Twitter for teaching: Can social media be used to enhance the process of learning?

Can social media be used to enhance the process of learning by students in higher education? Social media have become widely adopted by students in their personal lives. However, the application of social media to teaching and learning remains to be fully explored. In this study, the use of the social media tool Twitter for teaching was considered. Undergraduate students in Business and Management (n = 252) were encouraged to use Twitter for communicating with their tutor and each other during a 12-week course. Their involvement was evaluated using a survey considering amount of Twitter usage and students' attitudes and experiences. The data were analysed using factor analyses, which revealed a single usage construct and three attitudinal factors. Three findings emerged. Firstly, a positive correlation was found between amount of Twitter usage and student engagement in university-associated activities including organising their social lives and sharing information. Secondly, course-related tweeting was not related to interpersonal relationships between students and their tutor. Thirdly, Twitter usage did not impact class attendance. The results are salient for educational practitioners wishing to introduce social media into their teaching

Ventures in Social Media

Academic libraries are actively involved in social media platforms as part of their campus communities. They have moved past the debate of whether to participate in social media and are focusing on strategies to develop engaging content and assessment of their efforts. Social media use in the campus classroom continues to grow with more faculty using social media in academic context. Given the widespread adoption of social media on the University of San Diego campus Copley Library formed a Social Media Committee (SMC) to manage the library’s social media presence with a mission to promoting the library’s services and events. After establishing Facebook and Twitter accounts the committee looked to expand their presence on other platforms. To determine which social media platforms undergraduates were using, the committee designed and administered a survey in the fall of 2013. The survey confirmed that USD undergraduates were still using Facebook and showed 56% now use multiple social media sites: Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Instagram. The SMC diversified onto Instagram and Pinterest platforms to interact with students on visual platforms.Ye

Teaching Tip: developing an intercollegiate Twitter forum to aid student exam study and the development of digital professionalism

#VetFinals has been developed as a novel online Twitter teaching event designed to support intercollegiate veterinary teaching using social media. Previous studies in other fields have suggested that Twitter use within universities may have benefits for undergraduate education. This “teaching tip” paper describes a project using Twitter to host online exam study sessions. The project has been a highly successful collaborative effort between the Royal Veterinary College and Nottingham Veterinary School in the UK. Over 4 years, the #VetFinals project has developed into a long-term, self-sustaining enterprise. This initiative provides a semi-structured means for student exam preparation with direct real-time input from a faculty member. It also creates a network of peers both horizontally across institutions and vertically throughout year groups. Based on similar initiatives in other disciplines, an anticipated outcome of this project was to contribute to student online professionalism. This could help address the veterinary community's recently highlighted problems with professional conduct and appropriate use of social media. Analysis of the success of this endeavor will be available in a future publication

The influence of Twitter on lecture engagement and discussion

The research presented in this paper is driven by a desire to increase student interaction and engagement in lecture discussion. The issues relating to the use of Twitter to achieve this goal are outlined. At the outset, the importance of interaction and engagement in learning is established, drawing on a number of educational theories and previous research in the area. Following this, the necessity for action is recognised by critiquing lectures as a forum for this standard of learning. The researcher presents technology as a means to increase student interaction, beginning with Audience Response Systems (ARS). A summary of research carried out on ARS is examined to provide a basis for integrating technology. Following this a review of experiments conducted using Twitter is carried out. Although there is a dearth of research in this area, these provide some insights into the use of this technology and its integration into education. The paper then examines student adoption of Twitter as a means of engagement, outlining the strengths, weaknesses and opportunities for the future. Finally emerging uses of the Twitter platform are examined, allowing the reader glimpse student hopes for future integration

Social media in the curriculum and co-curriculum: pre-service teachers and their collegiate peers

2013 Fall.Includes bibliographical references.Although use of social media by students has been shown to be nearly ubiquitous, many K-12 school systems have banned its use on their campuses or use between their teachers and students. In contrast, many collegiate faculty have utilized social media in their teaching. Social media has been shown to assist faculty in engaging with students, helping students engage with content outside of class and sound implementation into the curriculum has been show to have positive educational impacts. Data from a sample of two thousand and fifty-six college students across two land-grant institutions is compared between pre-service teachers and their collegiate peers. Pre-service teachers reported using Twitter in the curriculum more, were more inspired by the use of social media use by their faculty, used social media more on their own for educational purposes and had a stronger belief that social media can be used for educationally relevant purposes than their collegiate peers

The impact of social networks on male student motivation in UAE tertiary education

This paper presents data obtained from focus groups conducted to investigate male students’ experience of higher education in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Among the issues discussed by students was the impact of social networks addiction on student motivation and this paper focuses on that issue. Thirteen focus groups were conducted with 83 EFL male students at four government campuses including United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) at Al Ain Campus, Higher College of Technology (HCT) at Ras Al-Khaima Campus), and two campuses (Abu Dhabi and Dubai) of Zayed University (ZU). Students access social networks (SN) site for both educational and non-educational aspects. Students spoke about their experiences and how SN addiction influenced their academic motivation to study. The resulting themes from the focus groups show SN addiction has had an impact on student class performance and in some cases led to class failure. Recommendation for better class management and intervention programs are suggested to policy makers and instructors to foster a better student learning experience

The Enhanced effect of a Twitter Intervention on Pell Grant Recipients 6-year STEM Graduation Rates

This study evaluates the long-term impact of a randomized controlled study which utilized Twitter as an educational intervention to extend the course beyond the physical and time constraints of face-to-face instruction. Participants included 125 undergraduates from a mid-sized midwestern doctoral granting university in the United States. Outcomes previously published include increased engagement and grades for the intervention group (Twitter) compared to the control group. In the longitudinal study presented here, interaction effects were analyzed between GPA, ACT, gender, and socio-economic status with first-to second year retention rates, 6-year graduation rates and 6-year graduation rates in STEM fields.A statistically significant interaction effect was found between socio-economic status and the intervention (Twitter), resulting in an increased likelihood of graduating in STEM compared to students with low-socioeconomic status (SES) in the control group. This finding indicates that low cost or free technology has the potential to expand the face-to-face classroom in meaningful ways, can increase access to faculty, can increase access to peer-support and ultimately enhance 6-year STEM graduation among low SES students