Social Media and Learning

Jeffrey Mok

Centre for English Language Communication

CDTL TEG Talk 23 Apr 2013

Background – some facts (or pixs)

Background – more facts

• Facebook has taken over as the social network of choice for young adults (Lenhart, Purcell, Smith,

and Zickuhr, 2012)

• Facebook is used by corporations (Shih, 2011)

and academic institutions (Wankel, 2011).

• College students spend an average of over 1 hr and 40 min a day on Facebook (Junco, 2011).

Background

• IT and social media savvy teachers have started using Facebook in their teaching to enhance students’ engagement (Heiberger and

Junco, 2011).

• A Business Communication course adopted the Facebook as one of its communication media for one semester of teaching.

• Use of facebook was not graded.

Background

BUT,

• Do the students learn from these Facebook interactions?

• What does learning with social media mean to students?

• What can we learn from their experience to inform or design social media for learning?

Research questions

RQ1. How do they rate their learning experience when using the Facebook component of their Business Communication course?

RQ2. Why do students use Facebook in school and for learning?

Methodology

• 48 students were surveyed asking how they felt about their Facebook experience in their Business Communication course.

• Anonymous feedback.

The Facebook course account setup

• Set up in the 1st week of the course

• Students befriend a separately created account bearing the label, “Jeffrey Biz Comm”

• 48 students were grouped into four groups using group feature

• Common wall and separate group walls

• Other communication mediums: email and IVLE (University web-based learning platform)

The Facebook course account setup

Jeffrey Biz Comm facebook page

• writing on the wall of the account,

• asking questions,

• sharing photos, documents and videos

• posting comments.

The Facebook course account setup

RQ1. How do they rate their learning experience when using the Facebook component of their

Business Communication course?

OR ?

The Facebook course account experience

2.1

8.3

6.3

6.3

4.2

27.1

18.8

29.2

18.8

27.1

37.5

43.8

39.6

22.9

35.4

20.8

35.4

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

d. I like the videos posted on facebook

c. I like looking at the photos posted on facebook

b. I picked up useful learning points from the Facebook for

my course

a. I like the facebook addition to the course

A lot

Much

A little

Not at all

Not applicable

Figure 3: Students' rating on their Facebook Biz Comm experience

%

The Facebook course account experience

4.2

4.2

4.2

2.1

16.7

12.5

18.8

20.8

41.7

31.3

43.8

47.9

37.5

37.5

33.3

29.2

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50

h. I found Facebook Biz Comm useful in locating what

I want for my course

g. I like having the facebook account for Biz Comm

separate from the tutor’s …

f. I think future courses should have a social media

component

e. I like the comments posted on facebook

A lot

Much

A little

Not at all

Not applicable

Figure 3: Students' rating on their Facebook Biz Comm experience

%

Written comments

Nature of comments Students

Good 36 (75%)

Good with a “but” 7 (14%)

Neutral 3 (6%)

Opposed to use 1 (2%)

No comments 1 (2%)

Table 1: How students felt about using Facebook

RQ1. How do they rate their learning experience when using the Facebook component of their

Business Communication course?

• 93.7% liked the experience

• 36 wrote “good” with 3 “great”

• 6 remarked “good addition to the course”.

• 5 wrote “better than IVLE”.

• 11 used the words, “useful” and “helpful”.

RQ1. How do they rate their learning experience when using the Facebook component of their

Business Communication course?

• There were high and significant correlations between “liking the Facebook addition” and

• “looking at photos” (Pearson’s r = .495, p < .001)

• a “comments posted” (Pearson’s r = .457, p < .001).

What did they like?

72.9%

25.0%

27.1%

39.6%

18.8%

79.2%

77.1%

33.3%

18.8%

68.8%

25.0%

64.6%

0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0% 70.0% 80.0%

l. I was logged into my facebook account …

k. I was alerted by an email notification

j. To get more information on report writing

i. To get more information on oral …

h. To revise for the letter writing test

g. To see if there is any updates on ES2002

f. To communicate with the tutor

e. To connect with a group member

d. We had a group discussion in facebook

c. To look for the comments posted on the …

b. Someone tagged me

a. To look at the photos uploaded

Percent of students

Figure 4: Reasons for logging into Biz Comm Facebook

RQ1. How do they rate their learning experience when using the Facebook component of their

Business Communication course?

• Majority of students liked it citing • “Interesting video and comments posted by group

mates”, • “photos gave a fun element to the module”, • “I felt like I was in a group, and that I was

involved”. • “good addition to the course”. • “better than IVLE”, “useful” and “helpful”.

• “it connected to us as youths”,

• “innovative addition to the classroom experience”,

• “great way to keep up with the social media trend”,

• “fun, cool, accessible”

RQ1. How do they rate their learning experience when using the Facebook component of their

Business Communication course?

Why did they like it?

1. Ease of use

• 72.9% (N: 35) cited “logged into my Facebook account anyway”

2. Good communication tool

• 77.1% (N:37) = communicate with tutor

• 33.3% (N:16) = communicate with group members

Why did they like it?

3. Good place to be updated

• 79.2% (N: 38) = want to be updated

Written comments included

• “helpful to connect to tutors and classmates for updates and comments conveniently”,

• “helps us get connected or updated about the modules, i.e. things to take note of; change of location etc. it’s more dynamic and is up-to-date”.

Why did they like?

4. Learnt something

• 93.7% (N: 46) = picked up useful learning points

• 64.6% (N: 31) felt they learn “much” to “a lot”

• 39.6% (N: 19) for oral presentation

• 27.1% (N: 13) for report writing

• 18.8% (N: 9) for letter writing

• 79.2% (N: 38) found content very useful with 37.5% (N: 18) saying “a lot”

Why did they like?

4. Learnt something

Qualitative comments

• “gives one learning a casual feel”

• “I like the way of teaching and the additional information and knowledge from the module”

Did NOT like

4.2% (N:2) did not like the facebook at all

6.3% (N:3) did not picked up anything useful at all, did not like the pictures nor videos

1 qualitative response:

“I think it is not very useful, since there is not much use of it”.

Liked but…

3 students used the same phrase, “not essential to learning”

• “Quite good, but not very essential to learning, more for communication, updates and announcements. I learnt most, if not all, during class and my personal time.”

• “I prefer face-to-face communication most”,

• “I am old fashioned”.

Conclusions

RQ1. How do they rate their learning experience when using the Facebook component of their Business Communication course?

1. Like

• Enjoy the social elements and ease of use

• Expect courses to have a facebook element

2. Yet a small minority will not take to it

• Keep it supplementary/ complementary

Conclusions

RQ2. Why do students use Facebook in school and for learning?

1. The ease of use

2. Social or “happy” factor

3. “Push” notion of learning

Conclusions

1. The ease of use

• Accessibility as one of the top principles of successful e-learning (Anderson and McCormick, 2005)

• Usability as one of the top reasons why social network users stay loyal (Brandtzæg and Heim, 2008)

• Varying degrees of privacy and interactivity that the students are afforded behind the digital device or computer (Tervakari, 2009)

Conclusions

2. Social factor or “happy” factor

• connecting with others to view, share and comment

• communicating with the tutor

• Befriending with a very specific frame of mind: for an academic course.

Conclusions

3. “Push” notion of learning

• Updates by tutor

• Additional materials by tutor and others

• Notifications by email, mobile devices, etc.

Acknowledgements

• This research was conducted with the TEACHING ENHANCEMENT GRANT (AY 2011/2012), CDTL, National University of Singapore

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