Online Social Networking Survey - USFSP faculty and students

Summary Results of Online Social Networking Survey - USFSP students and faculty:

In November 2007, we conducted web-based surveys of USFSP students and faculty to measure their awareness and use of online social networking tools, broadly defined here to include social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook; blogs and blog aggregators; wiki software; photo-sharing tools; video-sharing tools; podcasting; social bookmarking (e.g., del.icio.us); and virtual worlds such as Second Life.

Although the response rates were not as high as hoped (18.4% for faculty and 4.4% for students), some of the general findings and write-in comments are interesting. Overall, the results indicated that USFSP students and faculty survey respondents do not use as many of the online social networking tools as might have been expected. And, in general, these tools are used more commonly for personal rather than academic purposes. There are of course some important exceptions and distinctions - these are noted in a summary report of the survey findings.