Don’t feel too bad if your History professor won’t
accept your friend request on Facebook -- she’s probably not
accepting any of your classmates’ requests either.
In a recent survey of pharmacy professors, 100 percent of the
respondents who had Facebook profiles said they would not send
friend requests to their current students.
They also said they ignore friend requests from their students --
especially current ones.
Just fewer than half of the responding faculty members had a
Facebook profile, but the ones who did reported making a habit of
digitally snubbing their students.
Though the study was small -- 95 faculty members from colleges of
pharmacy at four Ohio institutions participated -- it was among the
first to examine college professors’ use of the social
networking sites like Facebook, especially with respect to how they
interact with students online.
“I would imagine that if faculty members in other colleges got requests from students, the same questions might go through their minds,” said McAuley.
The survey was prompted by a bit of confusion regarding student-teacher netiquette.
Lead study author Anne Metzger, who teaches at the University of Cincinnati, received a Facebook friend request from a student and, unsure of how to proceed, asked McAuley for guidance.
“At the time she was a relatively new faculty member, and she wanted to learn from her more senior peers,” McAuley said. “That was the premise of doing a broader survey.”
McAuley and Metzger joined with two other Ohio State pharmacy resident graduates, Kristen Finley at Ohio Northern University and Timothy Ulbrich at the Northeastern Ohio Universities Colleges of Medicine and Pharmacy, to survey the pharmacy faculty at all four institutions.
The researchers distributed surveys to 183 full-time pharmacy faculty, and received 95 responses – a 52 percent response rate.
Among those who responded, 44 professors (46 percent) had Facebook profiles, and 51 (54 percent) did not.
Newer faculty members were more likely to have Facebook profiles than more senior members: Those with profiles had been faculty members for an average of 8.6 years, vs. 11.4 years of faculty status among those without profiles.
Four out of five
Nearly four out of five faculty members who did use Facebook
were not friends with their students.
Among those who were friends with students, 12 percent gave student
friends access to their entire profile, while 9 percent gave
student friends only limited access to their profile.
All respondents said they would not ask current students to be
friends on Facebook, but a small minority said they would send a
request to students who had graduated.
Professors who did use Facebook were evenly divided about whether
their faculty status presented a conflict with social networking
sites.
Those who thought being faculty members did pose a conflict
typically reported that they try to maintain a line between
personal and professional relationships with students.
Very few faculty had used Facebook for teaching purposes -- one
respondent had used it to initiate online discussions, and another
used the network to provide information to students in experiential
education courses.
Four faculty members had used Facebook in connection with their
roles as advisers to student organizations.
McAuley’s study was designed primarily to document whether
and how faculty use Facebook, but because respondents were divided
on the subject, the researchers suggested faculty might benefit
from reaching a consensus among their department and college
colleagues about the appropriate use of social networking.
“A clearly defined stance or consensus may decrease faculty
members’ concern or discomfort about how to handle a friend
request from a student,” the researchers wrote.
“My stance, along with everybody else, is that faculty should
not reach out to current students on Facebook,” McAuley
noted. “But if I get a request from a student, I will accept
their friendship.”
Blurs the line
McAuley’s attitude about Facebook might be due to his
greater involvement with students. He co-advises a large student
organization at Ohio State’s College of Pharmacy and also
participates in social activities designed to bring students and
faculty together outside the classroom, which he has found both
parties tend to want.
However, he said, some faculty still feel Facebook “blurs the
line.”
McAuley, however, seems cautiously positive about allowing students
to view his Facebook profile.
“I don’t see a big difference between participating in
these social events and allowing a student to be a Facebook friend
and see my post about my dog graduating from puppy
training.”
In general, previous research concerning social network use among
college students suggests that because of the power differential
between students and the professors judging their performance,
students are the ones taking risks in the online
relationship.
McAuley said that in his experience, being Facebook friends with
current and former students has not led to any surprise revelations
that might influence his opinion of students and thinks most
students are aware of the potential problems with putting material
on their profile that is inappropriate or unprofessional
“If you’re friends with a faculty member, then
it’s not a good idea to post pictures about getting drunk
Friday night when on Monday morning, you have to go to a job
interview or to a site as a student in a professional
practice.”
The study is published in a recent issue of the American Journal of Pharmaceutical
Education.
