An investigation into the use of twitter by lecturers and students to support modules

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1. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences An investigation into the use of twitter by lecturers and students to support UG and PG modules Dr Ed de Quincey
2. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Dr Ed de Quincey @eddequincey @DrEddeQuincey Senior Lecturer, School of Computing and Mathematical Sciences Head of the Web 2.0/Social Web for Learning Research Group, eCentre http://www2.gre.ac.uk/research/centres/ecentre/research-groups/web-2.0
3. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences
4. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences
5. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Swine u
6. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences
   Epidemics of seasonal influenza are a major public health concern, causing tens of millions of respiratory illnesses and 250,000 to 500,000 deaths worldwide each year Ginsberg et al., Nature Vol 457, 19 February 2009 doi:10.1038/nature07634
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8. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences http://search.twitter.com/search?q=flu
10. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences <entry> <id>tag:search.twitter.com,2005:6404909749</id> <published>2009-12-06T17:43:56Z</published> <link type="text/html" href="http://twitter.com/grippado/statuses/6404909749" rel="alternate"/> <title>@lais_couto Hoje &#233; o dia do #hexa, mais sempre vai ver o a torcida do #flamengo apoiando o #flu... a uni&#227;o das torcidas cariocas ta linda...</title> <content type="html">&lt;a href=&quot;http://twitter.com/ lais_couto&quot;&gt;@lais_couto&lt;/a&gt; Hoje &#233; o dia do &lt;a href=&quot;http:// search.twitter.com/search?q=%23hexa&quot;&gt;#hexa&lt;/a&gt;, mais sempre vai ver o a torcida do &lt;a href=&quot;http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%23flamengo&quot;&gt;#flamengo&lt;/ a&gt; apoiando o &lt;a href=&quot;http://search.twitter.com/search?q= %23flu&quot;&gt;#&lt;b&gt;flu&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/a&gt;... a uni&#227;o das torcidas cariocas ta linda...</content> <updated>2009-12-06T17:43:56Z</updated> <link type="image/png" href="http://a3.twimg.com/profile_images/551440511/eu- mengo_normal.jpg" rel="image"/> <twitter:geo> </twitter:geo> <twitter:source>&lt;a href=&quot;http://www.tweetdeck.com/&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;TweetDeck&lt;/a&gt;</twitter:source> <twitter:lang>pt</twitter:lang> <author> <name>grippado (grippado)</name> <uri>http://twitter.com/grippado</uri> </author> </entry> http://search.twitter.com/search.atom?q= u
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12. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Number of tweets containing the word “flu”
13. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Most popular words found in all tweets
14. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences From almost 3 million tweets collected during May to December 2009
15. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences “I have swine flu” 12,954
16. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences “I have the flu” 12,651
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18. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences
19. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 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.
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21. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 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
22. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Twitter was introduced during the first tutorial session for 3 courses at UG and PG level, across 2 Schools within the University by 2 lecturers (@DrEddeQuincey and @AvrilHocking).
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24. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Tweets collected 1.  All tweets posted from lecturer accounts 2.  All tweets that contained the relevant course codes 3.  All direct messages and replies (for @DrEddeQuincey)
25. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences created in April 2011 solely for student/University related tweets, currently has 130 followers
26. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences a rough estimate is that 80 (62%) are present or past students within the University
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28. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 289 tweets have been sent from the lecturer account between September 2011 and April 2012
29. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences ! frequency of terms used within those 289 tweets
30. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 161 tweets (56%) were @mentions i.e. the lecturer replying to a student’s tweet indicating a good level of 2 way- communication
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32. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences !
33. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences received 40 direct (private) messages from 11 students, all asking questions, again indicating a good level of 2-way communication
34. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences The hashtags for 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).
35. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Around 31% students used twitter as a way of communicating with the lecturer 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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37. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 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. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Communication
39. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 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
40. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences Why not just use email?
41. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 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-o s.
42. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences 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 e cient and does not get lost amongst other work related email.
43. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences other students who follow the user who sent the @mention can also see the @reply from the lecturer, potentially reducing the number of communications that ask the same question.
44. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences The hashtag course code was primarily only used by the lecturer and was sparsely used in either course to share information, discuss course content etc. by students.
45. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences #TweetChats? #TweetUps?
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47. Using social media to engage students in mathematical sciences