Social Media In Education Research Articles

Fostering the Use of Social Media towards Students’ Learning

Social media applications have become indispensable in the university students’ life. Thus, instead of prohibiting the use of social media in teaching learning activities, teachers should continuously find a way to integrate its use to enhance students’ learning. This paper presents research focused on the students’ experience in using the social media platform and their mobile device in communication and learning. The educational objective of this study is to increase students’ participation and enhance their use of social media for learning. The data for this study was taken from a questionnaire given to 40 English Department students. Data collected from the questionnaire allowed the researcher to observe the students’ engagement in social media. Results showed that students were familiar with social media but they mostly used it for communication, not for learning. However, they also showed their willingness to use the social media in education. A number of implications for students’ learning and future research were also discussed.

Investigating the Effects of Social Media on Higher Education with a Case Study

This research aims to investigate the effects of social media use on higher education teaching and learning as well as the students’ academic performance. A total of 275 students and faculty members from the College of Computer Science and Information Technology at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University took part in the study. The participants answered survey questions to analyse information on their use of social media in education and how that has affected their teaching, learning and grades. A majority of the participants reported that they used social media in training. However, they also stated that social media platforms were beneficial in academic matters. The number of participants who stated that the use of social media in learning helped improve their grades was 43%. The other 57% thought that social media had no impact on their grades or had an adverse effect or were undecided.

Social Media as a Personal Branding Tool: A Qualitative Study of Student-Athletes’ Perceptions and Behaviors

While previous research focused on social media and student-athletes, there is a lack of knowledge about positive functions of social media use for student-athletes, especially personal branding purposes. Thus, this study aimed to explore how student-athletes perceive and use social media for personal branding purposes. A total of 11 student-athletes at a Division I university participated in semi-structured interviews. Considering the exploratory nature of the study, a qualitative inquiry and a phenomenology approach were employed to grasp an overall understanding of student-athletes’ personal branding via social media. The self-presentation theory was adopted to help understand student-athletes’ use of social media. Emerging themes included benefits and barriers of social media use, social media strategies, and concerns about negative consequences of social media. Findings from this study shed light on the importance of increasing awareness and knowledge of the concept of personal branding via social media for student-athletes. These findings also call for more effective social media training or education programs that can foster student-athletes’ positive attitude toward social media use for personal branding.

Use of social media for surgical education in Australia and New Zealand.

Social media are an increasingly important tool for educators, although their use for surgical education in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) has not been quantified. This study aimed to determine the social media presence of surgical training institutions in ANZ, quantify the proportion of their social media content that is educational, compare engagement between educational and non-educational content, and determine perspectives on using social media for education. An online search was conducted in October 2018 to determine the social media presence of surgical training institutions accredited to deliver under- and post-graduate surgical education in ANZ. All their posts on Facebook and Twitter from November 2017 to October 2018 were categorized as educational or non-educational. Engagement on Twitter was analysed using retweets. An online survey was distributed to each institution to investigate their social media strategy and opinions on the use of social media for surgical education. Seven out of 37 (19%) surgical training institutions had active social media accounts. Educational content accounted for 677/4615 (14.7%) of their posts. Educational content was retweeted more often than non-educational content (17.2 versus 5.4, P = 0.002). Seven out of 37 (19%) institutions responded to the survey, with one respondent having a policy for and utilising social media for surgical education. Social media are being used by a minority of surgical training institutions for educational purposes in ANZ. Social media content is primarily non-educational although educational posts attract more engagement. Further research is required to assess the efficacy of surgical education on social media.

