Social Media Use in Teaching: Results from a questionnaire on use in HE
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The document summarizes the results of a questionnaire on the use of social media in higher education teaching. 333 instructors responded to questions about their use of social media both in general and for a specific course. Key findings include: - The most useful social media tools for teaching reported were blogs, Twitter, YouTube, and Facebook. - Social media is primarily being used to share content, facilitate discussion, organize course materials, and promote peer interaction/collaboration. - Barriers to using social media in teaching included lack of time to learn/implement social media and ethical concerns around privacy and commercialization.
![How are instructors using SM in
their teaching?
Content analysis of qualitative comments for 2
questions
◦ Re: “What is the most useful social media tool you
have used for teaching?”,
◦ [1] “give a brief explanation of how you use the
above tool in your course(s)”.
◦ Re: “Consider one specific course you have recently
taught where you used any social media tool for
teaching”
◦ [2] “How have d social media in this course?”
◦ Codes determined by 2 coders; then full set of
answers coded by 2 authors, and 1 other reconciling
differences
Factor analysis
◦ Combined codes for the two questions used as input
for a factor analysis](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/haythornthwaitesmheslidesdec142015-151217140121/85/Social-Media-Use-in-Teaching-Results-from-a-questionnaire-on-use-in-HE-15-320.jpg)
Social Media Use in Teaching: Results from a questionnaire on use in HE
- 1. Social Media Use in Teaching: Results from a questionnaire on use in higher education @hthwaite @gruzd @drewpaulin @_sgilbert_ @smlabTO Caroline Haythornthwaite Anatoliy Gruzd Drew Paulin, Sarah Gilbert Marc Esteve del Valle Research funded by the Social Science and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Learning Analytics for the Social Media Age. PIs: Anatoliy Gruzd, Caroline
- 2. Transformations in learning Redefining e-learning A transformative movement for learning in a networked world A transformation in who learns what, from whom, where, when, and under what circumstances. Motivating questions for this study How are social media being used, integrated, or otherwise slipping into the norms of university teaching? How prevalent is use of SM in teaching? What are instructors doing with SM in teaching? What motivates instructors to use SM in teaching? What facilitators or barriers exist regarding using SM in
- 3. Potential reasons for using SM in teaching and theoretical base Three main reasons Exposing students to practices of the expected future work and communication settings; Extending the learning environment to engage with sources and views outside the classroom setting; Promoting a collaborative approach to learning that involves learning with others, building knowledge communities and greater reflection Played out against a background of adoption of innovation in teaching and HE
- 4. Exposure to practices Experiential learning, the ‘lived experience’ connecting learning activities to the complexity of real world practice and the many ways this can influence understanding (Dewey; Bruce, 2010) Observing practice as a way to gain knowledge even without participating (Bandura, 2001; Lave & Wenger, 1991) Learning how ‘to be’ a practitioner within a member of a community, building its knowledge and practice base (Wenger, 1998; Becker et al, 1961; Haythornthwaite & Andrews, 2011; Garrison & Anderson, 2003; Jenkins et al, 2006; Scardamalia & Bereiter, 2006; DeSanctis &
- 5. Extending the learning environment Networked Learning ◦ Harnessing ICTs for teaching and learning (Jones, 2015; Carvahlo & Goodyear, 2014; Jones & de Laat, 2016) ◦ Capitalizing on use of ICT for making connections between learners and other learners, teachers, communities and resources (Jones, 2015) Community-embedded learners ◦ Engaged with the combined set of local, online, and distance communities (Kazmer, 2007) Connectivism ◦ Making connections with humans but also with resources, sites, media, etc. (Siemens, 2005; Downes, 2006)
- 6. Promoting collaborative learning Connection among learners and actors in the learning environment ◦ Networked learning, connectivism, knowledge-building communities ◦ Collaborative learning and Computer- supported collaborative learning (Bruffee, 1993; Koschmann, 1996; Miyake, 2007) ◦ Social network analytic perspectives on learning (Haythornthwaite, de Laat & Schreurs, 2016; Dawson, 2010; Joksimovic et al, 2015) Teacher as an important interactant ◦ Vygotsky re zone of proximal development ◦ Garrison & Anderson (2003) re teacher presence
- 7. Questionnaire Design to gain info about instructors’ use of social media in general application of social media in their teaching. 27 questions in two main parts, with some questions having multiple options to choose from Part 1: general information about use of social media and use in any aspect of their teaching Part 2: consider a particular course and to answer questions about social media us in that course Demographics Deployment Final version made public in March 2014 and remained open to contribution to October, 2014 Recruitment through ◦ personal emails to known or recommended contacts ◦ email to academic mailing lists ◦ distribution of information at conferences and presentations ◦ Twitter postings to relevant conference hashtags Incentive Option of being entered in a random draw for one of three iPads minis (part 2 considered optional re this draw)
