Reflective Assessment of a Facebook Mediated Course of Instructional Technology: A Case from a Women University

Abstract

With the increasing number of media used for online education in the recent two years, 2019-2021, Facebook has proved itself the most powerful (Ang, 2021)., popular, and accepted media used for discussion, peer assessment and content delivery. It holds the important pedagogical tools and traditional LMS characteristics suitable for the delivery of a well-structured course with concrete learning outcomes. Facebook is adventitious in terms of increased teacher-student and student-student interaction, direct sharing of illustrative content, convenience of learning, and a greater engagement of learners. The research in hand is a case study for the reflective assessment of a Facebook mediated basic course on ‘Instructional Technology’ at a women university in Punjab. This six-month course was taught to 86 mix ability women students affiliated to a women university in Punjab through a Facebook page. A reflective assessment was conducted to refine and modify the course content, course delivery and assessment procedure at the end of the course. Six steps of Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) were used for reflective assessment. Sixty seven out of 86 students recorded their narrative reflections electronically. These narrative reflections were analysed thematically, meeting the criteria espoused by Lorelli et.al. (2017). The study found that students remained engaged during their course and learned about instructional tools and computer applications as per their convenience and interest and that Facebook provided them ample opportunity to interact with friends and discuss course content without anxiety and pressure. Students shared their assignments, projects and readings freely without time constraints and commented each other’s work rigorously. Almost all of the female students strongly suggested that Facebook should be used as a medium for online teaching-learning because they could openly discuss and post their concerns while learning techniques of instructional technology. It was recommended that female universities need to construct and deliver such short and long courses at all levels to ensure the inclusion of those female students who are away from campus.