The Stanford Facebook Class

By now you’re probably familiar with college courses being taught about Youtube or in Second Life, but last Thursday began something new: a college course taught at Stanford University on Facebook applications. Cramming over 100 students into a temporary classroom, professor BJ Fogg wrote the following in the Stanford Persuasive Technology blog about his class:

We’re focusing on the psychology and metrics of Facebook, and how understanding these two pieces can help developers create superior applications on Facebook–or on whatever platform opens up next (and apparently more are coming soon).

What’s new here is how Facebook Platform has brought the creator and user close together through Facebook product features like Reviews and Discussion Boards, as well as built-in metrics of uptake and engagement. Anyone can see exactly how people are responding to a Facebook app, both individually and collectively.

BJ Fogg and Dave McClure have framed this course well by probing the relationship of creators and users in these applications. And while the course itself focuses on Facebook applications, I imagine that many of the discussions could be extrapolated and applied to other trends in web applications that are moving toward similar models. The class’ second assignment is to create a Facebook application that aids teaching and learning – it will be especially interesting to see the outcomes of this. Can similar observations for commercial applications be applied to educational apps? And, as I brought up in a previous post regarding Facebook apps that libraries are beginning to develop, is it possible to cross an “invisible line between school and cool?” In what ways do the approaches of these applications differ from other applications?

If you’re interested in the class, they’ve set up a public Facebook group (now exceeding 500 members) and have their course syllabus online. Hat tip to Amy Stephen at Open Source Community for sharing this.