ADDING A SOCIAL DIMENSION TO ONLINE EDUCATION AT QASSIM COLLEGE OF MEDICINE.

Introduction; Online blended learning has been a standard feature at Qassim College of Medicine for six years. Keeping students interested in e-learning and facilitating online courses have always posed challenges, following mainstream usage of social networks by students. Methodology; Sixty-six Students enrolled in a Surgery course in 2014 were exposed to social networking, which comprised open discussions, posting comments, and the use of multimedia features as means to enhance their commitment to the course and engagement level. Results; The social networking component was quite popular among students who; posted their daily activities, clinical training sessions, and pictures, accompanied by many comments and discussions. All survey respondents said that it enhanced their level of engagement in e-learning, 89%said that it helped them learn online, and 11% said that it had affected their time negatively. Conclusions; The results confirm the potential of social networks in facilitating student engagement in courses. However, there proved to be a need to improve social networks for use in education and to manage the time aspect for the students’ benefit.