COM 320 Facebook Group Survey

Author Name

Melissa Smith, Mississippi University for WomenFollow

Document Type

Other

Summary

This class research project involved a qualitative study looking at a private Facebook site that focuses on the city of Columbus and the surrounding area. The owner of the site gave permission for a survey to be conducted among the sites more than 17,000 members. The Qualtrics survey was live for two weeks, and then students analyzed the responses. The Communication theories discussed during the semester were chosen to compliment the social media research project. The research and findings were incorporated into the course curriculum, and students were responsible for writing and editing the methodology component of the research paper as well as selection of findings to present in the paper.

Course Number

COM 320

Learning Objectives

Demonstrate knowledge of social science research methods and applications

Become conversant in the language of Communication research

Be able to recognize and discuss the societal effects of messages communicated via social media

Participate in a qualitative social media research project and present findings in a written or verbal form

Curricular Context

This research project took place during Fall semester 2024. The class was online asynchronous, but we did meet as a group two times to discuss the division of research duties and to analyze findings from the survey.

Instructor Reflections

This research project was very well received by students in the class, none of whom had ever participated in this level of research. This is a required course in Communication, and it serves as a preparation for the Senior Seminar course the following Spring. It was absolutely necessary to already have IRB approval in the works when the semester began. Students had to learn about IRB and why it is necessary, but in order to finish the project on time that had to be in progress when the class started. Scaffolding in the form of low-stakes quizzes, reflective papers, and layered introduction of Communication theories helped students to not feel overloaded. Because all of this had to be done in one semester, the survey was only live for two weeks, which was not long enough. If it were to be done again, the use of an incentive or reward for completing the survey would probably increase the number of completed surveys.

Recommended Citation

Smith, Melissa, "COM 320 Facebook Group Survey" (2025). OUR Assignment Repository. 2.
https://athenacommons.muw.edu/our-assign/2