Social media platforms represent an opportunity for higher education institutions to complement and enhance classroom teaching and learning. The purpose of this research is to investigate the influence of a LinkedIn group community on student experience, satisfaction and grades. A total of 118 students from three postgraduate programmes at a university in the United Kingdom were randomly assigned during the second week of the semester to either an experimental group representing the LinkedIn group community or to the control group, where students attended the classroom sessions but were not included in a LinkedIn group. In week twelve of the semester, 40 students in the experimental group and 42 in the control group voluntarily completed the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey questionnaire. The results of independent -tests indicate that students in the experimental group scored significantly higher than the control group on engagement, satisfaction and grades, and the behavioural engagement within the LinkedIn group community contributes to satisfaction. Analysis of the learning activities reveals that the interactive content produces a higher engagement rate than the informative content. International students who had previous experience with LinkedIn show higher levels of engagement within the experimental LinkedIn group. The research contributes to the educational use of LinkedIn and explains that the effective planning of learning activities in an online group community, which includes the consideration of individual characteristics and content types, may influence positively students’ levels of engagement, satisfaction and grades.

中文翻译：

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LinkedIn 群组社区对研究生体验、满意度和成绩的影响

社交媒体平台为高等教育机构提供了补充和加强课堂教学的机会。本研究的目的是调查 LinkedIn 群组社区对学生体验、满意度和成绩的影响。来自英国一所大学三个研究生课程的总共 118 名学生在学期的第二周被随机分配到代表 LinkedIn 群组社区的实验组或对照组，学生们参加了课堂课程，但未包含在 LinkedIn 群组中。在学期第十二周，实验组的 40 名学生和对照组的 42 名学生自愿填写了研究生教学经验调查问卷。独立测试的结果表明，实验组学生在参与度、满意度和成绩方面的得分显着高于对照组，并且 LinkedIn 群组社区内的行为参与度有助于提高满意度。对学习活动的分析表明，互动内容比信息内容产生更高的参与率。曾使用过 LinkedIn 的国际学生在实验性 LinkedIn 群组中表现出更高的参与度。该研究有助于 LinkedIn 的教育用途，并解释说，在线团体社区中有效规划学习活动（包括考虑个人特征和内容类型）可能会对学生的参与度、满意度和成绩产生积极影响。