Designing and Implementing an Educational Social Media Campaign to Increase HPV Vaccine Awareness among Men on a Large College Campus

ABSTRACTBackground: The human papillomavirus (HPV) causes an estimated 11,600 males to contract HPV-associated cancers in the U.S. every year. Purpose: We describe the generalized results of a social media marketing campaign. The aim was to identify predictors of self-reported HPV vaccine uptake and target these predictors in a health education campaign for males on a large college campus. Methods: We conducted an observational cohort study that recorded surveys from 90 college males then analyzed these results to inform the implementation of a campus-wide social media campaign. The survey had good internal consistency (α = 0.83) and assessed the Health Belief Model and Theory of Planned Behavior. Results: The campaign reached an estimated 2,200 students with in-person presentations, 12,000 students with two student newspaper articles, and over 17,000 views of its three-part social media video series, which was shared 197 times by students and organizations at the university. After the campaign, our cohort survey demonstrated three of five health beliefs targeted had significantly improved: perceived susceptibility (p < .01), perceived severity (p < .05), and self-efficacy (p < .01). Discussion: Our study reports the generalized findings of an evidence-based, reproducible approach to implementing an educational campaign on a college campus. Translation to Health: Education Practice: This model for social media marketing and student engagement can be replicated by other university health centers for education of males about vaccines and other chronic diseases.

The innovative use of social media for teaching English as a second language

The need to improve English proficiency and inclusion of social media in language teaching have resulted in teachers having to develop new teaching strategies incorporating digital tools. In South Africa, English teachers in township settings have to develop teaching strategies suitable for teaching English using social media platforms, especially in resource-constrained secondary schools. From literature and education policies, teaching of digital literacy is strongly recommended, but teachers in some township environments are not pedagogically capacitated to teach and use social media in teaching English. To explore the experiences of such teachers, this study explored the use of social media for the teaching of English as a second language in township schools. The study used an interpretivist qualitative approach in an exploratory case-study design to understand teachers’ initiatives and strategies in teaching English as a second language using social media. Data collection was done using semi-structured interviews with open-ended questions and document analysis. Teachers’ voices, actions and documents on the use of social media were analysed inductively and thematically. The research findings indicate that the sampled English teachers used social media for collaboration, networking, communication and out-of-school digital literacy practices as their initiatives. These digital initiatives lead to the utilisation of digital connection platforms for socialisation and teaching and learning English. In addition to dividends of connectivism, visual communication and cyber linguistics were found to have become critically important practices for learners learning English as a second language. The implication is that the education policy-makers and planners in South Africa need to revisit the policy on e-learning and Information Communication Technology (ICT) usage in schools to incorporate the methodological requirements and competences for teachers to use in the teaching of English using social media. In addition to improvements in policy measures, English teachers in resource-constrained township secondary schools need to improve their digital literacy skills to line up themselves for online and out-of-school literacy learning requirements.

An exploration of the distractions inherent to social media use among athletes

Social media present athletes with a number of benefits and challenges. As a result, various sport stakeholders have debated appropriate social media use among athletes at major sport events, with some suggesting that using these platforms can have negative consequences. The purpose of this research was to examine the elements of social media that athletes perceive to be distracting during major sport events and the practices they undertake to address such distractions. Interviews with Australian elite athletes (N = 15) were conducted and data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings reveal several elements associated with distraction, including positive and unwanted messages, branding pressures, and competitor content. Athletes reported two key practices that assisted in overcoming distractions, including switching off and handing over the control of their social media accounts. The findings extend distraction-conflict theory to athlete social media research, while presenting a preliminary conceptual model to assist researchers in further understanding the potential impact of social media distractions on athletes. Opportunities for sport practitioners to develop or implement social media education programs are described.

Incorporating Social Media in Blended Learning Courses at Higher Learning Institutions

Social media in teaching and learning has become the latest trend at higher institutions. The paper shares the reasons of incorporating social media in the blended learning courses at Universiti Teknologi MARA, Sarawak Branch. Five social media platforms were incorporated in teaching and learning. The platforms were Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest and WhatsApp. The social media platforms were fully used during the Week Without Wall which was implemented by university for one to two weeks in every semester. A survey method was used to collect the data. Open ended questions were used to scrutinize the reasons lecturers incorporated social media in the blended learning courses. Google form was used to collect the survey data. The survey form was disseminated via social media platforms. 74 lecturers responded to the online survey. The study found that incorporating social media in blended learning courses were to reduce the generation gap, allowed flexibility, extended face-toface teaching, ease of use, convenient, easy to apply different teaching approaches, allowed linkage, allowed self-pace learning, enhanced teaching and learning process, monitoring and evaluation, sharing, fast response and learning community.

