Facebook Academy

Who is this for?

Current university students (19 – 25 years old) & professors at Higher Education (university).

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Key Insights:

• Large learning communities are developing very powerfully across Facebook Groups. They can be self-organised by students or led by a professor (e.g. CS50).
• COVID-19 exposed the weakness of the existing Learning Management System (e.g. Moodle), as in-person teaching got stripped away. Students are reporting poorer mental health, lower engagement, and satisfaction.
• For university students, Facebook Groups is the “obvious first place” to go to find their cohorts before and once they are enrolled to the university. However, it is also the case that some of these groups soon die out as they move to other apps outside of the Facebook app (e.g. Slack, Discord, WhatsApp, MS Teams).

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‍Key Problems:

• Fragmented learning/university experience — with multitudes of apps/group chats. "Where are my stuff, again?"
• ‍Functional LMS — with extremely limited interactivity. It is hardly representative of the real experience. "Who are our classmates, what are they like, how can I meet them?"
• ‍Hard to gain insights — Difficult to find how others are finding the course, exams, or homework. "Am I the only one struggling?"

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‍Key Solutions:

• A customised Facebook Groups that is tailored for learning (Study Space): In Study Space, students can join a module/course specific group chat. In this group chat, members can easily find official learning materials (Lectures, Notes & Slides), share/discover other relevant materials (Suggestions, Conversations, Feed, Alumni & Archives), organically build meaningful relationships with classmates, alumni (Study Room, Hallway Talks, Classmates Directory, Alumni & Archives, Conversations), and stay highly engaged both during and off lecture time (Live Lecture, Notifications, Online Status, Study Room, Feed).

• All-in-one learning experience: Study Space acts as a fully integrated LMS (no need for creating separate Zoomlinks, MS Team Slack group chats etc.); a Calendar feature that seamlessly captures the Facebook Events and their study-specific schedules and university specific events (i.e. integrate Facebook Campus features, Facebook Portal)
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Distribution Strategy (Professor -> Departmental -> University-level):

1. Start small by first attracting highly teacher-minded, credentialed university professors to adapt Facebook Academy (i.e. the Study Space element of it) to deliver the modules they teach.
2. Through this, Facebook will support and empower professors with the best tools + continually improve the product and create the best learning space possible. At this point, there’s no formal university-wide adaptation; only professor-level adaptation; free of charge.
3. This initial group of professors may refer to other professors in the department to use it in their classes. Facebook can also create campaigns to nurture professors, students, and learning at college.
4. Each professor typically teaches multiple modules in a department. Each module usually consists of dozens of students from the department. After 1-2 years of refinements and experimentations, a strong network effect can be created at a departmental level, and over time, university-wide level.
5. Attract selected number of universities for university-wide adaptation; could charge based on license fee, IT support, customisation.

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What core “social” strength of Facebook would help to accomplish this far better than others?

• For Professors: Facebook app is the “main” social media for the typical professor’s demographic already. They have it, know how to use it, and are engaged with it already.
• For Students: Facebook app is still the most casual place to connect with strangers and they are using it to find prospective students, discover Events. They are very active on Instagram, too.
• For Universities: they have an active Facebook page, and are intrinsically motivated to bolster strong student/alumni network and culture through this platform to improve branding.

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Author's Note: This was the final project submission for Product School's Product Leader Certificate. Facebook recently rolled out Facebook Campus at selected US colleges, and I perceive this hypothetical product proposal, Facebook Academy, as a natural extension to Facebook Campus. You can find out more about Facebook Campus at link. For any feedbacks, I'd be keen to know and discuss.