2019 International Conference on Education, Management, Business and Accounting (EMBA 2019) ISBN: 978-1-60595-614-5 Functionality of Social Media for Blended learning Courses at Higher Education Institution Siew Eng LING 1* , Margaret Kit Yok CHAN 2 , Adeline ENGKAMAT 3 , Siew Ching LING 4 and Chin Ying LIEW 5 1,3,4,5 Faculty of Computer and Mathematical Sciences, Universiti Teknologi MARA(UITM), Sarawak Branch, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, Malaysia 2 Faculty of Plantation and Agrotechnology, Universiti Teknologi MARA(UITM), Sarawak Branch, 94300 Kota Samarahan, Sarawak Malaysia Keywords: Functionality, Social media, Teaching, Blended learning, Higher learning institution. Abstract. Majority of the students in this digital era have social media account. They use social media platforms to interact and collaborate with others. Many higher education institutions have used social media platforms to support online learning for blended learning courses. The study aimed to explore the functionality blocks of social media in learning at higher education institutions. Exploratory study was utilized in the study. Students who attended blended learning courses where the online learning was conducted via social media platforms were involved in the study. Census comprises of 101 students from five courses from five programs at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sarawak Branch were involved in the study. The study found that all 7 functionality blocks of social media functioned well in social media for learning. The seven functionality blocks were identity, conversations, sharing, presence, relationships, reputation, and groups. Introduction The emergence of social media in the past few years has gain high attention of Internet users. This can be seen in the significant growth of the social media users worldwide in recent years which has transformed the ways the Internet users experience [1]. This led to social media to become the latest trend of communication in this digital age. The platforms are accessible and user friendly and the usage has been leveraged effectively [2]. This changes the communications landscape in the digital age [3] in which it has transformed the landscape of information access and dissemination online [4]. To catch up with the rapid growth of Internet technology, higher education institutions started to explore it significant for blended learning at higher education [4]. This resulted in progressively change in the teaching and learning environment where more educators and students are involved. [3,5,]. More students at higher education started to use social media platforms as it became popular [7]. Studies found that social media has significantly impacted teaching and learning process [3,7]. In Universiti Teknologi MARA, social media platforms are used as the online component to support blended learning approach which employed both traditional face-to-face and online instructions. The university also practices Week Without Wall (WWW) at times where many lecturers are not available such as during university convocation week or attending conferences or forums overseas during the semester. This gives the flexibility for students to learn anywhere and anytime using any smart devices. The study was conducted to find out students’ acceptance of incorporating social media in their blended learning courses and explored the functionality of social media in higher education institutions in supporting blended learning courses. Social Media in Learning Social Media is defined as “a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, and that allow the creation and exchange of User Generated Content” [8, p.61]. 86