The Most Sustainable Niche Principles of Social Media Education in A Higher Education Contracting Era

In view of recent higher education contracting because of a declining birth rate and an explosive forming of technology, this research systematically cross-employed a technology acceptance model (TAM) and rational decision-making model (RDM) methodology to discuss from an interdisciplinary perspective the co-relationships between the assessed criteria and evaluated weights of four famous and accredited World University Rankings, the most promising features of massive open online courses (MOOCs), and the sustainable development goals (SDGs) of university social responsibility (USR) principles based on students’, faculties’ and government officers’ interviewee appraised perspectives. Statistically, the weight-questionnaires of random students and professional experts were cross-measured by a factor analysis (FA) of quantitative analysis and an analytical network process (ANP) method of qualitative analysis. As a result, the aggregation technology function (ATF) is the most sustainable niche principle of social media education, not only fulfilling the Making Education More Equitable (MEME), Diminishing Poverty (DP), and Making Gender More Equality (MGME) initiatives of the institution’s USR principles but also increasing the Industry Income (II) of the Times Higher Education (THE) World University Rankings in order to attract, trigger, and drive the students to make a decision to sincerely register in institutions in a higher education contracting era.

THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA’S CONTENT IN FORMATION OF PROFESSIONAL QUALITIES OF THE STUDENTS OF BACHELOR DEGREE PROGRAMMES

The article deals with the possibility of the usage of the content of social media in teaching the students of bachelor degree programmes in a higher school. The degree of impact of digital technologies on educational process is being followed with the focus on the necessity of substitution of line pedagogic technologies for the active usage of interactive and multimedia means of teaching. The critical analyses of some researches’ visions over the effectiveness of the Internet-resources used in pedagogics is introduced in the context of their studying the information and communicative technologies on the stage of their emergence. The highest authors’ appreciation of the pedagogic value of the Internet resources is highlighted as a high-quality possibility to boost the effectiveness of teaching. The meaning of the notion «social media» is revealed which are both digital technologies and the Internet resources. The types of social media are represented. The timely higher school pedagogues’ interest towards social media is explained as forms of teaching the students of bachelor degree programmes aimed at forming the professional qualities – creativity and communicative skills. The analyses of the usage of social media in teaching is given both of Russian and overseas reseachers. The results of empirical observation of the effective usage of the social media content in the teaching process of the students of bachelor degree programmes are performed, held inside the Presidential Academy, Institute for Social Sciences (Moscow).

Application of TAM model in Teaching &amp; Learning A behavioral study on Social Media

Social networking sites are becoming very popular among students. It is considered one of the most important sources for creating content for teaching and learning among students. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use on attitude and behavioural intention which determine the actual behaviour to use social media for teaching and learning. A conceptual model has been developed after an intense literature review and analysed with the help of structural equation modelling. The result of the study suggested that the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are good predictors of attitude and behavioural intention and attitude is a good predictor of behavioural intention and behaviour intention predict the actual behaviour of the student to use social media.

