Exploring the Use of a Facebook Page in Anatomy Education Akram Abood Jaffar * Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates Facebook is the most popular social media site visited by university students on a daily basis. Consequently, Facebook is the logical place to start with for integrating social media technologies into education. This study explores how a faculty-administered Face- book Page can be used to supplement anatomy education beyond the traditional class- room. Observations were made on students’ perceptions and effectiveness of using the Page, potential benefits and challenges of such use, and which Insights metrics best reflect user’s engagement. The Human Anatomy Education Page was launched on Face- book and incorporated into anatomy resources for 157 medical students during two aca- demic years. Students’ use of Facebook and their perceptions of the Page were surveyed. Facebook’s “Insights” tool was also used to evaluate Page performance during a period of 600 days. The majority of in-class students had a Facebook account which they adopted in education. Most students perceived Human Anatomy Education Page as effec- tive in contributing to learning and favored “self-assessment” posts. The majority of stu- dents agreed that Facebook could be a suitable learning environment. The “Insights” tool revealed globally distributed fans with considerable Page interactions. The use of a faculty-administered Facebook Page provided a venue to enhance classroom teaching without intruding into students’ social life. A wider educational use of Facebook should be adopted not only because students are embracing its use, but for its inherent poten- tials in boosting learning. The “Insights” metrics analyzed in this study might be helpful when establishing and evaluating the performance of education-oriented Facebook Pages. Anat Sci Educ 00: 000–000. V C 2013 American Association of Anatomists. Key words: gross anatomy education; e-learning; web-based learning; innovations in medical education; social media in education; Facebook; Twitter; YouTube INTRODUCTION Social networking sites have attracted a huge following amongst university students and became an integral part of their daily lives. Thus, it is not surprising to assume that they have a potential to improve learning (Yu et al., 2010; Lei et al., 2012). Social networking sites use Web 2.0 technologies to share a user-focused approach in design and functionality, where users actively participate in content creation and editing through open collaboration between members of communities of practice (McGee and Begg, 2008). For this generation of learners who are coined “digital natives” (Prensky, 2001), many education researchers are arguing that since these social tools are being employed on a daily basis, the integration of these technologies into teaching and learning is something to be expected (Tess, 2013; Manca and Ranieri, 2013). Facebook V R (Facebook, Palo Alto, CA), which was origi- nally created in 2004 for university students, is now the most popular social media site with over one billion monthly users (Smith, 2013). Research has shown that more than 90% of medical students use Facebook and spend a considerable time on it every day (Bosslet et al., 2011). This figure is higher than earlier studies (Sandars et al., 2008; Thompson et al., 2008). Therefore, Facebook is the logical place to start when integrating social media into teaching and learning. Introduction to Facebook Features Facebook offers users the capability to create a personal pro- file Timeline, Groups, or Pages. In the “Timeline,” the users *Correspondence to: Dr. Akram Abood Jaffar, Department of Basic Medical Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Sharjah, P.O. Box 45521, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. E-mail: akramjfr@gmail.com Received 4 June 2013; Revised 7 August 2013; Accepted 9 August 2013. Published online 00 Month 2013 in Wiley Online Library (wileyonlinelibrary.com). DOI 10.1002/ase.1404 V C 2013 American Association of Anatomists Anatomical Sciences Education MONTH 2013 Anat Sci Educ 00:00–00 (2013) RESEARCH REPORT