An Investigation into the Potential Uses of Twitter within Learning and Teaching

Presented at #SocMedHE15: http://bit.ly/SocMedHE15

The use of twitter in an educational environment has been the focus of a number of previous studies e.g. Mirski et al. (2010); Hend S. Al-Khalifa (2008) and the potential benefits of using twitter to support a variety of academic and personal activities have been well documented e.g. Mollet et al. (2011). However there have been few quantitative studies into the natural usage of twitter within learning and teaching and the implications for social media usage and policy within HE.

For this study, a set of tutorial instructions were co-developed with students to introduce them to the benefits of twitter, along with a set of use cases for twitter within the module e.g. using a course code hashtag (#COMP1678) to share course-related information. Twitter was then introduced during the first tutorial session for 3 courses at UG and PG level.

To evaluate the levels and types of activity by students and lecturers, an application was created that collected and stored the lecturers’ tweets, @mentions of the lecturers’ usernames and any tweet that contained the course code hashtags.

Around 80% of the students signed up for twitter and the majority sent at least one tweet. Only a few individuals made attempts at sharing information by the use of the course hashtags, which were predominantly used by the lecturers and not by the students. Around 31% of students though used twitter as a way of communicating with the lecturers regarding the course, enabling succinct and almost real time communication outside of the classroom.

Other issues relating to pastoral care, online identity and the separation of personal and private accounts were also encountered which fed into the production of a social media policy and set of guidelines, which have now been approved for use across the University.

Transcript

1. An Investigation into the Potential Uses of
   Twitter within Learning and Teaching
   and the Implications for University Social Media Policies and Guidelines
   Dr Ed de Quincey, Keele University
   Many thanks to Avril Hocking, University of Greenwich
   

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2. Dr Ed de Quincey @eddequincey
   Postgraduate Course Director
   School of Computing and Mathematics, KeeleUniversity
   Lead of the Software Engineering Research Cluster
   instagram.com/eddequincey
   

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3. Dr Ed de Quincey @eddequincey
   Principal Lecturer
   School of Computing and Mathematical Science, University of Greenwich
   Head of the Web 2.0/Social Web for Learning Research Group, eCentre
   instagram.com/eddequincey
   

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4. 1. Results of “Experiment”
   3. Development of Guidelines
   2. Reflections
   

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6. Can follow and discuss topical issues
   

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10. “I have the flu”
    12,651 tweets
    

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13. Using twitter with this course
    We are intending to use twitter with this course in 3
    ways:
    1. As an alternative method for posting useful course
    specific information to students e.g. links to
    articles, emergency changes to lecture times etc.
    2. Enable students to ask questions about courses e.g.
    clarifying something from a lecture, asking about
    coursework specifications etc.
    3. Encourage students to help one another and create
    communities of practice/learning.
    

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15. you could also use hashtags such as
    #COMP1314Lec1 if you are asking about
    something in the first lecture, #COMP1314Lab1
    for the first lab session, #COMP1314CW for
    information about the coursework and so on. Just
    make sure that the hashtag includes #COMP1314
    

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18. Twitter was introduced during the first tutorial
    session for 3 courses at UG and PG level, across 2
    Schools within the University
    

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19. 1. All tweets from lecturer accounts
    2. All tweets that contained the
    relevant course codes
    3. All direct messages and replies
    

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21. created in April 2011 solely for
    student/University related tweets,
    had 130 followers
    

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22. a rough estimate is that 80(62%)
    were present or past students
    within the University
    

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24. 289 tweets were sent from
    the lecturer account between
    September and April
    

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25. !
    frequency of terms used within those 289 tweets
    

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26. 161 tweets (56%) were
    @mentionsi.e. the lecturer
    replying to a student’s tweet
    indicating a good level of
    2 way- communication
    

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28. !
    