THE CHALLENGES OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXT

Ponte Academic JournalDec 2020, Volume 76, Issue 12 THE CHALLENGES OF USING SOCIAL MEDIA IN TEACHING AND LEARNING IN SOUTH AFRICAN HIGHER EDUCATION CONTEXTAuthor(s): Jeremiah MadzimureJ. Ponte - Dec 2020 - Volume 76 - Issue 12 doi: 10.21506/j.ponte.2020.12.18 Abstract:As social media is progressively visible in South African higher education institution, facilitators utilize technology to facilitate and advance education as well as promote constructive learning. The purpose of this study is to examine the challenges of using online networking in education within the environment of South African higher education. It is considerable extra significant to comprehend the natural surroundings of technology in the progression of learning more than just a technology integration on its own. No matter in what way eye catching a recent technology can turn into, that recent technology is just an ordinary application that is utilized frequently to transmit learning material accessible on social media. Technology should never ever replace learning, but it will support learning processes, advance education effectiveness, and improve student education involvements. Students and lecturers should take advantage of a social media learning to make learning more manageable. Students feel comfortable to utilize the web applications that they already know. Social media applications are an open means, which also implies that they are open to unrestricted community. It is lecturers� responsibility to make sure this learning environment is safe for the best interest of student learning. It is also the obligation of lecturers to teach students and prepare them with logical and thoughtful abilities during the process of using social media means. A clever implementation of social media applications can involve students in collaborative learning, which is the strategy to an effective learning. However, the utilization of social media in teaching can occasionally be very challenging to lecturers. Students understands social media better so they can work cooperatively with their lecturers to make an online learning possible.\nKeywords: challenges, social media, higher education, teaching and learning. Download full text:Check if you have access through your login credentials or your institution Username Password

Application of TAM model in teaching and learning - a behavioural study on social media

Social networking sites are becoming very popular among students. It is considered one of the most important sources for creating content for teaching and learning among students. The purpose of this research is to examine the impact of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use on attitude and behavioural intention which determine the actual behaviour to use social media for teaching and learning. A conceptual model has been developed after an intense literature review and analysed with the help of structural equation modelling. The result of the study suggested that the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use are good predictors of attitude and behavioural intention and attitude is a good predictor of behavioural intention and behaviour intention predict the actual behaviour of the student to use social media.

Pediatric Dental Residency Program Directors' Perspectives on and Use of Social Media for Resident Selection and Education.

Residency programs are increasingly using social media for a variety of purposes. The aim of this study was to assess the views of U.S. pediatric dental residency program directors on their programs' participation in social media and use of social media in resident selection and education. This cross-sectional study used an electronic survey sent to all 89 U.S. program directors in 2018 to assess the use of social media and obtain demographic information. Forty-six surveys were completed, for a 52% response rate. Regarding resident selection, 76% of the responding directors said their programs did not conduct any online assessment of residency candidates, although 51% responded that social media postings could influence their decisions. For resident education, 78% said their programs did not provide training in challenges posed to evidence-based dentistry by social media, yet 89% expressed concern about the influence of expert opinions via social media on clinical decision making. Regarding participation in social media, 50% of respondents said their programs used social media to promote the program. These results point to a need for further evaluation of possible knowledge and behavior gaps among residency program directors and for development of formal social media assessment and education models for use in pediatric dentistry and other residency programs.

Usage Intensity of Social Media and Academic Performance

Current students are constantly engaged with social media platforms not only for entertainment and interaction, but also to gain and share information. Even though various studies have been conducted on the use of social media in education, there is lack of evidence on the influence of social media on accounting students particularly in Malaysian setting. This study aims to investigate the impact of the usage intensity of social media on accounting students’ performance. It is discovered that the utilization of social media in their learning activities has influenced the student’s academic achievement after considering their proficiency and gender. In contrast, social presence and social interaction have no impact on the students’ performance.

