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 The current higher education landscape has been transformed by integrating digital technologies, which have introduced new opportunities for pedagogical interaction. Facebook, a globally recognised social media platform, has the potential to be a transformative medium for nurturing connections between students and their lecturers. Its pervasive presence in the digital lives of students, in conjunction with its intuitive and user-friendly interface, creates a virtual space that is easily accessible and transcends the temporal and physical constraints that are typically associated with the classroom. It is reasonable to anticipate a significant and ongoing increase in the use of Facebook by academicians who are striving to enhance their teaching practices within the evolving educational paradigm, given these inherent advantages.

Prior research consistently emphasises the advantages of strategically integrating Facebook into instructional frameworks. These studies have clarified its capacity to improve student engagement, foster a more dynamic learning environment, and effectively disseminate knowledge and resources beyond the constraints of scheduled lectures. Nevertheless, the general utility of Facebook in education has been examined; however, a more comprehensive and critical analysis of the nuanced role of lecturers' self-disclosure within this digital pedagogical landscape is warranted.

The potential impact on student participation and overall learning outcomes within this digital environment is immeasurable, and the importance of how lecturers present themselves and share information on Facebook cannot be overstated. Lecturers can disseminate diverse information, from the strictly impersonal to the personal, through their Facebook accounts. As a result, a wide range of prospective interaction styles is generated. Personal disclosure, which entails sharing personal anecdotes, relevant experiences, and insights into the lecturer's personality and interests, can establish a relatability and human connection between the educator and the student. This increased sense of connection may lead to a more conducive learning environment, a greater propensity to engage in discussions, and increased student engagement.

In contrast, impersonal disclosure, which is primarily concerned with disseminating academic content, significant course announcements, and relevant professional updates, prioritises clarity, efficiency, and a direct focus on the subject matter. Despite the potential benefits of both disclosure forms, the precise impact of lecturers' varying approaches to their Facebook account access, specifically the balance between personal and impersonal sharing, on crucial aspects such as student-lecturer participation levels and students' satisfaction with communication warrants a thorough and systematic investigation. Educators interested in optimising their online presence for pedagogical purposes must possess a more profound understanding of these specific dynamics, despite the growing body of research examining the general applications of Facebook in instruction.

A dedicated study was conducted to address the current gap in the current understanding. The primary objective of this study was to investigate the level of student-lecturer participation and the degree of communication satisfaction experienced by students in response to both personal and impersonal Facebook accounts maintained by their lecturers. Additionally, the investigation aimed to ascertain the students' perspectives on the extent of their lecturers' self-disclosure in these distinct online environments. To accomplish these precisely defined objectives, a quasi-experimental research design was meticulously implemented, which involved a cohort of one hundred twenty students who were enrolled in pertinent courses. The students who participated were randomly assigned to one of two distinct groups, each consisting of sixty individuals. Lecturers were encouraged to share both personal and academic content, and the initial set of students established connections and interacted with their lecturers through designated personal Facebook accounts. In contrast, the remaining sixty students engaged with their lecturers through separate, impersonal Facebook accounts, which were primarily dedicated to the dissemination of academic information and professional updates. The direct and comparative analysis of the effects of these contrasting disclosure techniques adopted by lecturers on the resulting student-lecturer dynamics and communication patterns was facilitated by this deliberate research design.
The data collection process entailed the administration of a self-administered questionnaire that was meticulously crafted and selected at two critical junctures during the academic semester. The initial administration of the questionnaire, which served as a pre-test, was conducted during the first week of the semester to obtain a baseline of student perceptions and expectations. The second administration took place in the fourteenth week of the semester, specifically as a post-test, to assess any changes that may have occurred during the course. The questionnaire contained specific enquiries that were directly related to the students' perceived extent of their lecturers' self-disclosure on Facebook, the level of student-lecturer participation observed within the Facebook environment, and the students' overall satisfaction with communication, particularly in terms of the timeliness and quality of feedback received and the nature of casual, informal conversations that may have arisen. The researchers were able to effectively monitor any changes or evolutions in student perceptions and interaction patterns as the semester progressed and their engagement with their lecturers on Facebook unfolded because of this longitudinal approach to data collection.

The results of the data analysis were compelling, as they demonstrated a substantial discrepancy in the degree of self-disclosure that students perceived between the personal and impersonal Facebook accounts for lecturers. In comparison to their peers who engaged with lecturers on impersonal Facebook accounts, students who engaged with them on personal Facebook accounts consistently perceived a greater degree of self-disclosure. This discovery strongly implies that the students' perceptions of intimacy, approachability, and connection are enhanced by the online disclosure of personal information by lecturers. It is important to note that the perceived intensity of self-disclosure, the level of student-lecturer participation, and the overall satisfaction with communication showed a substantial and statistically significant difference between the pre-test and post-test responses in the group of students interacting with personal Facebook accounts. This suggests that the interaction facilitated through personal Facebook accounts had a substantial positive impact on student engagement and communication satisfaction throughout the semester. In contrast, the group that interacted with impersonal Facebook accounts also observed a positive effect. However, the perceived changes in self-disclosure, participation, and satisfaction were significantly less pronounced, indicating a milder impact than the personal account interactions.

The initial analysis of the pre-test data did not reveal any statistically significant differences between the two groups in their baseline perceptions of lecturers' self-disclosure. This is an interesting finding. This implies that students did not have significantly different expectations about the extent to which their lecturers would share on Facebook, irrespective of the designated account type, at the outset of the semester. Nevertheless, both groups experienced improvements in communication satisfaction and student-lecturer participation from the pre-test to the post-test, despite this initial similarity. This significant discovery suggests that any form of facilitated interaction between students and lecturers on the Facebook platform, whether through personal or impersonal accounts, can indeed have a positive impact on these critical aspects of the student-lecturer relationship, thereby fostering a more communicative and enjoyable learning environment.

This research is a valuable addition to the growing corpus of knowledge regarding the effective use of Facebook in higher education instructional settings. This research establishes a fundamental understanding for educators who aspire to strategically leverage the power of social media to improve student engagement and establish more meaningful connections with their students beyond the traditional classroom by elucidating the correlation between the nature and extent of lecturers' self-disclosure on Facebook and critical pedagogical outcomes, including communication satisfaction and student-lecturer participation. The results of this study emphasise that the precise nature of self-disclosure utilised by lecturers is essential in the formation of student perceptions, the regulation of their levels of participation, and, in the end, their satisfaction with communication. This underscores the critical role of strategic and deliberate communication practices for educators who are operating in the digital classroom, which is becoming more prevalent. In the future, research should concentrate on investigating the potential long-term effects of various self-disclosure strategies on student learning and engagement. Furthermore, it would be advantageous to examine the potential influence of diverse cultural and disciplinary contexts on these observed dynamics, thereby enhancing our comprehension of the most effective strategies for utilising social media in educational environments.

Associate Professor Dr Padma Pillai
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Email: @email