The use of Facebook as a tool to increase the interest of undergraduate students in physiology in an interdisciplinary way.

THE PROCESS OF TEACHING and learning at the undergraduate level is challenged by an increasing amount of content (1). Now it’s not enough to convey knowledge; it’s also necessary to seek alternative ways to motivate and capture the interest of students both during class and outside of class. Currently, social networks are popular among students (5) and are used to establish and maintain contacts (6). Facebook, one of the most popularly accessed social networks, has 500 million registered users (2) and consequently has the potential to become an ally in the teaching and learning process. If properly used, Facebook allows the formation of groups with common interests, enables the exchange of information, and stimulates the search for knowledge. Considering this context in Brazil, where the number of connections grew from 8.8 to 35 million between 2010 and 2011 (3), attracting 1 trillion monthly visits (4), we asked ourselves: why not partner the physiology teaching with the use of Facebook, to try to increase students’ interest in physiology, using an interdisciplinary approach? Consequently, we created a group on Facebook, which served as a support tool for teaching physiology at the health area undergraduate courses of the Federal University of Pampa (Unipampa) in Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.