Use of Internet and Social Networking Tools in Engineering Education

1. USING INTERNET AND SOCIAL NETWORKING TOOLS IN
ENGINEERING EDUCATION
MICHAEL B. BAYLON AND ORLANDO P. LOPEZ
ABSTRACT: The internet, since its first inception, was invented because of efficient information
deliverance. Together with this goal, it has to fill the gap of interactivity, not only for two
nodes in the communication setup, but also creating a network of interaction. With this
premise, web-based or online social networking was used to assess its effects as an environment
where appropriate tools were supplemented by the said medium in engineering education. Part
of validating different aspects of the social networking tools applicability is to design and
conduct a survey of the author‟s students on the usefulness of internet tools, especially in
working out their individual, dual, and group modes of learning while subjecting them to
different levels of difficulty in their assigned tasks. Ultimately, the paper suggests how these
internet tools are used effectively in educating engineers of the future.
KEYWORDS: social networking, tools in engineering education, internet, web-based learning
tools
1. INTRODUCTION
While this paper is currently presented, researchers, in a global scale, have already come up with their
own conclusion about how effective social networking tool can be in a specific field, e.g. business,
education, medical arts, engineering and architecture, etc.
From the research of Facebook, in cooperation with two researches(Ugander et al, 2011, and Backstrom,
2011)at the Università degli Studi di Milano, the researchers examined all 721 million active Facebook
users (more than 10% of the global population), with 69 billion friendships among them. It is now the
largest social network studies ever released as compared to the 20th century experiments on the theory of
“Six Degrees of Separation”. According to them:
a. After measuring how many friends that people have, it was found out that the distribution differs
significantly from previous studies of large-scale social networks.
b. That the degrees of separation between any two Facebook users is smaller than the commonly
cited six degrees, and has been shrinking over the past three years as Facebook has grown.
c. It was observed that while the entire world is only a few degrees away, a user‟s friends are most
likely to be of a similar age and come from the same country.
In Figure 1, a cumulative degree distribution, in a semi-logarithmic scale, is best viewed as an important
basic view of any social network. It shows the percentage of individuals who have less than a given
number of friends. For example, only 10% of people have less than 10 friends, 20% have less than 25
friends, while the median (50%) have over 100 friends. (Ugander et al, 2012)

2. Figure 1. Semi-Log Cumulative Distribution of Facebook in 2011 (Ugander, 2012)
In the light of education, engineering education researchers from western countries found out
some interesting findings: (Pollara, P. & Zhu, J., 2011)
Social networking is already one of the most common ways that communication occurs virtually.
Participation of a mentor and mentee on the Facebook group page was seen to positively affect
theirrelationship both online and offline.
It was found that when communication was initiated by the mentor, the mentee‟s participation
increased.
The roles of mentors and mentees on the Facebook page highly reflected the dynamic of the
mentor-mentee relationship.
Participation on the Facebook site was lower than expected.
A survey was conducted and it resulted to the following observations:
Most students believed that they learned more because of using the group page and thought it was
helpful in achieving their goals for their project and for the group.
Most students would like to use social networking for educational purposes and were interested in
using social networking in school.
Students reported that they liked seeing how other students responded to their posts on the
Facebook page.
Students believed their relationship with their mentors and with other students were not positively
impacted bythe use of the page.
Students initially expressed difficulty in accessing the page, but believed the benefits of usingthe
Facebook page were worth the extra time and effort.
This paper aims to explore the use of internet tools in social networking, specifically, Facebook. This
would be validated by second hand data from a questionnaire survey adapted from a related study of
Pollara and Zhu in 2011.
2.0 The Anatomy of Social Networking Tools
2.1 Anatomy of Facebook Group Page
Almost all the features of Facebook are said to be useful in the conduct of interactivity learning. It is
designed to assist the user to maximize the interaction among the members of the Facebook community,
especially the Group that one has created, where he/she is the default owner and administrator.
Referring to Figure 2, the following components and features of one of the author‟s Facebook Group,
“CED135 of Iking”, are discussed.

