Students’ Perceived Intensity of Lecturers’ Self-Disclosure on Facebook Account

One salient issue regarding Facebook use in instruction is the role of lecturers’ self-disclosure in student learnings. This self-disclosure can be in a personal or impersonal mode of lecturers’ Facebook account. This research examined the level of students’ perceived intensity of self-disclosure by lecturers’ in a personal and impersonal mode of Facebook use for instruction. The quasi-experimental research design was used for this research, and a total of 120 students participated in the study were assigned into two groups. One group (60 students) connect with their lecturers via lecturers’ personal Facebook account. The other group (60 students) connect with their lecturers via lecturers’ impersonal Facebook account. Participants fill out a self-administered questionnaire on week one (pre-test) and week fourteen (post-test) of the semester. The questionnaire contained questions on the perceived breadth of lecturers’ self-disclosure. The results revealed the level of students’ perceived intensity of lecturers’ self-disclosure is higher in lecturer personal Facebook account than in lecturers’ impersonal Facebook account. This study contributes to the growing body of knowledge on the use of Facebook in instruction by clarifying the association of students’ perceived lecturers’ self-disclosure on Facebook.


Introduction
The continued growth and success of Facebook have brought social networking to a new era.
Research is now underway to explore the lecturers' use of computer-mediated communication (CMCs) like Facebook and the impact CMCs on their lecturers' impressions on students (e.g., DiVerniero & Hosek, 2011;Mazer Murphy, & Simonds, 2007, 2009). This new communication medium must be studied for its prevalent usage, including communications between student and lecturer. These mediated ties lead to positive educational outcomes, such as improved engagement, affective learning, or positive classroom environment assessments (Mazer et al., 2007). Students also value the connection of lecturers (DiVerniero & Hosek, 2011). In contrast, students judged the lecturer's classroom environment more favourably than students who saw the lecturer's Facebook page containing limited information about themselves (Maser et al. 2007). Students who viewed a lecturer's Facebook page with a high level of self-disclosure thought that the lecturers were more trustworthy (Mazer et al., 2009). Self-disclosure on Facebook could, therefore, have a positive impact on lecturer ratings and student performance. Nonetheless, because of the recent addition of valence (positivity/ negative) and significance (high/low) to the self-disclosure rate of the educator, the characteristics of lecturers' self-disclosures require additional attention (Cayanus & Martin, 2008). Cayanus and Martin (2008) found that the amount, significance, and importance of self-disclosure by lecturers has a distinct effect on motivation, clarity of lecturers, the meaningfulness of teachings and skills of lecturers. Reports of self-disclosures of lecturers also profit from the inclusion of these two supplementary subscales. In general, this research explores the correlation between lecturer selfdisclosure on Facebook and students' perceived reputation on their lecturer.

Students' Perceived Intensity of Lecturers' Self-Disclosure in Personal Facebook Account
The method of "disclosing personal or private information about oneself that others are unlikely to find on their own" is commonly called self-disclosure (Wood, 2000, p. 148). Altman and Taylor (1973) found out that this process of self-disclosure usually results in personal relationships forming. Lecturers seem to be monitoring their confidentiality limits cautiously (Petronio 2002) while disclosing information to students due to the unique aspects of their relationship with studentlecturer. Cayanus and Martin (2008) note that self-disclosure of lecturers is distinct from selfdisclosure of interpersonal. Lecturers' self-disclosures, for instance, are more illustrative than relational (Nussbaum, Comadena, & Holladay, 1987).
Early research in that direction found that lecturers who use mood, context, excitement, and selfdisclosure to personalise the classroom environment are seen by their students to be effective at communicating the curriculum material (Bryant, Comiskey, Crane & Zillman, 1980). Cayanus (2004) called for the use of self-disclosure as a method for learning students, suggesting that lecturers should be more conscious of and integrate the value of self-disclosure into their teaching. Lecturers spend considerable time lecturing and telling stories and expressing their personal beliefs in their classrooms (Nussbaum et al. 1987). These admissions have essential consequences as students tend to negatively judge lecturers when they are attempting to show positive messages that the student sees as truthful (Nussbaum et al., 1987). Students play a more active role in the classroom when lecturers speak about themselves compared with students in classes where professors have not spoken about themselves (Goldstein & Benassi, 1994).
The principle of privacy management of communications (Petronio, 2002) describes the process of disclosure of private information and the standards used to handle data. In the classroom environment, lecturers have a duty when choosing personal information for disclosure or dissimulation to monitor their disclosures carefully. While the research to date has shown positive student outcomes when lecturers themselves report, perceptions of too much disclosure or insufficient disclosures can lead to negative student results or negative lecturer evaluations. Lecturers at universities understand the threats to the disclosure of personal information, for example, damage to reputation or inconvenience to students (Hosek & Thompson, 2009). Therefore, it is crucial to understand the essence and value of lecturers' disclosures, in particular, their importance and validity (Cayanus & Martin, 2004). This argument was reinforced when Cayanus and Martin (2008) noted that lecturer self-disclosure, significance, and valence contribute to active learning, student motivation, and consistency in teaching.
Relevant information is considered when students believe that the material of the course will satisfy their personal needs, personal objectives, or career goals (Keller, 1983). The importance of factors such as verbal and nonverbal immediacy, student intentions, and course affect for lecturers (Frymier & Shulman 1995). Students are more inspired when they see their lecturers as only and pertinently interacting (Frymier & Shulman, 1995). In addition to increasing student insight and comprehension, related self-disclosure by lecturers also increases student interest and motivation (Goldstein & Benassi 1994). Valence is also a matter to be taken into consideration. The positive and negative characteristics of the data divulged are alluded to by Cayanus and Martin (2002). Valence is significant because students are more optimistic than lecturers engaged in negative self-disclosure (Dalto, Ajzen, & Kaplan, 1979;Messman & JonesCorley, 2001;Plax, Kearney, McCroskey & Richmond, 1986;Sorensen, 1989). The related and constructive self-disclosures of lecturers in the classroom, therefore, have positive results. The goal of this study is to see if these positive results continue when lecturers and students shift their interactions towards outstanding communication, especially on the Facebook social network website. H1: There is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of Student Perceived Intensity of Lecturers' Self-Disclosure in lecturers' Personal Facebook account.

