Week 4/ Report: Main Question/Thesis/Outline

Week 4/ Report: Main Question/Thesis/Outline

Problem: Whether NUS faculty should initiate/accept friend requests from students on Facebook
Purpose: To evaluate if NUS faculty should initiate/accept friend requests from undergraduate students on Facebook, and to suggest guidelines for Facebook interaction with students.
Question(s):

1.      What are the (positive and negative) consequences of faculty-student “friendship” on facebook?

2.      What are the attitudes of students towards befriending teachers on Facebook?

3.      How feasible is it for NUS teachers to use Facebook to value-add their relationship with students?

4.      What role does Facebook play in teacher-student interactions on Facebook, and can this be done in any other way?

Flow of issues:

1. What are the consequences (benefits/evils) of having teacher-student ‘friendship’ on Facebook? (perspective of students)
2. What are the attitudes (general response) to befriending teachers on Facebook? (Why would students want to add teachers on Facebook?)
3. Suitability of integrating Facebook into courses – evaluate usefulness, convenience, ease of use
4. Evaluate whether FB ‘friendship’ is actually beneficial overall
4a. If FB usage is deemed to be beneficial (ie NUS faculty SHOULD initiate/accept friend requests from students on FB), what is the role of such “friendships”?
4b. If FB usage is deemed to be harmful (ie NUS faculty SHOULD NOT initiate/accept friend requests from students on FB), what are the guidelines that staff should follow with respect to FB usage?

Report will follow the following format:

1.Executive Summary

       1.0 Introduction
          1.1 Background of report
          1.2 PPQ
          1.3 Scope
          1.4 Limitations ???
          1.5 Sources & Methods 

   2.0 Findings

- To interpret data (Compare&contrast or Functional?)
          2.1. Consequences of teacher-student ‘friendship’ on Facebook

2.1.1 Benefits of teacher-student ‘friendship’ on Facebook

2.1.2 Drawbacks of teacher-student ‘friendship’ on Facebook

          2.2 Students' attitude towards teacher-student ‘friendship’ on Facebook
          2.3 Suitability of using Facebook for teaching
         
33.0  Conclusions
- To provide explanations for key findings

4. 4.0 Recommendation
- NUS faculty SHOULD intitiate/accept friend requests on FB, and the guidelines for FB usage in this case (for staff)
- NUS faculty SHOULD NOT initiate/accept friend requests on FB, and the guidelines for FB usage in this case (for staff)

55.0  Overall conclusion
- -revisit ppq
--highlight key findings, conclusions, recommendations.