- 8. Respondent demographics 333 respondents answered about general use. Of those who gave demographic info: ◦ Gender: 60% women ◦ Age: 50% 25-40 years of age, 41% were 41-60, and 9% over 60 ◦ Country: Primarily English speaking countries: United States (45%), Canada (20%), United Kingdom (6%), Australia (6%), followed by European Union (16%), Brazil (3%), and 1% from a variety of countries, e.g., Sweden, Turkey, New Zealand, Israel. ◦ Disciplines: Journalism, media studies and communication disciplines (19%), Information Science (9%), Education (8%), Computer Sciences (8%), Sociology (6%), further variety of fields (e.g., Library and Museum studies (5%), Cultural and Ethnic Studies (1%)) Teaching experience: number of courses ftf, blended or online: ◦ None: 15; 1 to 10 courses: 117 11 or more: 200 ◦ 25 had taught a MOOC Courses given online, blended, and face-to-face Fully online Blended Fully face-to- face 0 137 86 25 1 to 10 107 151 118 11 or more 46 59 179
- 10. Overall use of SM: Consume, Contribute
- 11. Use in teaching
- 12. Past, present and expected future use in teaching
- 13. Use inside or outside the LMS
- 14. What is the most useful SM for teaching? 78 no answer; 5 indicated ‘no’ useful tool; 6 indicated ‘many’ useful but did not specify one Matched by word in text answer (‘Discussion’ and ‘forums’ combined here; for ‘sharing’ and ‘LMS’, manually coded based on the answer if the response had not been categorized under any other code) If 2 types indicated, both counted for total of 247 votes for useful tools Blog Twitter YouTube Facebook Discussion and/or forums 54 47 32 26 22 Wiki Google docs Wordpress Sharing/ document sharing LMS 16 15 10 8 9 No Useful tool Many useful 5 6 Total coded No answer 245 78
- 15. How are instructors using SM in their teaching? Content analysis of qualitative comments for 2 questions ◦ Re: “What is the most useful social media tool you have used for teaching?”, ◦ [1] “give a brief explanation of how you use the above tool in your course(s)”. ◦ Re: “Consider one specific course you have recently taught where you used any social media tool for teaching” ◦ [2] “How have d social media in this course?” ◦ Codes determined by 2 coders; then full set of answers coded by 2 authors, and 1 other reconciling differences Factor analysis ◦ Combined codes for the two questions used as input for a factor analysis
- 16. Codes of use of SM in teaching Sharing (S1 and S2). Sharing content – by instructors to students (S1) or to facilitate content sharing by students (S2). Discussing (DC). Provide a forum to discuss course-based topics. Organizing (O1 and O2). Facilitate organization of the course for the instructor (O1) or by the instructor to facilitate organization for the students (O2). Reflective learning (RL). Using social media deliberately to create a means for students to reflect on their work and/or progress. Peer interaction (PI). Enhance student-to-student interaction relating to each other's work and to foster peer-to-peer instruction and learning. Supporting collaboration (SC). Provide students with a means of working together on shared projects. Reaching outside the class (RO). Provide learning experiences outside the classroom setting, e.g., creating networks between students and professionals Learning about social media use through practice (LP). Provide experience using social media tools. Discovering (D1 and D2). Discover relevant information resources either by the instructor (D1) or by instructors to help students to discover information (D2). Fostering the learning community (FC). Foster community development among learners.
- 17. Distribution of uses of SM in Teaching
- 18. Factor analysis: Uses of SM in teaching Extraction Method: Principal Component Analysis; Rotation Method: Varimax with Kaiser Normalization; Rotation converged in 12 iterations
- 19. Interpreting the factors Factor 1: Facilitating Engagement Use oriented to facilitating student participation, interaction and reflection; Use focused on enhancing student learning behaviors. Factor 2: Organization for Teaching Use oriented to facilitating the organization of the activity of teaching, including course organizing, dissemination of content, and organizing interaction through discussion Use directed to management of teaching practice. Factor 3: Reaching Outside Use to connect the class experience to the knowledge and work worlds, resources beyond the institution or classroom, e.g., open online resources, news, etc., and learning to use social media for work and communication outside educational use. Factor 4: Enhancing Student Learning ◦ Use to enhance further evaluation of class content, supporting collaboration and reflective learning through group work and a group way into reflection. ◦ Moving the locus of action from the teacher- student relationship to the student, and student-student relationship, for reflection and further engagement with the course materials. Factor 5: Building a Community of Practice ◦ Use to foster community, building communities of practice through use of social media. Factor 6: Discovery ◦ Use for information discovery by instructor or by students ◦ NB. Cautious interpretation locus of control for information gatekeeping, either maintained by the instructor or granted to the students.
