32 to 1.09

Intermediate values used in calculations: t = 3.5911 df = 367 standard error of difference = 0.196

Therefore, students who like being fb friends with professors tend to has significantly higher willingness to participate in extra-curricular activities

Friendship and academic status

<2.5 2.5-3.0 3.1-3.3 3.4-3.6 3.7-3.8 3.9-4.00

20

40

60

80

100

120

friendnot friend

Friendship and academic status

<2.5 2.5-3.0 3.1-3.3 3.4-3.6 3.7-3.8 3.9-4.00%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

friend and activefriend but not active

Desire to friend professors and academic status

<2.5 2.5-3.0 3.1-3.3 3.4-3.6 3.7-3.8 3.9-4.00

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

likedon't like

Any explanation? Friended but not active or don’t like? Like but not friended yet?

Thinking

To investigate the relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and student engagement at university (Hypothesis: positive relationship yes!!!)

To investigate the relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship- yes!!!)

To investigate the relationship between having professors as facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship- No… need further investigation)

To investigate whether facebook friendship establishment between students and professors will affect real-life relationship (Hypothesis: positive relationship- yes!!!)

Hypothesis proved true?

Time and human resources

Questionnaire coverage and representativeness of the result

Can only identify association but not the casual relationship

Limitations

Our research may give some clues on education mode that may enhance students’ engagement in school as well as learning

Recognize students’ desire and make good use of it to boost student engagement at universities, which may further help with students’ academic status

Suggestions

+ve relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and student engagement at university

+ve relationship between the desire of being professors’ facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship

-ve relationship between having professors as facebook friends and academic status (Hypothesis: positive relationship

+ve Relationship facebook friendship establishment between students and professors will affect real-life relationship

Conclusion