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
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
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
4. 1. Results of “Experiment” 3. Development of Guidelines 2. Reflections
6. Can follow and discuss topical issues
10. “I have the flu” 12,651 tweets
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.
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
18. Twitter was introduced during the first tutorial session for 3 courses at UG and PG level, across 2 Schools within the University
19. 1. All tweets from lecturer accounts 2. All tweets that contained the relevant course codes 3. All direct messages and replies
21. created in April 2011 solely for student/University related tweets, had 130 followers
22. a rough estimate is that 80(62%) were present or past students within the University
24. 289 tweets were sent from the lecturer account between September and April
25. ! frequency of terms used within those 289 tweets
26. 161 tweets (56%) were @mentionsi.e. the lecturer replying to a student’s tweet indicating a good level of 2 way- communication
28. !
29. received 40 direct (private) messages from 11 students, all asking questions, again indicating a good level of 2-way communication
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).
31. created in January 2012 solely for student/University related tweets, had 15 followers
32. 49 tweetswere sent from the lecturer account in February 36 tweets(73%) were @mentions
33. Generally the hashtagfor #NURS1301 and @mentions were only used during the tutorial.
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
35. For @AvrilHocking twitter was used mainly to communicate with students but extended use beyond the tutorial was limited
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
38. “This was very stressfull............. but successfull.. #nurs1301”
39. Communication
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
41. Why not just use email?
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.
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.
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.
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.
46. Needs to be part of Assessment (?)
48. @DrEddeQuincey or @eddequincey?
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.
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.
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.
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