The impact of social media on social presence and student satisifaction in nursing education

The purpose of this study was to determine if social media has a place within the classroom and can enhance the student's learning experience by tapping into a medium in which they are already comfortable and familiar, and interact with on a daily basis. Social media has the potential to change the overall dynamic of the traditional lecture classroom, opening up new avenues of communication and learning that lecture classes alone are not able to offer. It can enhance the learning of students by promoting a digital learning community. Social media is also a cost effective tool for the institution, as it costs nothing for the faculty or student to join. This study involved assessing 49 nursing students who used social media, or Facebook to be more exact, compared to when they used a traditional online learning platform. A learning community, a place where instructors can be involved in building social presence, which involves instructors and students in a site-based format that helps assist continued collaborative development, was built into the class (Linder, Post, & Calabrese, 2012). Learning communities provide a way for the instructor to provide information to students, and then allows those students to discuss among themselves the subject assigned. A digital learning community may facilitate improvement in the students' online social presence. (Published By University of Alabama Libraries