Factors influencing knowledge transfer among Internship Students using Facebook

Abstract

Keeping in contact with and sharing knowledge ubiquitously among peer students and teachers during professional internship are utmost important in supporting students both cognitively and affectively to overcome difficulties in their new workplaces. This paper examines the potential factors and its relative impact on influencing the effectiveness of using Facebook as a knowledge-sharing tool during students’ professional education. A case study was implemented to study a group of university students’ perspectives on using Facebook in their internship. The findings are presented in 4 dimensions, ranging from Human, Policy, Technology, and Knowledge aspects as the theoretical framework with 17 potential factors identified. Among the findings, Social Tie got the highest impact in Human aspects as Facebook could create a peer support network among students. Scaffolding reflections has the highest impact among Policy factors because guidance can assist students to formulate content for their reflective journals. Facebook’s News Feed function has been recognized as the highest influence among Technology factors because this function enables students to be updated instantly and frequently on the latest development within the internship activities. Explicit knowledge transfer reached the highest impact among Knowledge factors as students can apply Information Management related model into their working situations. All in all, the findings of the study also proved that factors from the literature are applicable to the professional experience internship context. This study provides insights for universities to better utilize Facebook to support knowledge transfer in students’ internships. The theoretical framework used in this study may serve as a basis for further research on the use of Facebook for knowledge transfer.