Authors:
Uwe Terton
1
;
Irene Visser
1
;
Cindy Davis
1
;
Karen Sutherland
1
;
Alix Stubbs
1
and
Maureen O'Neil
2
Affiliations:
1
University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia
;
2
Australian Catholic University, Australia
Keyword(s):
Social Media, Blended Learning, Real-life University Students, Communication, Engagement, Community.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Active Learning
;
Blended Learning
;
Community Building
;
Computer-Supported Education
;
Distance Education
;
Information Technologies Supporting Learning
;
Learning/Teaching Methodologies and Assessment
;
Pattern Recognition
;
Social Context and Learning Environments
;
Theory and Methods
;
Ubiquitous Learning
Abstract:
Social media is currently being used to effectively engage and communicate with students in universities
across the globe. As Beidelman (2015, p.1) acknowledges, “Social media is a tool that teachers can use to
make their classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse”. This action research project is
entitled “Increasing student engagement and community via the integration of social media technologies to
enhance/inform blended learning at University”, and was funded by a University Exploratory and
Enhancement Learning and Teaching Grant. This paper focuses on the first phase of a two-phase project.
The overall purpose of the project was to explore whether a blended learning approach, that combines the
University’s existing Learning Management System (LMS) with social media applications, strengthens the
quality of teaching, and therefore enhances the level of student learning, engagement and community. The
first research phase constituted an online survey, distribu
ted to 647 students within six University
disciplines and investigates university students’ perspectives and attitudes in relation to the use of social
media as a pedagogical tool. Respondents reported varying views on the issue. The overarching positive
themes were: communication, connection and engagement. Neutral themes included: the win/lose situation
and social media being a supplement to teaching. Negative themes comprised: distraction, poor use of time
and face-to-face being a more appropriate form of learning. A small proportion of respondents reported
having no opinion on the matter and one student raised the need for students to increase their social media
usage in the higher education setting.
(More)