Facebook is one of the fastest growing and most popular social network sites on the internet. Many individuals and organizations have capitalized on Facebook’s popularity to connect friends, form support groups and promote their cause. Not to be outdone, the online educational community has also tapped into Facebook popularity and has used it to create various new products that are very beneficial to the online education community. These applications are grouped into various categories to make it easy for students to have choices on which one they prefer.
Choosing a School
Choosing a school is at the top of the list for anyone aspiring for higher education. Facebook has pooled several applications under this category that helps students to choose their online college.
- Gradzila is a Facebook application that gathers data from the US News and World Reports to create a list of the best online schools and colleges and their contact information.
- Connect a College allows prospective students to establish contacts with students of universities. This enables applicants to get an inside view of life at the universities directly from those studying there.
- College Toolkit allows you to view information about online colleges, conduct an IQ test and see students from the institution who can give you a breakdown of life at the college.
Paying for School
Tuition is always a big factor for students when pursuing a degree. Facebook has created an application to assist students find scholarships online.
- Scholarship Search allows students to search through a database of over 2.9 million scholarships that they can access to help with school fees.
Classes, Majors and Grades
Online students will differ in their learning abilities. As a result, Facebook has created several applications that assist students in planning their online course schedule based on their time and availability. In this category, students also get advice on choosing major or getting books from other students to buy borrow or rent.
- Course Topia helps online students build their semester. Students are just required to sign up and state their school and the application guides them through building their semester courses. They can then post their class schedule on Facebook so their friends can see which courses they are taking.
- Cheap Textbooks allows online students to compare the prices offered by dozens of online bookshops and then select the best option for making their purchase.
- Campus Buddy gives students an overview of professors, course work, past grade breakdowns and the ability to see if your friends are registered to a particular course.
Studying
Students always can use all the help they can get when studying. Facebook has created several ingenious ways of helping students to maximize their study sessions.
- Ask a Teacher has a database of teachers and professors who have volunteered to help online students gain an understanding of their subject area. They simply contact them through Facebook and establish a working relationship with them.
- Quiz Monster is a collection of questions from various subject areas that helps students to help prepare for exams.
- Study Groups allows students to form groups where they can interact, share study material, homework, create to do lists and plan their class projects.