Students' experience and perception on e-learning using social networking

The growth and popularity of Web 2.0 applications have a profound impact in the way people communicate and connect with one another. Social Networking (SN) provides people with multiple ways to connect, share experiences and insights, and engage with one another. At present, people make use of social networking to make new friends, maintain friendship and interact with them. It can, at the same time, be an ideal platform for online learning community with great potential to facilitate students' learning. On the other hand, more and more higher education institutes are integrating e-learning systems into their standard pedagogy. In this paper, we will present findings from a small scale study exploring the first year students' experiences on social networking usage and their perception on using it for e-learning. The data are collected quantitatively, consisting of surveys on students' experiences on using social networking as a communication and collaboration tool. The results are to be used for the preparation of a larger survey for the whole institute. The preliminary findings indicate that students are inclined to utilize social networking for performing many learning tasks. If teachers can design some learning activities conducting on social networking and cooperated with Learning Management System (LMS); it may effectively promote online community and enhance collaborative learning amongst students.