Students' Perceived Intensity of Lecturers' Self-Disclosure in Impersonal Facebook Account
Out-of-class communication (OCC) requires consultation, similar exchanges between students and/or other conversations about different topics (Nadler & Nadler, 2001). Such experiences are distinct because when students speak out of their classes, they show discrepancies in relationships with their lecturers, including increased levels of shared control, confidence, and familiarity with their lecturer (Dobransky & Frymier, 2004). Besides, student satisfaction and motivation have increased among students, who obtained social support from lecturers OCC (Jones, 2008). OCC takes place by various means and places. For example, lecturers are communicating with their students through e-mail and instant messages, in which students respond positively to suggesting further use of the Internet as a means of communication (Edwards, 2009). In contrast to the next most populated social networking site, Facebook has an estimated 900,000,000 single monthly users, with a considerably fewer estimated one monthly visitors at 310,000,000 (eBizMBA, 2014). Facebook is considered to be university students most commonly used social networking site (Hew, 2011). Several surveys show that more than 90% of the students in the USA participate (Ellison, Steinfield, & Lampe, 2007). The use of Facebook for OCC has benefits and disadvantages for relationships between students and lecturers. While lecturers' self-disclosure can cultivate productive relationships with students, lecturers' self-disclosures and relational selfdivulgation can be muddled (Fusani 1994). The OCC is a relational body, Dobransky and Frymier (2004) contend, but agree that power and control are unique attributes to the relation to be negotiated. It is appropriate to promote immediate disclosure and certain degrees of intimacy in the classroom by lecturers. Nevertheless, for lecturers' self-disclosure instruction, the distinction between instructor and student must remain clear (Lannuti & Strauman, 2006). These findings suggest that self-disclosure by lecturers cannot be seen as a single aspect. Alternatively, a multi-dimensional approach is needed better to understand the effects of self-revelation in the classroom. Cayanus and Martin (2004) proposed for these reasons that significance and valence are also included when making selfdisclosure for lecturers functional. The quantity, relevance, and validity of lecturer self-disclosures, therefore, require further study in OCC, especially in the Facebook medium. H2: There is a significant difference between the pre-test and post-test scores of Students' Perceived Intensity of Lecturers' Self-Disclosure in Lecturers' Impersonal Facebook account.

Quasi-Experimental Design
This study uses a case-study approach with a quasi-experimental design to resolve the research questions. The study focuses on a case study with a university in Malaysia. In addition, this study emphasised on students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in personal and impersonal lecturers' Facebook account. The researchers' interest in educational change and teaching experience brought the notion of conducting this research. In order to address the research questions, a quasi-experimental design has been used. Case studies promote understanding of reallife situations directly linked to daily experiences and form the basis for implementing new teaching methods in the classroom. Students were assigned to impersonal and personal lecturers' Facebook account groups at Sunway University. As mentioned earlier, the groups of students were chosen with the purpose to assess their perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure via personal and impersonal Lecturers' Facebook account. The task was split into two phases (pre-testing and post-testing) to achieve the aims of the study.

