Education is changing, becoming more personal, reflexive, involved, focused on knowledge and connected, as it aims to accompany today’s digital society, and to include both digital natives and digital immigrants [1][2], by using online platforms to support teaching and learning. The PhD study here presented had as purpose to measure these tools’ impact on the knowledge acquisition processes, as the main goal was to understand if and how an informal platform (Facebook) can complement a formal platform (Moodle). The adopted theoretical framework was the Activity Theory, and the methodological approach chosen was of a mixed nature, using Social Network Analysis tools. This study’s finds are potentially crucial to DE teachers who use or are considering using this duality of platforms as a teaching / learning strategy, as the findings show that Facebook can influence interaction and collaboration, hence contributing to foster the engagement of higher education level students.

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• Other Engineering and Technology Sciences - Engineering and Technology
• Educational Sciences - Social Sciences

Best Paper Award by Education Sciences (MDPI)

This publication is associated with the following record:

• Social Networks & Learning Management Systems in Distance Education (DE): Scenarios to foster students' engagement