Exploring the role of sociability, sense of community and course satisfaction on students' engagement in flipped classroom supported by facebook groups

In recent years, how students’ engagement can be developed in flipped classroom (FC) model has become a critical issue addressed in an educational context. Evidence suggests that students’ behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement may decrease in FC in time. It is thought that social networking sites (SNS) can contribute to this problem in FC. Since it is believed that students will show greater interest in discussions and knowledge exchange about the course, supporting courses with SNS is significant in terms of providing students with a social learning environment, it is assumed that students’ role of sociability, sense of community, and course satisfaction will increase, thereby promoting students’ engagement in those courses supported by SNS. This assumption appears in the literature as a gap that needs to be explored. In this sense, the purpose of this current research is to examine perceived sociability, sense of community, and student satisfaction and to determine how these variables predict behavioral, cognitive, and emotional engagement of students in FC supported by a virtual learning community. A total of 219 university students at a state university in Turkey. The research was carried out in the Computing I course conducted according to the FC model, and it was supported by the virtual learning community created on Facebook. Knowledge sharing and discussions about the course were made in Facebook groups. The data draws on students’ responses via three self-report instruments: satisfaction scale, students’ engagement scale, perceived sociability scale, and sense of community scale. Stepwise multiple linear regression was conducted for the data analysis. The findings indicate that students’ engagement in FC applications supported by the Facebook-based virtual learning community is high. Regarding sub-dimensions, students’ behavioral and emotional engagement scores are high, while cognitive engagement is moderate. Additionally, perceived sociability, sense of community, and satisfaction are significant predictors of students’ engagement. Several implications and future research recommendations are discussed.