Determining Open Education Related Social Media Usage Trends in Turkey Using a Holistic Social Network Analysis

Abstract

The aim of this study is to reveal Open Education related social media usage in Turkey through social network analyses. To this end, the most widely used social media network in Turkey, Facebook, was chosen. All the pages and groups created on Facebook related to Open Education were found. A total of 207 groups and 521 pages were accessed and entered into the social network analysis. Within the scope of this study, the density and centrality features of the network were analyzed for groups whereas the density, centrality, and degrees features of the network were analyzed for pages. The study's results revealed that while pages and groups related to programs emphasizing current job opportunities and student support services were more actively used, commercial accounts attempted to exploit students' exam anxiety instead of generating actual content. The findings also revealed that well structured institutional pages appeal to students and have the potential to reach high levels of popular in short periods of time.