A study on the impact of Facebook on the sense of community in NBS.

• Main Authors: Fong, Bao Xian., Fong, Shu Yi., Low, Denise Yuexiang.
• Other Authors: Ulrike Marianne Murfett
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2011
• Subjects: DRNTU::Business::General::Social aspects
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/44088
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As Facebook becomes highly popular among university students, more universities, both overseas and local are adopting this social media to reach out and connect to their students. Hence, it was of our team’s interest to look at how Nanyang Business School (NBS) is currently making use of Facebook and its extent of influence. In particular, we investigated if Facebook can be used to foster a sense of community among the undergraduates in NBS. The Theory of McMillan and Chavis [1986] was adopted and it has identified four main elements under sense of community: Membership; Influence; Integration and Fulfillment of Needs; and Shared Emotional Connection. From the questionnaire, it was found that the level of participation had a significant positive relationship with all the four elements but this factor alone was insufficient to explain undergraduates’ sense of community in NBS. Through our focus group interview, we found that Facebook has the potential to connect individuals with existing offline relations as well as to help with the transition of individuals who are foreign to the community. Using these findings, our team came up with recommendations including the revamping of the main NBS Facebook page as a centralised information portal, setting up of an NBS Facebook group to facilitate sharing and helping among NBS undergraduates and incorporation of Facebook into the NBS orientation programme. Through these recommendations, our team hopes to maximise the potential of Facebook in creating a sense of community among NBS undergraduates.