3. 1. Profile image: For a group page, like this one, you can use your logo. Make sure it‟s an image
that you want representing your group alongside every status update and post. This will literally
be the “face” of your group! Maximum dimensions are 180(w)x 540(h) pixels.
2. Other Photos: These photos get pulled from the photo album and wall posts on your page. Try
and think of any imagery that you think best represents your brand and post them in an album so
they appear along the top. You can hide or delete any images you don‟t want displayed later.
3. Post: This is where you share interesting and relevant information with your students on
Facebook. Anyone who “likes” your page will see your posts in their personal newsfeed.
4. Wall/Feed/Seen: Your Wall is the primary place users can engage and conversate with your
subject/course. Users can comment, like and “share” your messages, links and video. Below each
of your posts you can view quick analysis of the post‟s popularity, including impressions and
feedback rate.
5. Tabs: Your students can navigate through interesting parts of your page, including your Photos /
Photo Albums, Some information about your Group (some hyperlinks can be posted here),
Announcement of Events (e.g. recitation days, exam days, submission of assignments, schedule
of class reporting), Uploading of Files.
6. Members/Add Members: If you have only few students added when the group was created, you
may add here more. This is a hyperlink to the list of the existing members of the group.
7. Admin Tools: To the right of your Wall, you have an “easy access” list of helpful administrative
tools. Here you can view analytical data for your profile by clicking “View Insights”. Or, if you
have given your personal account „Administrative access‟ to the fan page, you can sign in as
yourself and toggle between using Facebook as yourself or as your company. This is a new
feature, which essentially allows you to interact with other pages & people AS your page. More
in depth administrative tools, such as editing and updating your profile page‟s content, can be
found by clicking “Edit Info” at the top of the page.
8. Newsfeed: This is the real time updates of the activities of your students in Facebook, plus that of
your friends.
9. Sidebar of Friends Online: This notifies you if your friends are online. It can be customized by
clicking these icons:
Options: You may opt to change your Chat Sounds, go to Advanced Settings, or just Turn
Off Chat.
Search: This is used to find a friend who is online; also, it is a means to check if a
friend has either removed you in his/her friend list or worst, blocked you.
Hide sidebar: If you not comfortable of seeing this sidebar of friends online, you may opt
to click this icon to hide.
10. Groups: This is located at the lower, left side of the page. It lists your existing groups which
either you‟ve created, been administering, or joined.
11. Favorites: This contains the Newsfeed, Messages, and Events hyperlinks. When you click one
of these, you are brought to the specific page.
12. Search Engine: This feature assists you to look for specific person who can be your friend or
related to you in some degree of separation.
13. Profile/Home/Settings: The Profile button will bring you to your page that contains information
about you and your wall where some of your friends can write on it (a feature that can be
customized).
14. Classified Ads: Pseudo-random advertisement that Facebook wants to promote to users. There‟s
a possibility that in one occasion, the product/service that is flashed, could be useful to you.
15. Seen: This is one of the favourites of the group owner; it shows who have seen the specific status.
It reports who, when and what time that the group member viewed it.

4. 16. Video in Status: Other than mere texts, videos, webpages, or photos can be posted or embedded
in the status. The site where it originated from can be seen and can be explored just right at the
exact site where it was first uploaded.
Figure 2. The Anatomy of a Facebook Group Thru Administrator's Account.
2.2 Anatomy of a SkyDriveTM Page
In order to facilitate file management, the owner can use SkyDriveTM. Microsoft SkyDrive (previously
Windows Live SkyDrive and Windows Live Folders) is a file hosting service that is needed in order to
allow users to upload and synchronize files to a technology known as Cloud Storage. Then these files
(mostly organized in folders, similar to PC file management) can be accessed correctly from selected web
browsers. Microsoft Network‟s Windows Live has this as part of online services range that allows users
to retain files in private, shared exclusively with contacts, or publicly available (where files can be shared
without MS account).
Because of its large storage capacity, 7 GB, new users would opt to migrate from its predecessor Yahoo
Group folders. One of the authors has the privilege to obtain his account in one of the institutions that he
formerly taught (before April 22, 2012), that‟s why his storage capacity was upgraded to 25 GB of free
storage; thus, flexibility in terms of online storage capability. The service is built using HTML5
technologies, and files up to 300 MB can be uploaded via drag and drop into the web browser, or up to
2 GB via the SkyDrive desktop application for Microsoft Windows and OS X.

