RESUMO
Background& Objective: Information technology has taken a very vital role in everyone’s life. Students are using these technologies in day to day life. Social media has become one of the major tool for sharing thoughts, knowledge and photos from anywhere. Microbiology is one of the important subjects in the curriculum of Second year BDS students. They feel little difficult to understand and are often reluctant in asking doubts in the classroom. Facebook as a teaching learning tool was introduced to know feasibility, accessibility and improvement in performance in second year BDS students. Methodology:Sensitization to the whole class about the purpose of the study was done. Students were divided in two groups through random selection as Facebook and control group. They were exposed to the didactic lecture method for various topics. Later it was shared and discussed with Facebook group. Finally formative assessment was done with multiple choice questionnaires. Feedback from the Facebook group was taken to know feasibility and accessibility. They were also asked to comment about the concept of using Facebook as teaching learning tool. Performance was analyzed with the help of Chi Square test after entering marks in Excel sheets.Results:Facebook group performed well compared to the control group in formative assessment. The difference was statistically significant. Facebook group also commented positively on the idea of using Facebook as a teaching learning tool. Conclusion:It is concluded that social media such as Facebook can become one of the teaching learning tool for better performance in dental students.[