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Social teaching: Student perspectives on the inclusion of social media in higher education

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Abstract

The traditional teaching methodologies employed within universities, comprising of lectures and seminars, have come to be scrutinised for their impersonal approach. Recently, social media and networking sites have become increasingly popular as learning and teaching resources in higher education, providing students with increased opportunities for educational engagement. Whilst research has examined the effects of including social media in class and whether it assists students in academic engagement, it remains to be seen whether social media is understood to affect student attitudes towards their learning experiences. Subsequently, this research endeavours to understand student perspectives on the inclusion of social media in higher education and seeks to establish whether the inclusion of social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, can impact on student motivation and goal orientation. Whilst research in this area is increasing, this paper provides valuable insight into student perspectives on the inclusion of social media in higher education, whether they believe motivation and goals to have been affected by it, and the broader reaching consequences of its inclusions with regard to departmental interaction.

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Notes

  1. The UKPSF provides comprehensive standards and guidelines for those working in Higher Education and is transferable between institutional and individual levels (www.heacademy.ac.uk/professional-recognition/uk-professional-standards-framework-ukpsf).

  2. This scale was developed by Likert in the early 20th century as a means of measuring attitudes within prominent, intersecting spheres in global politics. See for example Lickert, R. A. (1932) A technique for the measurement of attitudes Archives of Psychology.

  3. A possible reason for such a low turnout from the initial sample of students interested in participating in the focus group is its proximity to deadlines and timetable clashes for those enrolled in other departments.

  4. Placement students were not included in the survey due to their commitments and potential communication issues.

  5. The student on the politics for exchange student’s programme is included in this category.

  6. Respondents indicating that they use Instagram wrote this independent of the given options on the survey. It is possible that students who responded ‘other’ also use this site.

  7. Students were able to provide more than one answer for this question.

  8. Responses over 50 % are interpreted as supporting a hypothesis, anything less than that is interpreted as rejecting it.

  9. One student resided on campus, two in town, and one had remained at home with parents.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Politics, School of Social Sciences, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 7XH, UK

    Samantha Cooke

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  1. Samantha Cooke
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Correspondence to Samantha Cooke.

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Cooke, S. Social teaching: Student perspectives on the inclusion of social media in higher education. Educ Inf Technol 22, 255–269 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10639-015-9444-y

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