SKBE 2043ACADEMIC READING

THE EFFECT OF TWITTER ON COLLEGE STUDENT ENGAGEMENT

AND GRADES

PREPARED TO: DR HAFIZAH LATIF

PREPARED BY: EMYRIENA BINTI SUDIRMAN

NUR SYAZWANI BINTI MOHD ZOLKIFLI

SOURCE OF TEXT

• R. Junco, G. Heibergert & E. Loken (2010), TheEffect of Twitter on College StudentEngagement and Grades, Journal of ComputerAssisted Learning. Retrieved October 15th,2014,fromhttp://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/administration/president/sparc/meetings/docs/StudentEngagementArticle.pdf

ABSTRACT

TYPES OF

INFORMATION

ORIGINAL ABSTRACT

RESEARCH GAP • Despite the widespread use of social media by

students and its increased use by instructors, very

little empirical evidence is available concerning the

impact of social media use on student learning and

engagement.

PURPOSE OF STUDY This paper describes our semester-long

experimental study to determine if using Twitter –

the micro blogging and social networking platform

most amenable to ongoing, public dialogue – for

educationally relevant purposes can impact college

student engagement and grades.

This study provides experimental evidence that

Twitter can be used as an educational tool to help

engage students and to mobilize faculty into a

more active and participatory role.

METHODOLOGY A total of 125 students taking a first year seminar

course for pre-health professional majors participated

in this study (70 in the experimental group and 55 in

the control group).

With the experimental group, Twitter was used for

various types of academic and co-curricular

discussions.

Engagement was quantified by using a 19-item scale

based on the National Survey of Student Engagement.

We also conducted content analyses of samples of

Twitter exchanges.

To assess differences in engagement and grades, we

used mixed effects analysis of variance (ANOVA)

models, with class sections nested within treatment

groups.

RESULT The ANOVA results showed that the experimental group

had a significantly greater increase in engagement than

the control group, as well as higher semester grade

point averages

Analyses of Twitter communications showed that

students and faculty were both highly engaged in the

learning process in ways that transcended traditional

classroom activities.

INTRODUCTION/ LITERATURE REVIEW

MAJOR AREA

• Social media in higher education

• Student engagement

- 7 principles of good practices for inundergraduate education (Chickering &Gamson, 1987)

- In-class and out-of-class engagement(Kuh, 2009)

• Social media and student engagement

RESEARCH GAP

• Despite the widespread use of social media bystudents and its increased use by instructors,very little empirical evidence is availableconcerning the impact of social media use onstudent learning and engagement.

OBJECTIVES OF STUDY

• To provide evidence that Twitter could be asan educational tool and help in studentengagement

• To investigate the links between educationallyrelevant social media use and studentengagement

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

• What effect does encouraging the use ofTwitter for educationally relevant purposeshave on student engagement?

• What effect does encouraging the use ofTwitter for educationally relevant purposeshave on semester grades?

METHODOLOGY

Research Design

• Qualitative and quantitative

- Pre - and post-test survey

- Observation on Twitter activities.

Purpose Of Methodology

• To observe student engagement with the usage of Twitter.

Location of Study

• Lock Haven University, USA.

Sample/Population/Respondents

• 125 students of pre-health professionalmajors.

• 70 students in experimental group while 55students in control group.

Instruments and Measures

• 19 items from National Survey of StudentEngagement (NSSE) as engagement scale.

• Usage of Likert scale in measuringengagement scale.

Research Procedure

• Students were taught on how to use Twitter.

• To ensure interaction on Twitter, studentsneed to complete their assignment on Twitter

Data Analysis

• By using mixed effects analysis of variance(ANOVA) model to assess differences inengagement and grades.

• To analyze the pre-test and post test score onthe engagement instrument, researcher usePASW Statistics.

Result Presentation

• By using descriptive statistics

• In graph and table

RESULT

Fig 1: Number of tweets sent each week of the semesterNote: Twitter use began on the second week

MAIN FINDINGS

• Students participated in Twitter throughoutthe semester spike at week 12. the averagenumber of student tweets sent over the entirestudy was 48.20.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

1. The researcher has attempted

• To know the effect of encouraging the use ofTwitter for educationally relevant purposeshave on student engagement.

• To know the effect of encouraging the use ofTwitter for educationally relevant purposeshave on grades.

• Why?

• To see differences scores that show was agreater increase in engagement scored for theexperimental group then the control group.

• To analyses that encouraging the use ofTwitter for educationally relevant purposeshas a positive effect on grades.

2. Most significant findings

• Using Twitter in educationally relevant wayshad a positive effect on student engagementas measure by the instrument.

CLASSROOM IMPLICATION

• Improve the contact between students andfaculty by providing an avenue for contactcongruent with their digital lifestyles.

• The use of Twitter will encourage cooperationamong students.

• The Twitter assignments promoted activelearning.

• Provide prompt feedback.• Maximize time on task.• High expectations in student’s academic work.• Respect of diversity.

LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

• The study was conducted on a narrow sample ofthe overall student population at an institutionthat is not necessarily representative.

• The engagement instrument.

• Unable to tease out how much of the variance inincreased student engagement and improvedgrades is a result of Twitter and how much isbecause of a possible orientation of faculty to bemore engaged.

• The structure of the study.

SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH & WHY IT WOULD BE

WORTHWHILE• Emerging technologies can be best used in

educational settings and to tease out thevariance between the effects of the actualtechnology and of the ‘Web 2.0 mentality’.