Using instructor-led Facebook groups to enhance students’ perceptions of course content Mete Akcaoglu a, * , Nicholas David Bowman b, 1 a College of Education, Georgia Southern University, United States b Communication Studies, West Virginia University, United States article info Article history: Received 4 January 2016 Received in revised form 12 May 2016 Accepted 13 May 2016 Available online xxx Keywords: Facebook Instructional technology Student perceptions abstract Research on the impact of instructor-guided Facebook usage in college classrooms shows that the technology can increase students’ cognitive and affective learning, yet the role of social media in the classroom remains contentious. Analysis of open- and closed-ended survey data from 87 students enrolled in university courses from 15 institutions showed that students participating in a class Facebook group reported more interest in and perceived more value in course content, felt closer to the course and perceived their instructors as more involved. Effects on perceived closeness to course instructors and classmates were negligible, and effects on instructor immediacy or credibility were not found. © 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Going strong since its inception in 2004, Facebook is one of the most popular social networks worldwide (Duggan, Ellison, Lampe, Lenhart, & Madden, 2015). In addition to its growing popularity worldwide, Facebook is one of the most popular social media platforms used by college students (Junco, 2012; Smith & Caruso, 2010). This is mostly due to the fact that many of these students come to college with already existing accounts from their high- school years (Bowman, Westerman, & Claus, 2012). Facebook can be used in educational contexts in multiple different ways (Willems & Bateman, 2013). The use can be initiated by the institution (e.g., the instructor or the instructional team), or it can be initiated by the students. In each case, it can be used as a formal learning space, where information is “pushed” to the users, or it can be used as an informal learning tool where interested learners can “pull” knowledge and share information. Research on use of Facebook in instructional contexts has yiel- ded mixed results. For example, scholars claimed that there was a significant negative impact of Facebook usage on student engage- ment broadly (e.g., Junco, 2012). It was also noted that faculty and graduate students were reluctant to interact via Facebook (Hank, Sugimoto, Tsou, & Pomerantz, 2014). Other research, on the other hand, indicated that using Facebook as an out-of-class communi- cation tool in mass lectures could have some positive outcomes, such as increased course grades and student engagement with course material (Bowman & Akcaoglu, 2014). While previous research revealed the connection between participating in a Facebook group and students’ learning outcomes (Bowman & Akcaoglu, 2014), there are remaining questions to be answered. First, little is known about students’ perceptions of these instructor-led activities. In other words, we do not know if there are any motivational outcomes from participating in Facebook groups in academic contexts. Second, we do not know if students’ involvement in Facebook as a part of a course impacts their atti- tudes toward their instructor, peers, or the course material. In this study, we aimed to understand the possible connections between participating in an institution (teacher)-driven informal Facebook group and students’ perceptions toward their courses and instructors. More specifically, our purpose was to understand if there were any differences between individuals who participated in a class Facebook group, and the ones who chose not to in terms of their interest and value of the course content, as well as their perceptions of closeness to their instructor and their peers. In addition, we also aimed to understand the reasons behind students’ decisions to participate (or not) in their class Facebook group. * Corresponding author. Department of Leadership, Technology and Human Development, College of Education, Room 3113, P.O. Box 8131, Statesboro, GA 30458, United States. E-mail addresses: makcaoglu@georgiasouthern.edu (M. Akcaoglu), nicholas. bowman@mail.wvu.edu (N.D. Bowman). 1 Address: Department of Communication Studies, Armstrong Hall, Room 108, P.O. Box 6293 Morgantown, WV 26506, United States. Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Computers in Human Behavior journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/comphumbeh http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.029 0747-5632/© 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Computers in Human Behavior xxx (2016) 1e9 Please cite this article in press as: Akcaoglu, M., & Bowman, N. D., Using instructor-led Facebook groups to enhance students’ perceptions of course content, Computers in Human Behavior (2016), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2016.05.029