5. Figure 3. The Anatomy of SkydriveTM.
Referring to Figure 3, the following description of different components of a typical SkyDriveTM is listed
below:
1. Profile/Settings/Notifications: This component notifies the user if he has unread messages as
linked to his MSN (Microsoft Network) email account. Moreover, the Settings when clicked, a
dropdown shows Options, Help, Feedback where you‟ll be brought to a another page. Similarly,
Profile will opt you to choose among the following: User‟s Availability (in tick form), Edit
Profile, Account Settings, and Sign Out. Also, the user‟s profile picture is displayed and can be
customized.
2. Messaging: This notifies the user if he has unread message.
3. Folder Navigator: This component was retained from the original. It allows the user to choose
on what folder to find his files.
4. Search Engine: In order to locate rapidly specific filename, you may opt to use this feature.
5. Files: Located at the top, leftmost part of the page, this feature adds accessibility in terms of
sorting and/or filtering your choice of file groups.
a. Recent docs – filtered files that are recently uploaded.
b. Shared – filtered files that are shared to any of the following categories: with contacts or
with the public.
6. Groups: These are groups of users with declared specific interest of files and folders. You can
either join these groups or make your own group, with your MSN account as your passport.
7. Create: You will be prompted to choose to compose one among Folder, Word Document, Excel
Worksheet, PowerPoint Presentation, OneNote notebook.
8. Upload: This feature will instruct you to upload file/s (at most three), guided by the usual
message box in opening a certain file.
9. Share Folder: When this is clicked, a message box will prompt you to type the recipients of your
shared folders. To give specific instructions to the recipients, texts can be written in a blank
space provided. You have also the option to send it as an email, a status (FB) or twit (Twitter)
post, or just get a link of the current page.
10. Folder Actions: Among the choices in this component are Download Folder, Embed Folder,
Delete Folder, Move Folder To, and Properties. Its main purpose is to manage your folders.

6. 11. Folder Content: This is the largest area of the page, where you can view the available folders
and files, as can be reflected from the Folder Navigator.
2.3 The Use of Graphic Software
The use of Graphic software, such as MS VisioTM or Autodesk‟s AutoCAD was encouraged so that
precision should be observed in illustrating problems and eventually graphical solutions. This can be
reflected from Figure 4 and Figure 5. In Figure 4, the students were tasked to make a report on the
Application of Strength of Materials to their specific engineering field. In this case, the group is
composed of Electronics Engineering major. To stimulate discussions among members of the group, one
of them posted it as a wall photo which automatically saved in the Photo Tab of the Group Page. In
Figure 5, the author posted one of the problems given in the last examination. It has been a practice by
the instructor to discuss in class the solution to the problems of the recent examination, but due to
unforeseen week-long vacation due to bad weather, the author opted to open discussion with his students
through the use of comments to status and the chat box. This was made possible by using MS Visio
Diagram to illustrate the given problem and posted as a wall photo.
2.4 The Use of Mathematical Package Software
In one of the reports of the author‟s students, they came up with an application of a math package
software known as MatLab. The report topic under the subject Strength of Materials was “How to Draw
Shear and Bending Moment Diagrams Using MatLab”. Through the use of the Group Page, “CEM303
with Sir Iking”, the group members discussed how to organize the whole report. The following is a
summary of what took place in the said Group Page before presenting in the class their assigned report:
The group leader asked the rest of the group of what are their preferred topics to be discussed.
One of them, other than the leader, proposed a MatLab script that would compute and draw Shear
and Bending Moment Diagrams. And it was accepted unanimously.
The group leader listed “Tasks-To-Do” for each member. This includes finding a specific
problem in words, illustrate the loaded beam, manually solve the problem and draw the shear and
bending moment diagrams.
Through a series of posts of their manual computations, showing them in our wall by either using
INSTAGRAMTM or the common photo uploading, they came up with correct manual computations
that would be demonstrated in front of the class during the reporting proper.

