Online Networking

Abstract

This chapter explores the use of Facebook in helping immerse international students into Australian university culture at a first year level by furthering the development of academic and social relationships between peers. The study was initiated in response to a national survey that found 65% of international students experience periods of loneliness and isolation when studying in Australia; moreover, one of the key triggers for this loneliness is an inability to develop academic relationships with peers, particularly local students, during the early stages of their university careers. 100 first year design students (including 23 international students) took part in the semester-long study, as part of the course “Imaging Our World” at the University of Adelaide. Every two weeks, students were required to submit images to an online gallery in Facebook and to provide critiques on peers’ submissions. The gallery topics were broad in nature, and open to the students’ own interpretations, allowing for a concurrently wide range of images in each. The galleries gave students the opportunity to connect with their peers in a virtual environment, and develop academic relationships freed from the constraints of the classroom and their own inhibitions. Discussions between students often evolved from formal, academic critiques to informal social interactions as embryonic online connections were formed. The study was considered to have been a success, due to Facebook’s engaging and interactive qualities, the students’ existing interest and experience with the software, and their eagerness to connect with their peers.