- 21. How do you stay informed about effective teaching and learning strategies for the use of social media? NB. Coded only in one category. Coded to ‘closest’ so those who have input from friends and go to seminars are coded under staying informed through
- 22. Barriers Time ◦ Instructor or student don't have the time to learn, add, or grade SM; includes grading - assumption is that they don't have the time to learn how to effectively grade student Ethics ◦ Instructor worries about ethical conflicts associated with using SM such as privacy, security, advertisement, and students' feelings about SM use Tool ◦ An aspect of the SM itself, e.g., can it provide functionality to help students learn, or the design of SM tools make it difficult to use Support ◦ Lack of support: technological (e.g. wifi access); institutional (e.g. admin); and student (i.e., they don't want to use it) Ability ◦ Students and/or instructor have difficulty using/learning SM
- 23. Summary: Revisiting the three expected reasons for using SM in teaching Exposing students to practices ◦ Factor 3: Reaching Outside Extending the learning environment ◦ Factor 6: Discovery Promoting collaboration, learning with others, greater reflection ◦ Factor 1: Facilitating Engagement ◦ Factor 4: Enhancing Student Learning ◦ Factor 5: Building a Community of Practice Other ◦ Factor 2: Organization for Teaching Facilitators ◦ Other users ◦ Institutional help ◦ Mass media Motivation ◦ High SM use, mass media use suggests early adopter profiles
- 24. Questions Upcoming UK venues for SM and Learning Social Media and Society Conference - #SMSociety Goldsmiths, London, July 11-13, 2016 Papers due Jan. 15, 2016 Forthcoming: Haythornthwaite, Andrews, Fransman & Meyers (2106). Handbook of E-learning Research, 2nd edition. SAGE. Including chapters on • Social Media & Learning, Paulin & Gilbert • Social Network Analytic Perspective On Learning, Haythornthwaite, de Laat, & Schreurs • Pedagogies in virtual worlds, Savin-Baden & Tombs 2nd edition in 2016
Editor's Notes
- #2: Haythornthwaite, C., Gruzd, A., Paulin, D., Gilbert, S. & Esteve del Valle, M. (Dec. 18, 2015). Social media use in teaching: Results from a questionnaire on use in higher education. Social Media in Higher Education conference, Sheffield, UK. SocMedHE abstract<In 2014, we launched an online questionnaire about the use of social media (SM) for teaching in higher education and solicited responses from university instructors world wide. We were particularly interested in how extensively SM were being used in teaching, educators’ intentions in integrating these tools into their teaching, and their successes and/or difficulties in using the tools. We asked respondents about their past, current or intended use of social media in their teaching; what kinds of tools they used; the usefulness of the tools in teaching; and barriers to use (333 responded in all or in part). Respondents were given the option to report on use of SM in a specific class (235 completed the second half). Blogs, Twitter, YouTube and Facebook were reported as most useful; with discussing, sharing, and organizing the most common uses. The major barrier reported was privacy, followed by lack of time to learn to use and integrate the tools into teaching, and lack of confidence that the tool is supporting teaching effectiveness. More detailed responses were analyzed by coding and analyzing the distribution of responses. Codes were created from a close reading of the text and applied by two researchers, with differences settled by a third reader. Coding comments about the ‘most useful’ SM tool revealed that teachers use the tools for organizing, information discovery, sharing, discussion, reaching resources outside the classroom, fostering community, supporting collaboration, reflective learning, peer interaction, and learning through practice. Most comments were limited to one sentence, with a few of 3-5 sentences; all codes that were applicable were assigned to each comment. Analyses show low correlations among these codes suggesting the reasons are relatively independent and serve different purposes to different educators. Analyses are ongoing to explore further the relationship between use of SM and the teaching experience.>
- #5: Becker, H. S., Geer, B., Hughes, E.C. & Strauss, A.L. (1961)
- #9: 210 answered about use in a specific class; of the 100 who gave demographic info: Gender: 59% women and 39% men Age: 49% aged 41-60, 42% 26-40 and 9% 61-70 Country: United States (50%), Canada (18%), Australia (6%) United Kingdom (5%); EU (10%), New Zealand (2%); and 1% from each of Turkey, Taiwan, Mexico, Malta, Malaysia, Japan, Israel, Belarus, and Algeria Disciplines: the same as for the full sample
- #11: NOTE: High proportion of contribution.
- #13: NB. Slightly different order of media than in ‘use in teaching’ slide. Answers from different questions – past/present/future was use in teaching; consume/contribute was overall use.
- #22: How do you stay informed about effective teaching and learning strategies for the use of social media? Answers coded to the 'socially closest' of the answers, i.e., preference for '1'; a few (about 5) talk about it being their area of research, but they say 'read' or 'experiment' so I coded as '3' for mass media NB. Coded only in one category. Coded to ‘closest’ so those who have input from friends and go to seminars are coded under staying informed through friends.