Facebook and Moodle Integration into Instructional Media Design Courses: A Comparative Analysis of Students’ Learning Experiences using the Community of Inquiry (CoI) Model

ABSTRACT

Despite the educational potential of Facebook and Moodle, there are still unanswered questions about their impact on the student learning experience in a well-defined instructional design framework. This study aimed to compare the learning experiences of students who used Moodle (control group) and Facebook (experimental group), in terms of Community of Inquiry (CoI) model presence indicators, that is, cognitive, teaching, and social presence. Several learning activities for the development of learning environments were carried out by ninety-seven (n = 97) students who were enrolled in instructional media design courses in higher education. Findings from quantitative and qualitative analysis indicated that students using either Moodle or Facebook as their learning platform had similar perceptions of teaching and cognitive presence; however, Facebook users had a better social presence using the CoI model than their Moodle counterparts. Another point worth noting is that the experimental group’s female participants had better teaching presence, cognitive presence, and overall learning experience than their male peers.

Disclosure of potential conflicts of interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Notes

¹ https://moodle.net/stats/.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Ioannis Kazanidis

Ioannis Kazanidis is Adjunct Assistant professor and member of the Advanced Educational Technologies & Mobile Applications Laboratory, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Greece. His research interests mainly focus on user experience design, educational technology, augmented/virtual reality, e-learning analytics, data mining, and adaptive systems.

Nikolaos Pellas

Nikolaos Pellas is a PhD Candidate at the Department of Product and Systems Design Engineering, University of the Aegean, Greece. His research interests include educational technology, cyberpsychology, digital learning environments, e-learning, and virtual worlds.

Panagiotis Fotaris

Panagiotis Fotaris is Senior Lecturer and Course Leader for Digital Media Design at the University of East London. His research interests focus on the integration of technology in teaching and learning, particularly in the use of gamification, augmented/virtual reality, social media, and infographics in educational settings.

Avgoustos Tsinakos

Avgoustos Tsinakos is a Professor at the Department of Computer and Informatics Engineering, Eastern Macedonia and Thrace Institute of Technology, Greece and Director of Advanced Educational Technologies and Mobile Applications (AETMA) Lab. His research focuses on mobile learning, augmented reality applications, distance learning, and intelligent tutoring systems.