7. Figure 4. Example of Status in a Facebook Group (Initiated by the student)
Figure 5. Example of Status in a Facebook Group (Initiated by the instructor)

8. It can be shown from Figure 6 the manual computation and drawing as posted from the Group Page.
Figure 7 shows one of the outputs of the MatLab script as demonstrated in class.
Figure 6. Manual Computation of Shear and Bending Moment
Figure 7. Using MatLab Script to Plot the Shear and Bending Moment Diagrams

9. 2.5 The Use of Internet’s Multimedia
During the last day of classes, since the students are not coming from the same engineering major, a
culminating activity was set and letting themselves organize the whole activity. Again, with the use of
Group Page, conversation took place. One of the games played in the activity was the “Pinoy Genyo”,
where there are two participants for every group. The words that will be guessed are terms that were
discussed in the Strength of Materials class, such as “stress”, “Ferdinand Singer”, “Torsion”, “Shear”,
“Helical Spring”, “Strain”, and “Beam”. This culminating activity was captured and uploaded to
YouTube.
A multimedia package, MDSolids: Educational Software for Mechanics Materials, was created by Dr.
Timothy Philpot of Missouri Science & Technology, and the author‟s class used it as a supplement in his
strength of materials classes. One of the advantages of this multimedia package is that it presents mostly
the topics in a visual fashion, such as the use of FlashTM Animation technology as it can be seen in Figure
8.
Figure 8. MDSolids: Mechanics of Deformable Solids Software
(Modules Mode)
MDSolids is educational software for students taking the Mechanics of Materials course (also
commonly called Strength of Materials or Mechanics of Deformable Solids). This course is
typically a part of civil, industrial, electrical, electronics and computer engineering programs
which the author‟s institution is offering. (http://www.mdsolids.com/featuresSet.html, 2012)
The software features educational routines for beams, flexure, torsion members, columns, axial
structures, statically indeterminate structures, trusses, section properties, and Mohr's circle
analysis including stress transformations and strain transformations.
MDSolids is divided into three Tabs: Help Documents (Figure 9), Modules, Animated Learning
Tools (Figure 10).
In using MDSolids, the student user is compelled to choose among graphical and intuitive menus
for all the required data or units. In order to draw shear and bending moment diagrams, the

10. student user can choose to click on a photo of an arrow downwards and assigned the value of the
load to define a vertical point load down, instead of having to remember to put a negative value
for the load.
Most likely, four common units (two USCS and two SI) are the alternatives for each quantity.
For instance, a beam‟s dimension could be in inches, its span in meters, a bending moment
diagram in kip-ft, and the output flexural stress could be in MPa.
From these alternatives for forces and units, they are made simple by only clicking the necessary
buttons on display form.
The programming language used in developing this software is Visual Basic, that is, run in the
Windows environment. Resolution requirement for this software is SVGA (800 x 600). As a
minimum, the software runs on a 486-33MHz.
Figure 9. MDSolids - Help Documents
3.0 Interaction of Internet and Social Networking Tools
The paradigm used in this paper can be well illustrated in Figure 11. In general, the paradigm can be
illustrated as interaction of Facebook, which acts as the platform, with the files, software, and webpages.
This is implemented using either hyperlinks or “shared” posts on one‟s Facebook wall. From the figure,
the files can be any of the MS Office Application packages (e.g. MS Word document, MS PowerPoint
slide presentation, and MS Excel worksheet) or Portable Document Format (a.k.a. pdf of generally by
Adobe Acrobat software, i.e. Acrobat Reader). The software packages that were used are MatLab and
MDSolids, in accomplishing assigned problem sets of the students. The webpages that the author
suggested to his students as supplements are that of eBlogspot.com, MecMovies.com, Mathalino.com,
CEReview.info, YouTube.com, and Skydrive.live.com. Add to that the different interactive features of
Facebook that they develop continuously, such as chatbox (where the author and the students can freely
converse during convenient hours), private messaging, wall posts, tags, etc.