Leveraging the Use of Social Media in Teaching Writing: A Qualitative Investigation among ESL Pre-Service Teachers

&lt;p class="0abstract"&gt;Advances of technology and innovation suggest new form and paths in language teaching. Social media use can be a great influence for English as a Second Language (ESL) students especially in writing competency. Despite of many positive reports that presented affordances in social media use, however, there are insufficient studies that investigate ESL trainee teachers’ perception on this matter. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate ESL pre-service teachers’ views upon leveraging the use of social media in teaching of writing focusing on the opportunities and challenges. This study employed qualitative methods where thirty-four ESL pre-service teachers from a public university were involved. Based on the findings, it can be concluded that ESL pre-service teachers perceived the use of social media in teaching writing can be of beneficial and similarly challenging. Opportunities stated by the participants include enhancement in collaborative learning, supporting students’ self-directed learning and simplify the teaching and learning processes. On the other hand, the challenges mentioned by the participants are that social media can be a source of distraction, deterioration in language and plagiarism. Thus, it is advisable that teachers play their roles responsibly in managing students’ activities online and also be equipped with technology skills to enhance the establishments of social media in ESL teaching of writing.&lt;/p&gt;

Welcome to Cloud2Class: Social Media in Education

This chapter welcomes the reader to the study of social media in education. It begins with a description of the background, ranging from general use of social media in today's society to the importance of social media in education. The study of social media in education will inevitably draw on interdisciplinary concepts and networks of relationships among ideas and people. Furthermore, social media can help researchers and educators cross current boundaries, such as the organizational boundary of the school, and the domains of teachers and leaders. Social media also reveals boundaries that have been reinforced or are emergent with social media, such as intergenerational and cross-cultural boundaries, and standard boundaries of chronology. The contributors themselves come from interdisciplinary backgrounds (all focused on education, but from computer science, technology, sociology, policy, psychology, etc.), and they consider their own agency in shaping the field of study of social media in education. This includes generating theory, raising ethical issues, and providing practical advice. After describing the organization of the yearbook, most importantly, this introduction directs readers to opportunities to engage the field (#cloud2class).

Education and Social Media: Research Directions to Guide a Growing Field

Social media play an increasing role in our everyday lives and in education. Teachers and administrators may use social media for professional learning, to find materials for use in the classroom, and as a vehicle for engaging students with each other or with the world at large. As this body of scholarship continues to grow, now is the time to reflect on where the field might go from here to conduct the most impactful scholarship on education and social media. Accordingly, this chapter proposes research directions and approaches that promise to advance this expanding field, grounded in insights from the long history of studying technology in education, including over a decade of research on social media. We summarize insights from reviews of the existing research literature on learning and teaching with social media in education. Next, we apply a typology of the kind of studies needed to advance the field of education and educational technology as a useful lens for assessing prior work, identifying gaps in the knowledge base, and envisioning potential research directions. The chapter argues that new scholarly work is needed into three main areas: (1) research focus, or the subjects or topics of research that are needed; (2) methodological work, or new or underutilized approaches to studying education and social media; and (3) conceptual work, or theorization or framing of studies in education and beyond. We provide specifics in each of these areas in the final section.

The Attitudes of Islamic Education Teachers Towards the Use of Social Media in Teaching and Learning

The aim of this study was to identify and analyse the Islamic Education teachers’ attitudes, difficulties and purposes while using social media in the educational processes in the Saudi context. In doing so, this study adopted a quantitative, descriptive approach based on empirical data collected by means of a questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 124 teachers of Islamic Education in Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). While the participants reported positive attitudes towards the use of social media in the educational processes, the results showed their low use of social media which was limited mainly to personal purposes rather than using them for teaching learning activities. Based on the results, the study recommends developing teachers’ knowledge and skills to make them aware of the use of social media in education and encourage them to utilize them for teaching and learning activities. Since social media are ubiquitous and being widely used for personal reasons, their integration into the curricula and syllabi may further increase the teaching and learning of Islamic Education in Saudi Arabia.

What Should Be the Role of Social Media in Education?

Social media provide new opportunities for when, how, where, and with whom people learn—venue unimaginable 15 years ago. Today’s students and educators have adopted social media for various purposes both within education and outside of it. This review of the published research on social media in education focuses on the affordances for student learning, teacher professional development, educational research practices, and communication of scholarship. The article concludes with implications for education policy.