Pre-Test
In the pre-test, the quasi-experiment was conducted in Week 1 of the semester by distributing a set of questionnaires (Set A) to all 120 selected students. Sixty students in lecturers' personal Facebook account and another 60 students in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account. Before starting, students were briefed about how to take part in the experiment, the conditions under which the analysis was carried out, and what to do with the information provided. Students were allowed to take into account all lecturers that they are connected via personal and impersonal Facebook account even though only two classes (personal and impersonal) were used for this experiment. The pre-test was conducted for both personal and impersonal Facebook account to assess students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in personal and impersonal Facebook account.

Post-Test
After the experiment was completed within 14 Weeks, both personal and impersonal Facebook groups were tested once again with a post-test score. The post-test is a measure taken after conduct to measure the differences of the interaction between students' perceived intensity of lecturers' selfdisclosure in lecturers' personal and impersonal Facebook account. Ultimately, the pre-test and posttest results explain the disparity between scores on Facebook, both impersonal and personal. Data were then analysed using SPSS software by Paired Sample t-test.

Measurement
Lecturers' self-disclosure refers to the breadth of disclosure by the lecturer. This refers to the various topics being discussed by the lecturer on Facebook. The breadth of disclosure was measured with 20 items on a seven-point Likert scale, ranging from (1) completely disagree to (7) completely agree. The respondents (students) answers are their perceived knowledge of their lecturers' self-disclosure in the Facebook account they are connected to. Some examples of the items on the scale include: "My lecturer expresses his/her beliefs in Facebook," "My lecturer often talks about his /her family and friends in Facebook" and "My lecturer often talks about him/herself on Facebook. Answers on 20 statements from respondents were then added and then divided by the total number of items to calculate the mean score. Higher means score indicates students' perceived lecturers' self-disclosure is more and favourable.

Personal Facebook Account
The students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure was examined. Table 1 illustrated the analysis of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure (Pre-Test and Post-Test) in the lecturers' personal Facebook account. Twenty questions adopted from Cayanus and Martin (2002) self-rated by 60 students on students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in the lecturers' personal Facebook account. The results above indicate that there is a different outcome between the Pre-Test and Post-Test of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in the lecturers' personal Facebook account.
As perceived on the results illustrated in table 1, the pattern for all items suggests, the Post-Test of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' personal Facebook account provided higher mean scores (between 3.07 to 4.58) than the Pre-Test results (between 2.83 to 3.83).
Visibly, the observation of data discovered in students' perceived intensity of lecturers' selfdisclosure, 'lecturer is open about his/her feelings with us' and 'lecturer opinion on current event' seemed to be highly agreed by the respondents, judging by the highest mean score. The results, clearly show the process of interaction between the lecturer and students in one semester is high, and the student has no problem with their lecturers' personal disclosure.
Despite this, the intensity of two other items 'lecturer seldom discusses about family and friends' and 'lecturer seldom talks about him/herself' also found to be high. This shows that the student prefers their lecturer to self-disclose their family and friends, and frequently correspond in Facebook.
Additionally, the results from Paired Sample T-Test Statistics shown in table 2 below indicates that the score for students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' personal Facebook account Pre-Test is 65.07 and Post-Test is 75.72 with (t = -3.309, ρ < 0.05). This result confirmed that students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' personal Facebook account (Post-Test) is significantly different when compared to students' perceived intensity of lecturers' selfdisclosure in lecturers' personal Facebook account (Pre-Test). The students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in the lecturers' personal Facebook account (Post-Test) gives higher values on self-rated questions. Therefore, students acknowledge the lecturers' personal Facebook page as a form of communication form this course. Overall, there is a significant difference between the Pre-Test and Post-Test scores between students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in the lecturers' personal Facebook account. Therefore, H1 is accepted.