11. Figure 10: MDSolids - Animated Learning Tools
Figure 11. Paradigm of Internet and Social Networking Tools
Interactivity, in computer science, is that relating to a program which responds to user activity. The
elements of the paradigm of internet and social networking tools as shown in Figure 11, are all inter-
related, symbolized by two-node line segments.
4.0 Pedagogical Value Survey
A survey was administered to twenty-nine of fifty-eight participating senior engineering students at the
completion of thestudy. The survey was adapted from the Pedagogical Value of Wiki Survey by Hazari et
al (2009). Our instrumentconsists of 29 items addressing five constructs: Learning/Pedagogy, Motivation,
Interaction with Students,Interaction with Mentors, and Technology. Items were measured on a 5-point
Likert scale.
Data was also collected through a content analysis of postings on the Facebook group page entitled,
“Social Networking Tools Survey”. The researchers analysed data to ensure the reliability and validity
of coding.Researchers coded data from the Facebook page accordingto pre-existing research questions.

12. Each construct was represented by measurable indicators in the survey. Table 1 shows correlation
between the four constructs was significant at the 1% level. The average extracted variance for
questionnaire data was greater than 0.50, which met Fornell and Larcker‟s (1981) assessment of shared
variance coefficient for establishing convergent validity.
Table 1. Correlation of the Pedagogical Constructs
INTERACTION INTERACTION
LEARNING
MOTIVATION WITH WITH TECHNOLOGY
PEDAGOGY
STUDENTS MENTORS
LEARNING PEDAGOGY 1
MOTIVATION 0.931 1
INTERACTION WITH STUDENTS 0.812 0.722 1
INTERACTION WITH MENTORS 0.911 0.859 0.897 1
TECHNOLOGY 0.833 0.914 0.983 0.963 1
*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
Table 2. Demographic Profile (n=29)
frequency per cent
Male 22 73%
Gender
Female 8 27%
Second Year 12 41%
Third Year 3 10%
Year Level
Fourth Year 3 10%
Terminal Year 11 38%
1 9 31%
Repeat 2 9 31%
Course
3 7 24%
4 4 14%
There were 29 respondents to the questionnaire which included 22 males and 7 females. Other
demographic information is shown in Table 2.

