Introduction: This study was carried out aimed to comparing the method of teaching through social network and face training and its impact on the level of learning and retention of adult students in the social sciences.
Methods: A Quasi-Experimental method was used with two experimental in this study. The pretest-posttest with control group was used in this study. The population of this study includes all students of kharazmi private adult male school in khoramdar who studied in the academic year 2015-2016. Random sampling method was used in this study and a 30-member class from this school was selected as sample. The researcher-made tests were used to determine the rate of students' learning and retention. The indices of average and standard deviation of scores have been investigated to analyze the findings in the descriptive statistics section. Analysis of covariance (ancova), multivariate analysis of variance test have been used in the inferential statistics.
Results: According to the findings of the first hypothesis, the students' learning who use telegram social network was more than in-person training (f = 9.556, P < 0.05). Also, the second hypothesis showed that the rate of students' retention during the telegram social network was more than in-person training (f = 7.065, P < 0.05).
Conclusions: Deploying virtual social networks can be an opportunity to improve teaching and learning. Teachers and professors can use these networks to improve the quality of their teaching and deepen their learning, content retention, and increase the student's academic achievement due to the possibilities offered by virtual learning networks.