How to Teach a Class Using Facebook

Many colleges and high schools use Blackboard and other learning management systems for their classes. However, these sites aren't very social. In fact, even the President of Blackboard uses typepad for his blog. The problem with systems like Blackboard is that they're closed, meaning, the purpose of blogging and discussion boards often is to get a global perspective, which you cannot do in Blackboard or other LMS services.

So, if you're a teacher that wants your students (for an online course or classroom course) to have global conversations, Facebook is the way to go.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• A class you teach
• A Facebook account
• Access to a computer

1. Create a group in Facebook by using the Groups tool in Facebook and clicking on the Create A New Group button. Follow the steps including making the group public. You'll want the group to be public so students can find it easily.

2. If you want, you can make it private after everyone has joined, but that defeats the purpose of using Facebook. It's optional to have your students "friend" you. On a side note, some students may want to create a second account in Facebook that is purely for the class, that way, their personal life isn't shared with other students. Just an option.

3. 
    

   Inside the group, you can post Discussion Board Topics, videos, links, and other "wall" items. In fact, for most of what you'd use Blackboard for, you can do it inside a Group in Facebook. If you have relevant pictures, post those, too. This really helps in a distance learning class.

4. Using your own personal network, invite "guests" into the group so that they can contribute to the discussion boards. There is a real benefit to get other experts talking to your students.

5. Make sure your students always respond to your original post for a grade, and then give points for when they respond to other's in the discussion board. Your guests will have to become members of the group to post to the Discussion Board, so let your "guests" drop out of the group early if they are only to contribute to one discussion.

6. When the class is over, you'll have to decide if you want to shut down the group or not. Some students may still want to keep conversations going even though the class is over. So this is your choice.

Tips & Warnings

• Always comment in the Discussion Board also, especially in the beginning.
• You can see my class in Facebook. The group name is Using the Net: VCU TEDU 560-C90.
• Warn your students about netiquette
• Furthermore, warn your students about what they post in Facebook, as future employers may find their Facebook page.