Pharmacy Faculty Members' Perspectives on the Student/faculty Relationship in Online Social Networks

Objective. To describe pharmacy faculty members' use of the online social network Facebook and compare the perspectives of faculty members with and without Facebook profiles regarding student/faculty relationships. Methods. An electronic survey instrument was sent to full-time faculty members (n = 183) at 4 colleges of pharmacy in Ohio seeking their opinions on student/faculty relationships on Facebook. If respondents answered “yes” to having a Facebook profile, they were asked 14 questions on aspects of being “friends” with students. If respondents answered “no,” they were asked 4 questions. Results. Of the 95 respondents (52%) to the survey instrument, 44 faculty members (46%) had a Facebook profile, while 51 faculty members (54%) did not. Those who had a profile had been faculty members for an average of 8.6 years, versus 11.4 years for those who did not have a Facebook profile. Seventy-nine percent of faculty members who used Facebook were not “friends” with their students. The majority of respondents...