Impersonal Facebook Account
The students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account was examined. Table 3 illustrated the summary of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account (Pre-Test and Post-Test). Twenty questions adopted from Cayanus and Martin (2002) self-rated by 60 students on students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account. Based on the above result, it can be seen that there is a different outcome between the Pre-Test and Post-Test of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account. As perceived on the results illustrated in table 3, the pattern for all items suggests, the Post-Test of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account provided higher mean scores (between 2.92 to 5.13) than the Pre-Test (between 2.13 to 4.32). The observation of data discovered in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account, namely; 'lecturer discuss only class-related matter', 'lecturer rarely discusses personal life' and 'lecturer seldom talks about him/herself' seemed to be highly agreed by the respondents, judging by the highest mean score. This shows that the process of interaction between the lecturer and students in one semester (Post-test result) is high, and the lecturer knows what to be disclosed and want should not be disclosed in Facebook account.
Results shown in table 4 below indicates that the score for students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account Pre-Test is 61.73 and Post-Test is 72.97 with (t = -2.953, ρ < 0.05). This result confirmed that students' perceived intensity of lecturers' selfdisclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account (Post-Test) is significantly different when compared to students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account (Pre-Test). The students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account (Post-Test) gives higher values on self-rated questions, indicating that the lecturers' impersonal Facebook page, which was created by the lecturer in this course to communicate is acknowledged by the students. Overall, there is a significant difference between the Pre-Test and Post-Test scores between students' perceived intensity of lecturers' selfdisclosure in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account. Therefore, H2 is accepted.

Discussion and Conclusion
The results that the students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure is higher in lecturers' personal Facebook account than in lecturers' impersonal Facebook account. Within-group analysis for lecturers' personal Facebook account showed a significant difference in the level of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure. This study indicated that higher impact was reported in the level of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' disclosure in lecturers' personal Facebook account as compared to the lecturers' impersonal Facebook account. In contrast to the findings in this study, Froment et al. (2017) and Al Ghamdi (2017) have documented the importance of Facebook self-disclosure in lecturer-student relationships in the classroom. While in Froment et al. and Al Ghamdi's study, the Facebook disclosure and lecturer-student relationships found to be significant also. Mazer et al. (2009) examined the impacts of self-disclosure of a female lecturer (earlier unknown to students) via Facebook on her credibility as perceived by 129 undergraduate students at a U.S. university. The outcome showed that students tend to attribute greater perceived rates of trustworthiness to lecturers who possesses caring characteristics. Lecturers who voluntarily revealed more data about herself than one who did not (or, in other words, a lecturer who did not bother limiting availability to his/her Facebook profile) are assumed to be more trustworthy. This finding has consequences for the student-lecturer relationship and subsequently affects the learning environment. In comparison with previous studies, current study's findings support the notion that the majority of Facebook's learning-related practice focuses on administrative matters associated to courses or departments issues (e.g., lecture/tutorial schedules, assignment/project requirements). Expressing a sense of frustration or anger about the lecturers (e.g., Selwyn, 2009), or banter (e.g., humorous postings about assessment tasks), instead of teaching and learning elements or pedagogy matters (e.g., querying, reflecting, commenting on specific course-related topics or issues). In summary, the study results indicate that establishing and sustaining positive relationships between lecturers and students increases student participation and motivation during class. The findings of this study refer to the previous research showing that the self-disclosure of lecturers has a positive influence on essential variables such as transparency among lecturers (Wamback and Brothen, 1997;Zhang, 2017), engagement among students (Sulaiman, Jaafar, & Tamjidyamcholo, 2018), student motivation, affectionate learning and the classroom environment. Lecturers can present themselves as people who work outside the classroom in social situations other than their traditional face-toface environment through Facebook. Even though the results show a positive link between lecturers' self-disclosure with students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure, lecturers should be consistent with the teaching style of their self-disclosure on Facebook. Lecturers with casual photos and enjoyable posts showing a relaxed personality on Facebook, but strictly managing their classrooms study can create violation perceptions which can have negative effects on students. Future research may investigate how differences have an adverse impact on their reputation or main results for students, such as engagement and academic performance, between the lecturers themselves and their teaching patterns in the classroom on Facebook. Students must also examine whether there is a curvilinear relationship in the self-revelation of lecturers on Facebook (Strickland 2016). In other words, lecturers' self-disclosure can reach an extremely high level and lead to negative perceptions among students. It is important to note that the findings show some significant differences and merely acknowledged the difference between Pre-Test and Post-Test of students' perceived intensity of lecturers' self-disclosure. Nevertheless, scholars observed that immediate and caring lecturers towards students could have a significant impact on the reputation, integrity and trustworthiness (Teven & Hanson, 2004). If lecturers present themselves on Facebook as highly immediate and caring, they may positively affect student perceptions of lecturers' competence. It is important to note, though, that some self-disclosures can negatively affect lecturers' skills (Meluch & Starcher, 2019). The structure of the Facebook network allows lecturers to decide how student participants appear. Lecturers can reveal photographs and personal information strategically that would unlikely to have a negative impact on their perceived competence.