Face to Face or Facebook: 21st Century University Education: A Survey

Abstract : University education has for centuries depended on face to face interactions between academic teachers and their students. In the 21st century, social media tools such as FacebookTM consume an increasing part of the time and attention of our students, who are also more and more stressed. Meanwhile, lecture attendance is down, student part-time work is up, and what has happened to the learning? Is there an ideal amount of Facebook engagement which will maximize outcomes (learning), and engagement (enthusiasm)? We survey the relevant literature to come to some initial conclusions and propose an experimental test of our conclusion.