13. Table 3. Assessment of Measurement Model
strongly strongly
disagree neutral agree weighted standard
disagree agree
average deviation
1 2 3 4 5
1 I understand more about STRENGTH OF MATERIALS) because of
using the “CEM303 ni Sir Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking” Facebook group 0% 0% 5% 35% 60% 4.61 1.81
page
LEARNING PEDAGOGY
2 Using the Facebook page aided me in achieving “CEM303 ni Sir
0% 0% 0% 34% 66% 4.75 1.85
Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking” objectives.
3 Using the Facebook page aided me in achieving MY OWN goals for
4.52
0% 0% 8% 34% 59% 4.56 1.77
the “CEM303 ni Sir Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking”.
4 Because of using the Facebook page, I was able to learn more about
0% 0% 19% 50% 31% 4.18 1.65
science and the environment.
5 The benefits of using the Facebook page are worth the extra effort &
0% 0% 7% 39% 53% 4.50 1.77
time.
6 Using the Facebook page enhanced my interest in the project. 0% 0% 2% 52% 45% 4.50 1.76
7 I would like to see Facebook incorporated into other projects. 0% 0% 12% 30% 58% 4.46 1.76
8 I would recommend Facebook to be used in my school classes. 0% 2% 13% 27% 59% 4.36 1.73
MOTIVATION
9 I would prefer to use Facebook to discuss other school topics. 0% 2% 8% 52% 39% 4.25 1.68
10 I will continue to use Facebook to discuss science topics with other
4.40
0% 0% 10% 40% 50% 4.43 1.74
students and my mentors.
11 I participated in the “CEM303 ni Sir Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking” project
0% 0% 10% 36% 54% 4.46 1.76
more because of using the Facebook page.
12 I was more interested in engaging in the project activities because of
0% 0% 8% 47% 46% 4.43 1.74
the Facebook page.
13 I liked seeing other students responding to what I posted on the
INTERACTION WITH MENTORS INTERACTION WITH STUDENTS
0% 0% 0% 38% 63% 4.71 1.84
Facebook page.
14 Using Facebook helped me interact more with other students. 0% 0% 0% 21% 79% 4.93 1.92
15 My relationship with other students grew stronger because of using
0% 0% 7% 25% 67% 4.68 1.84
the Facebook page.
4.71
16 I learned more about other students through using the Facebook
0% 0% 2% 45% 52% 4.61 1.80
page.
17 I learned more because of information posted by other students on
0% 0% 2% 31% 66% 4.75 1.86
the Facebook page.
18 Using the Facebook page promoted collaborative learning with other
0% 0% 7% 32% 60% 4.61 1.81
students in the project.
19 I liked seeing my mentors' feedback on what I posed on the Facebook
0% 0% 0% 21% 79% 4.89 1.91
page.
20 Using the Facebook page helped me interact more with my mentors. 0% 0% 0% 27% 73% 4.82 1.88
21 My relationship with my mentors grew stronger because of using the
0% 0% 2% 28% 70% 4.75 1.86
Facebook page.
4.80
22 I learned more about my mentors through using the Facebook page. 0% 0% 2% 28% 70% 4.75 1.86
23 I learned more because of information posted by my mentors on the
0% 0% 0% 18% 82% 4.93 1.92
Facebook page.
24 Using the Facebook page promoted collaborative learning with my
0% 0% 2% 35% 63% 4.68 1.83
mentors.
25 The Facebook interface and features were overall easy to
0% 0% 7% 32% 60% 4.54 1.79
understand.
TECHNOLOGY
26 The benefits of using Facebook outweighed any technical challenges
0% 0% 13% 33% 54% 4.39 1.74
of its use.
4.54
27 Browsing through information and comments in Facebook was easy. 0% 0% 0% 43% 57% 4.67 1.80
28 Compared to other social networking sites, Facebook was easier to
0% 0% 2% 25% 73% 4.79 1.87
use.
29 The design and structure of Facebook helped enhance my learning. 0% 0% 13% 46% 40% 4.30 1.67
According to Table 3, the maximum weighted average (4.93) came from the constructs, “Interaction with
Mentors” and “Interaction with Students”, i.e. “I learned more because of information posted by my
mentor on the Facebook page” and “Using Facebook, it helped me interact more with other students”.
The least weighted average (4.18) is recorded from the construct, “Learning Pedagogy”. In general, the
response of the students is “strongly agree”, i.e. “Because of using the Facebook page, I was able to learn
more about science and the environment.”. The construct that got the greatest weighted average (4.80) is
that of “Interaction with Mentors” and the least (4.40) is that of “Motivation”.

