hi Aeron , number of article publish on this topics. its good question. in our college we used edmodo.com its same like a social media so you can give assignment, arrange qUIZ AND MORE... 

Our research indicated that the time spent on SN is not closely related to performance as much as what you do on SN. Many students benefit from SN in their study and thus time spent is significantly correlated to performance

Students are more likely to use social media rather than the university e-learning platform. They are active users of social media, often permanently logged (smartphones), hence easier to contact them.

I use in my work closed groups on FB for seminarians and workshop participants. This is our main canal of contact, I put there also additional materials, important information. This works much better than the university website or e-learnig platform. Students are more likely to click, read and engage in discussions - it seems to me that they are less constrained by treating it  as an informal channel of communication, voluntary.

Additionally, if I use a group on FB I receive information that the materials have been displayed by all participants (or not) - students can not shirk that they haven't known about somethnig or haven't read materials ;)

Good evening Aeron,

Trying using Personal Learning (Which incorporates a variety of social media techniques) to capture the audience of the students for a long period of time and Heutagogy, which  refers to the personal learning experience of an individual within a constantly changing environment.  Really hope that helps..

Rob..

I think there has been quite a bit of work done in this area.  But I think you would need to define the variables and the context.  Student engagement can be defined in many ways as can social networking.  Are you looking for research in online environments, classrooms, higher education, pre-college (ages?), in specific disciplines, for learning particular skills, knowledge, ability, attitudes? So much needs to be specified before meaningful answers can be suggested it seems...

Here is one widely cited article that looks at a specific context using a specific social media application, on specific outcomes - pre-health college students, twitter, and grades  and National Study of Student Engagement (NSSE) scores as a measure of engagement.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00387.x/abstract;jsessionid=D79D7A59C2A1DCC332EA8FBA3662AC4F.f03t02?deniedAccessCustomisedMessage=&userIsAuthenticated=false

Might be a helpful example...