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29. received 40 direct (private)
    messages from 11 students, all
    asking questions, again
    indicating a good level of
    2-way communication
    

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30. The hashtagsfor the 2 courses
    had less impact than the use of
    messaging, with #COMP1444
    being used 98 times (50% by the
    lecturer account) and
    #COMP1314, 75 times (33%
    by the lecturer account).
    

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31. created in January 2012 solely for
    student/University related tweets, had
    15 followers
    

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32. 49 tweetswere sent from the
    lecturer account in February
    36 tweets(73%) were
    @mentions
    

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33. Generally the hashtagfor
    #NURS1301 and @mentions
    were only used during the
    tutorial.
    

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34. Around 31%students used twitter as a
    way of communicating with
    @DrEddeQuincey regarding the
    course and although a few individuals
    made attempts at sharing information
    by the use of hashtags, this was not
    the primary use
    

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35. For @AvrilHocking twitter was
    used mainly to communicate
    with students but extended use
    beyond the tutorial was
    limited
    

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37. Students were willing to sign up
    for twitter and the majority sent at
    least one tweet, but their continued
    use was very much dependent on
    whether they were already active
    users or whether they understood it’s
    potential uses during and after the
    course
    

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38. “This was very
    stressfull............. but
    successfull..
    #nurs1301”
    

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39. Communication
    

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40. A number of students have utilised
    twitter as a quick method of
    communication between
    themselves and the lecturer. This
    enabled for almost real time
    communication outside of lectures
    and tutorials and immediate
    resolution of issues
    

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41. Why not just use email?
    

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42. students have to ask concise questions that can
    be answered within the same limitation. From the
    lecturer point of view, replies can be quick and
    to the point, no need for email etiquette and
    format e.g. salutations and sign-offs.
    

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43. For lecturers that utilise
    twitter on a continuous basis
    as a natural part of
    their work, the ability to
    monitor and send quick
    replies to students via a
    range of devices is more
    efficient and does not get
    lost amongst other work
    related email.
    

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44. The hashtag course codes
    were primarily only used by the
    lecturer and were sparsely
    used in all courses to share
    information, discuss course content
    etc. by students.
    

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45. Differences between
    groups seems to have affected
    twitter usage, in particular the class
    size, subject studied and
    frequency of
    face to face contact had the
    largest impact.
    

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46. Needs to be part of Assessment (?)
    

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48. @DrEddeQuincey or @eddequincey?
    

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51. Social Media Policy
    1.3 However, increased use of these sites
    makes it possible for the lines to be blurred
    between personal and business use. It is a
    paramount principle of this Policy that staff
    consider, when using these sites, whether they
    are speaking on behalf of the University, or
    in their own personal, or professional,
    capacity.
    

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52. Social Media Policy
    1.4 The University recognises that individuals
    may have different types of account:
    Business or official accounts – relating to the member of staff’s
    business e.g. the University’s Official twitter account
    @UniofGreenwich, a Facebook group that represents a department, or
    an official role within the University’s faculties, departments and offices.
    These types of account are subject to the University’s business
    acceptable rules.
    

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53. Social Media Policy
    1.4 The University recognises that individuals
    may have different types of account:
    Mixed use accounts – which may be used for different purposes,
    whether personal, professional, academic or business / official. If these
    accounts incorporate use for business or official purposes, they will
    also be subject to the University’s business acceptable rules when
    being used for that purpose e.g. advertising a University event or
    replying to a student’s message from a Lecturer’s twitter account.
    Personal accounts – which will be separate from business or
    official use, and are therefore not subject to the University’s business
    acceptable use rules.
    

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54. Social Media Guidelines
    2. If you are going to use a social media tool as part of your
    business or official role at the University of Greenwich, then you
    need to follow this procedure:
    2.1 Setting up of new pages, accounts, feeds, groups, systems or
    profiles
    …
    • Information should be given to users / students about the system, and
    about how to use it
    • Information should be given about the implications of using it
    • Consider whether you are going to require your students to use it, and is
    this fair?
    …
    2.5 For more information about teaching, learning and assessment
    opportunities in social media, refer to the Greenwich Connect website
    

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