Editorial

The Jounral of Social Media for Learning: Winter Edition&nbsp

Identity on Social Media

In this short piece I talk about identity on social media and compare it to a performance. I highlight the importance of an audience for online learners and emphasise that the connections that we forge in our online interactions are as real as the ones that we make in our off-line lives. I end by thanking my online communities for all of the support they continue to give me

The Cross-platform Social Engagement of Students

With social media being a ubiquitous part of the way students engage with each other, this study explores how media, journalism, and publishing students use social media both in and outwith the classroom. It focuses on how cohorts use social media during class times – how they are speaking to each other and scrolling social feeds – and how they communicate about course related content after class. This research highlights the obligation that some students feel to answer questions that come into the group social channels, while linking that obligation to a sense of reciprocity. It shows how these issues are embedded it in the value exchange of emotional labour and its relationship to gender. Not all students feel obligated to take part and many indicate levels of frustration at the stream of questions, which can, in turn, exacerbate negative mental health issues in students

Reflections on #SocMedHE20

A reflection on the #SocMedHE20 Tweetposium

Utilization of social media for different business purposes: A social media age?

The utilization of social networking sites (SNSs) and social networking information (SNI) as parts of broader social media (SM) for various business purposes and practices have gained substantive importance from the academicians and practitioners in recent years. This paper theoretically aims to highlight some of such utilization based on published papers. We carefully selected 132 such papers from “Google Scholar” searching for most frequently used keywords such as SM, SNS, SNI, business, human resource management (HRM), marketing, branding, talent search & acquisition, recruitment & selection etc. After reviewing those papers, we identified that, in general, SM is an increasingly used platform for different business purposes. We anticipate that, despite of several flaws, SNSs will continue to gain momentous attention of all types of users in upcoming years creating a social media based business world. We are hopeful that the paper will be useful for the academicians, practitioners and policymakers from a number of viewpoints

Hamish the Coo

The antics of Hamish the Co

From tweeting to tweetposium. So what? A reflection.

In this reflection, a learner shares their experience of engaging with other like-minded individuals in the online higher education community, @SocMedHE. Furthermore, how engaging the community has enabled their development from observing from a distance to active participation (e.g. #SocMedHE20 tweeposium) and subsequently using that knowledge and experience for other online activities

Accessibility Matters: Supporting Inclusive Social Media in Academic Libraries

While visual content provides a fun and expressive outlet for people, the experience isn’t the same for everyone, particularly when it comes to social media. For a large portion of the population, some kinds of content are inaccessible. The Open University’s mission is to be open to people, places, methods, and ideas, and this means that a commitment to equality is embedded in all that we do, including our social media activity. People of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities study with The OU – for instance, 30,791 students declaring a disability studied with us in 2019/20 – so it is crucial that we consider inclusive design practices on social media to benefit as many people as possible. This reflective piece will look at the journey taken by the OU Library’s Engagement and Insight team to create an ‘Inclusive & Accessible Social Media’ guide, that can be shared amongst other academic libraries and beyond, to help them also use social media in a way that promotes diversity, equality, and inclusion. If the effort is made to make content inclusive and accessible, then more people can enjoy it, feel connected with it, and engage with it

Social Media as a Pedagogical Tool in Class: Tiktok Case Study

Social media has been an ever-growing medium with the expansion of multiple platforms and user adoption around the globe. According to Hootsuite’s Annual Digital Data Report for the year 2022, there are 4.62 billion users of social media across the globe, with a 10.1% increase from the subsequent year.  This paper aims to explore Tiktok platform as a pedagogical tool for learning in the classroom for University Students in an "Online Behavior Class" at the American University in Cairo. Results show that Gen-Z University students indeed prefer integrating social media to their educational experience, and even prefer expressing through short video content over other assessment alternatives. Beyond that, short video content creation allowed them to express more creatively, and also reflecting on the class curriculum through using short video content production, was a more effective method of material reflection than other reflective methods