Evaluating the Use of Social Media to Increase

Engagement in Public Health Units

Dr Basia Diug 1 & Assoc/Prof Dragan Ilic1

1 Medical Education Research Quality Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

WTH?… Is Social Media

& Why Me!

Definition: Create and share content or to participate in

social networkingE.g. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter

14-19 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-64 65+0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100%

Who is Accessing the Internet

Age Bracket

% o

f U

sers

minor trend: as age

Source: Yellow Social Media 2013

Do not use social media

How often is social media used?

More than five times a day Everyday Most days A few times a week Once a Week Less than weekly Never Source: Yellow Social Media 2013 H/T: Hugh Stephens

0%

20%

40%

60%

80%

100% Which platforms are most used

WHY ‘TWEET’ IN PUBLIC HEALTH

Public health teaching is challenging as it focuses on prevention rather than intervention.

• Twitter has a constant feed to the most current research, news and opinions of experts as well as organisations.

• # let’s you search by theme

• Our recommendations included:

• @RobinBellAus (guest lecturer),

• @BasiaDiug (unit coordinator),

• @theMJA,

• @WHO

• @Monash_SPHPM

• @MERQMU

AIM: To evaluate whether the use of Twitter as an assessment is a successful tool in increasing student engagement with staff, peers and public health concepts

METHODS Incorporate interactivity Twitter activity worth (2%) into a core public health unit. Tasks included:1) Play ‘dumb ways to die’ health promotion game and

tweet your character’s demise2) Students identify a public health issue in their daily

lives by posting a photo, image or link to a journal article of interest

3) Getting students involved in the wider public health conversation by following recommended Twitter accounts and using #sphpm

Activity 1: Public Health Everyday

With the person next to you discuss examples of public health that you see every

day. Describe on for each scenario:

1. When you are commuting to this conference

2. At your hotel

3. Within the media

Questions to discuss:

How difficult was to come up with public health examples?

What are the different public health initiatives that effect our everyday lives?

What role does the media play in public health? Give both a positive and negative

example

13

RESULTSStudent cohort:

Bachelor of Biomedical ScienceTotal of 297 students of which 236 completed all

Twitter-related learning activities (79.4%)90% of students had previously used some form

of social mediaAll questions posed were either yes/no or used

the Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree).

Variable N (%)Prior use of social media Yes 260 (87.5) No 3 (1.0) No response 34 (11.5)

Previous use of social media * Facebook 259 (87.2) Google + 13 (4.4) Instagram 80 (26.9)

Tumbler 26 (8.8) Twitter 39 (13.1)

Preferred mode of accessing and using social media Computer 73 (24.5)

Mobile device 146 (49.2)

Both computer and mobile device 33 (11.1)

None/no response 45 (15.2)

Should social media be used in learning activities? Yes 222 (74.8) No 47 (15.8) No response 28 (9.4)

Table 1. Use of Twitter in Higher Education

* Note – Students may have listed more than one form of social media previously used

Twitter & Grades: Students who completed the Twitter learning activity had significantly higher end-of-semester grades compared to those who did not complete the Twitter learning activity [MD=3.98, 95%CI 0.40-7.55]

Social Media & Grades: No significant difference observed in regards to use of social media and end-of-semester grades [MD=4.28, 95%CI -0.16- 8.59].

Appropriateness: No significant difference also observed when comparing whether students believed that using twitter was appropriate for classroom learning and their end-of-semester and grades [MD=0.37, 95%CI -3.47- 4.21]

Student AttitudesOverall were positive towards the use of social media in the learning environment. Students believed that the learning tasks using Twitter (Figure 1):

1) Enabled greater accessibility to staff;

2) Unique method of promoting public health; &

3) Facilitated collaboration with peers.

Student Attitudes between those who completed and did not complete the activity

There was a significant difference with respect to:

1. Promoting public health [MD=0.547, 95%CI 0.21- 0.94];

2. Facilitating collaboration with peers [MD=-1.78, 95%CI -1.66 -1.89].

3. No difference was observed regarding accessibility to staff [MD=0.25, 95%CI -0.11-0.61].

Figure 2: Comparison of student attitudes

Student Attitudes between previous use of twitter

Students who were previous twitter uses had: Greater belief that the

tasks would provide greater accessibility to staff when compared to non-users, [MD=-0.36, 95%CI -0.65- 0.07].

However, no difference was observed in attitudes between previous twitter users and non-users with respect to: Promoting public health,

[MD=-0.16, 95%CI -0.46- 0.12],

Facilitating collaboration with peers, [MD=0.25, 95%CI -0.60- 0.08].

Figure 3: Comparison of student attitudes who used twitter previously

https://twitter.com/search?q=%23sphpm&src=typd

Lessons LearntSocial media can be difficult to use without

instruction. E.g. Only 27% of Twitter’s users under 18-29 -

don't assume knowledge.

Scaffold and model – guide students.

Be involved

FUTURE DIRECTIONSTo incorporate this activity into more units with a focus to

increased interaction and recent journal articles and media articles.

Develop skills and idea e-professionalism

Follow us on Twitter: @basiadiug @draganilic99 @Monash_SPHPM @MERQMU #sphpm