Exploring the Design and Effectiveness of Social Media Learning Activities
0 likes144 views
This study analyzed how faculty use social media to support student learning through social media learning activities (SMLAs). The analysis found that SMLAs promoted cognitive processes like understanding and remembering, as well as higher-order thinking through activities like blogging and wiki editing. SMLAs also engaged students in different types of knowledge, including factual, conceptual, and procedural knowledge. The study provides insights into how to best design effective SMLAs by matching the social media tool to the discipline, including media sharing, and making activities mandatory.
Exploring the Design and Effectiveness of Social Media Learning Activities
- 1. Exploring the Design and Effectiveness of Social Media Learning Activities Abstract This study explored how experienced faculty are using social media to support student learning. More specifically it analyzed the types of social media learning activities (SMLAs), their design, the cognitive processes that they support, and the types of knowledge that students engage in when completing SMLAs. A multiple case-study design was conducted in Fall 2013, and data was gathered from five different cases of six faculty using social media in their courses. The analysis of the SMLAs and students’ posts in SMLAs revealed that social media has the potential to support student learning and promote different levels of cognitive processes and types of knowledge despite the lack of use of the social feature in social media. The analysis also suggested that faculty used social media to replace Learning Management Systems. Research Questions 1. What types of learning activities are designed through social media? a) What cognitive processes do SMLAs promote? b) What types of knowledge do SMLAs promote? 2. What strategies do experienced faculty use to design SMLAs? Methodology • Multiple Case-Study • 5 Faculty members at a higher education institute • 6 courses • Data Sources: • Course Documents and Syllabi • Students’ Posts in SMLAs • Faculty Interviews (Initial & Follow-up) • Data Analysis: • Content Analysis (Miles & Hubberman, 1994) • Deductive Analysis of Interviews (Glesne, 2011; Miles & Hubberman, 1994) • Open-coding of Interviews (Glesne, 2011; Miles & Hubberman, 1994) Problem • There is little research on the relationship between social media, students’ learning and effective pedagogical use (Rambe, 2012). • There are several conceptual frameworks that support social media implementation in the classroom, but they are not based on empirical research. • Few studies on social media have focused on the design of social media learning activities • More qualitative research is needed to advance our understanding of social media impact on students’ learning (Hung & Yuen, 2010). • There is a need to explore how faculty are using social media in higher education in order to inform best practices • Writing essays • -Commenting on each other’s blogs • Accessing course material • Posting course artifacts • Reflection journal Blogs • Collaborating to complete a task • Peer reviewing and editing • Sharing resources • Asking questions • Commenting on peer work • Reflecting on readings Wikis • Asking and answering questions • Participating in discussion forums • Creating profiles • Sharing resources • Inviting guest experts • Posting notifications Social Networks • Posting tweets about a course topic • Tweeting class announcements and reminders • Discussing a topic • Asking and answering questions • Voting on answers Microblogs • Sharing a video • Uploading photos • Tagging photos • Commenting on photos • Summarizing important lecture points • Creating a video, recording demonstrations Media Sharing Tools Learning Activities in the Literature Findings 12 SMLAs: 4 Microblogging 3 Wiki 2 Blogging 1 podcasting 1 Infographic 1 YouTube 9/12 Public 10/12 Structured 8/12 Mandatory Analysis of SMLAs Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy Cognitive Processes Social Media Activities Remember Understand Apply Analyze Evaluate Create Twitter: Personal Transformation Experiment (PTE) X 37.2% X 95% 8.13% X X 12.8% 33.7% Twitter: Online Course Participation (and sharing resources) X 50% X X 22% X X X 12.9% 1.2% Digital activism Twitter projects X X X X X X Language Blog X X 66.6% X X 40% X X 20% X 13.3% X X 13.3% X X 100% Digital Studies Course Blog X 55.8% X X 86% X X 67% X X 58% X 100% Collaborative Note-taking X 100% X 100% X 50% X X 33% X 83% X 100% Podcasting X X 100% X X 100% X X X 100% Creating Infographics X X 100% X X 100% X X 100% Participatory action video X X X X X Analysis of Social Media Learning Activities Based on Bloom’s Taxonomy • “Remembering” and “Understanding” as basic cognitive processes promoted in SMLAs • Blogs and wiki SMLAs may promote several cognitive processes • Blogs, wikis, and media creation tools may promote the higher level cognitive process of “Creating” • “Applying” portrayed in executing and uploading in SMLAs • SMLAs may promote “Analyzing” through linking and “Evaluating” through judging and critiquing • Factual knowledge, a common outcome in SMLAs; • Conceptual knowledge supported by linking and tagging; • Procedural knowledge at the Creating level of cognitive processes; and • Metacognitive knowledge through revisions and self-knowledge. Analysis of the SMLAs Based on Krathwohl’s (2002) Knowledge Dimensions Knowledge Domain Social Media Activities Factual Conceptual Procedural Metacognitive Twitter: Personal Transformation Experiment (PTE) X 44% X 65% 1% X X 60% Twitter: Online course participation X X 68% X 54% Digital activism Twitter projects X X X X Language Blog X X 93% X X 40% X X 53% X X 13% Digital Studies Course Blog X X 65% X X 95% X 30% Collaborative Note-taking X 100% X 100% X X 22% Podcasting X X X X 100% X X 100% Creating Infographics X X 100% X X X 100% Participatory action video X X X X X Analysis of Social Media Learning Activities Based on Krathwohl’s Knowledge Dimensions • Matching the discipline with the social media, • Selecting social media based on affordances, • Taking advantage of the affordances of social media, • Including media (website, video, audio) sharing in the SMLA, • Integrating tools or social media affordances that support dialogue, and • Other finding: making the SMLA mandatory and not optional. Strategies Used by Experienced Faculty to Design SMLAs Ghania Zgheib, PhD George Mason University email: gzgheib@gmu.edu Twitter: @gueniazgheib