14. Table 4. Weighted Mean of the Demographs with respect to the Constructs
Take Take Take Take Year Year Year Year
ALL Male Female 1 2 3 4 2 3 4 5
I understand more about STRENGTH OF MATERIALS) because
1 of using the “CEM303 ni Sir Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking” Facebook 4.61 4.52 4.38 4.22 4.56 4.50 4.75 4.08 5.00 4.67 4.73
group page
Using the Facebook page aided me in achieving “CEM303 ni Sir
2 4.75 4.52 4.75 4.44 4.44 4.67 4.75 4.25 4.33 4.33 5.00
Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking” objectives.
Using the Facebook page aided me in achieving MY OWN goals
3 4.56 4.40 4.38 4.44 4.33 4.20 4.25 4.17 4.33 4.00 4.64
for the “CEM303 ni Sir Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking”.
Because of using the Facebook page, I was able to learn more about
4 4.18 4.05 4.00 4.33 4.11 3.67 3.75 4.17 3.67 3.67 4.09
science and the environment.
The benefits of using the Facebook page are worth the extra effort
5 4.5 4.29 4.63 4.56 4.44 4.17 4.25 4.33 4.33 4.00 4.55
& time.
6 Using the Facebook page enhanced my interest in the project. 4.5 4.38 4.38 4.44 4.67 4.00 4.00 4.42 4.00 4.33 4.36
7 I would like to see Facebook incorporated into other projects. 4.46 4.38 4.25 4.56 4.22 3.83 4.75 4.17 4.67 4.33 4.36
8 I would recommend Facebook to be used in my school classes. 4.36 4.19 4.38 4.44 4.44 3.83 4.25 4.25 4.33 4.00 4.36
9 I would prefer to use Facebook to discuss other school topics. 4.25 4.00 4.25 4.00 3.89 4.17 4.50 3.75 4.00 4.33 4.36
I will continue to use Facebook to discuss science topics with other
10 4.43 4.24 4.25 4.11 4.22 4.33 4.25 4.08 4.00 4.67 4.27
students and my mentors.
I participated in the “CEM303 ni Sir Iking”/ “CED135 of Iking”
11 4.46 4.29 4.38 4.22 4.44 4.17 4.50 4.17 4.33 4.00 4.64
project more because of using the Facebook page.
I was more interested in engaging in the project activities because of
12 4.43 4.29 4.38 4.22 4.44 4.33 4.50 4.17 4.67 4.33 4.55
the Facebook page.
I liked seeing other students responding to what I posted on the
13 4.71 4.57 4.63 4.78 4.78 4.17 4.50 4.67 4.67 4.33 4.64
Facebook page.
14 Using Facebook helped me interact more with other students. 4.93 4.76 4.75 4.89 4.89 4.50 4.50 4.83 4.67 4.67 4.73
My relationship with other students grew stronger because of using
15 4.68 4.52 4.75 4.78 4.56 4.33 4.75 4.50 5.00 4.33 4.64
the Facebook page.
I learned more about other students through using the Facebook
16 4.61 4.43 4.63 4.67 4.56 4.33 4.25 4.50 4.67 4.33 4.45
page.
I learned more because of information posted by other students on
17 4.75 4.57 4.75 4.89 4.56 4.33 4.75 4.58 4.67 4.33 4.73
the Facebook page.
Using the Facebook page promoted collaborative learning with
18 4.61 4.48 4.63 4.67 4.44 4.33 4.75 4.33 4.67 4.33 4.73
other students in the project.
I liked seeing my mentors' feedback on what I posed on the
19 4.89 4.71 4.88 4.78 4.78 4.67 4.75 4.67 4.67 4.67 4.91
Facebook page.
20 Using the Facebook page helped me interact more with my mentors. 4.82 4.62 4.88 4.78 4.67 4.67 4.75 4.58 4.67 4.67 4.82
My relationship with my mentors grew stronger because of using
21 4.75 4.62 4.63 4.56 4.67 4.67 4.75 4.42 4.67 4.67 4.82
the Facebook page.
22 I learned more about my mentors through using the Facebook page. 4.75 4.62 4.50 4.56 4.78 4.33 4.50 4.50 4.67 4.33 4.73
I learned more because of information posted by my mentors on the
23 4.93 4.76 4.75 4.67 4.78 4.83 4.25 4.58 4.33 5.00 4.82
Facebook page.
Using the Facebook page promoted collaborative learning with my
24 4.68 4.52 4.63 4.56 4.44 4.50 4.25 4.25 4.33 4.33 4.82
mentors.
The Facebook interface and features were overall easy to
25 4.54 4.29 4.63 4.33 4.67 4.17 4.33 4.25 4.50 4.00 4.73
understand.
The benefits of using Facebook outweighed any technical
26 4.39 4.19 4.38 4.11 4.78 4.17 3.75 4.17 4.33 4.00 4.45
challenges of its use.
Browsing through information and comments in Facebook was
27 4.67 4.45 4.63 4.44 4.78 4.33 4.00 4.42 4.33 4.33 4.55
easy.
Compared to other social networking sites, Facebook was easier to
28 4.79 4.62 4.63 4.67 4.88 4.67 4.00 4.64 4.50 5.00 4.55
use.
29 The design and structure of Facebook helped enhance my learning. 4.3 4.10 4.43 4.22 4.50 3.80 4.00 4.00 4.50 3.67 4.50
Table 5. Constructs' Weighted Mean Correlation of Demographs
Male Female Take 1 Take 2 Take 3 Take 4 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5
Male 1
Female 0.775539 1
Take 1 0.789114 0.746303 1
Take 2 0.702936 0.656366 0.531454 1
Take 3 0.781072 0.724972 0.400492 0.492768 1
Take 4 0.480232 0.444609 0.389457 -0.02658 0.423202 1
Year 2 0.828853 0.738068 0.894558 0.784789 0.496046 0.190666 1
Year 3 0.584304 0.562645 0.499293 0.475048 0.396384 0.655386 0.42013 1
Year 4 0.742661 0.487693 0.406366 0.416585 0.820941 0.385392 0.509908 0.341008 1
Year 5 0.746767 0.809458 0.475743 0.506337 0.767228 0.603134 0.44622 0.570559 0.423088 1
*Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
In Table 4, it shows a summary of the weighted mean of each demograph elements to the
constructs that was used in correlation as shown in Table 5. According to the survey conducted,
there‟s a high correlation between the Gender of those who took the course in first time basis,
and likewise to those second and third timers. For those who were in their 2nd year, 3rd year, and
terminal year, the survey is highly correlated with the Gender of the respondents.

15. 5.0 Conclusion and Recommendation
The use of internet and social networking tools were explored in the conduct of the author‟s class in the
subject Strength of Materials. Facebook still holds the promise to improve the interactivity between the
mentor and mentee by the use of Facebook features, uploading and downloading of documents,
incorporating online multimedia tools, educational webpages, and web-based file hosting services thru
hyperlinks to the social networking site. A survey was conducted to examine the pedagogical value of the
said social networking site, with the five identified constructs, with highly favorable results of a
maximum of 4.80 weighted mean in the construct, “Interaction with Mentors”, and lowest (4.40) in the
“Motivation” construct.
The following is recommended to pursue related research on the Effectiveness of Internet and Social
Networking Tools:
Thorough Pedagogical Value statistical study of Facebook by considering the Grade Point
Average of students in a specific collegiate program.
Exploring the continuously changing features of other social networking sites in the conduct of
interactivity among the learners of different subjects in a specific engineering field, for example.
REFERENCES
Ugander, J., B. Karrer, L, Backstrom, and C. Marlow (2011) The Anatomy of Facebook Social Graph;
PreprintarXiv:1111.4503
Backstrom, L, P. Boldi, M, Rosa, J, Ugander, and S. Vigna (2011) Four Degrees of Separation; Preprint
arXiv:1111.4570
http://www.mdsolids.com/featuresSet.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SkyDrive
Pollara, P. & Zhu, J. (2011). Social Networking and Education: Using Facebook as an Edusocial
Space.In Proceedings of Society for Information Technology & Teacher Education International
Conference 2011 (pp. 3330-3338). Chesapeake, VA: AACE.
Hazari S., A. North and D. Moreland (2009). Investigating Pedagogical Value of Wiki Technology.
Journal of Information Systems, Vol. 20 (2).
Fornell, C. & Larcker, D.F. (1981). Evaluating Structural Equation Models with Unobservable Variables
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ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Michael B. Baylon is an instructor of Far Eastern University – East Asia College. He obtained his BSCE
in De La Salle University – Manila and currently pursuing his MSCE at the same university. He may be
contacted at Rm. M207, FEU-EAC Main Bldg, Nicanor Reyes St., Sampaloc, Manila. E-mail:
mbbaylon@feu-eastasia.edu.ph

16. Orlando P. Lopez is currently the director of the Civil Engineering Department of FEU-EAC. He
obtained his Master of Engineering Program (Structural Engineering) at Adamson University under the
DOST-ESEP program.E-mail: oplopez@feu-eastasia.edu.ph
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors are indebted to the administration of Far Eastern University – East Asia College in giving
them the financial support and encouragement. They also acknowledge the management of the respective
companies that owns the trademark of the following brands: MS Office (MS Word, MS PowerPoint, MS
Excel), Facebook, MatLab, Adobe, SkyDrive, YouTube, and MDSolids & MecMovies. The first author
acknowledges the works of his students in CEM303 – V92 and CED135 – V24 and also for their
cooperation in accomplishing the survey forms.