Students Attitudes and Perceptions of the Use of Social Media at the University of North Texas - Case Study Example

Attitudes and Perceptions of the Use of Social Media at the of North Texas Abdulrahman Alamri CECS 6512 of North Texas (Date) Section A Introduction Pew Research Internet Project (2013) indicated that 73% of adults online now use a social networking site. Their statistics also indicate that 71% of online adults are now Facebook users as compared to 67% that was recorded in late 2012. There are high levels of engagement among Facebook users. The statistics have indicated that approximately 63% of users visit the site at least once a day. On the other hand, about 40% visit Facebook many times in a single day. Research indicates that despite the prevalence of social media outside the classroom today, only a marginal amount of scholarly work has been devoted to the topic in an educational setting (Fleck & Hussey, 2013; Munoz & Towner, 2009; Roblyer, McDaniel & Webb, 2010; Jacobsen & Forste; 2011). Currently, Web 2.0 technology, including social media networks such as Twitter and Facebook, has increasingly become a large part of our lives. The use of social networks has exponentially grown in the recent past by both the old and the young. The University of North Texas (UNT) at Dallas instituted a social media policy on January 17, 2012. According to university policy, “Social media” means any Web-based platform, application, or technology, which enables individuals to interact socially using highly accessible and scalable communication techniques. Some of the components includes, but is not limited to: blogs, wikis, discussion forums, photo-sharing networks, online virtual communities, podcasts, message boards, and user generated videos. In addition, it captures the mainstream social networks like Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr, LinkedIn, and any other site or emerging technology with content generated by both the owner and the audience (UNT Dallas, 2012). The university developed guidelines that were geared towards protecting both the students’ rights and university’s image (UNT Health Science Center, 2012). The question that arises is how effective is social media in education. Some UNT departments have conducted exercises with social media such as recreating the voyage of the titanic (UNT Denton, 2013) and using social media to discourage drinking while driving (Star-Telegram, 2013). In the classroom, there are some advantages of using social media to increase the quality and efficiency of communication between students and the instructor, access to class information, ease of collaboration, and stronger social connections between classmates. On the contrary, the disadvantages are related to aspects around the use and access to social media (Odom, Jarvis, Sandlin, & Peek, 2013) This study explores the effectiveness of social media by examining student’s perceptions and attitudes towards social media in a university-sponsored setting. Key questions and sub-questions to be explored are: Major Qualitative Research Questions 1-Defining social media and gauging usage Are you an active social media user? Why or why not? How many social media channels are you familiar with? Which devices do you use to access social media? Have you used social media in a classroom setting previously?  If so, in which context? How often do you use social media? How much time do you spend using it per week? 2-The effectiveness of social media when integrated with classroom assignments or activities In your opinion, does the integration of social media help or hinder classroom instruction? How does the integration of social media activities affect learners’ cognitive load? How do social media promote collaboration with your fellow learners and others? Which features in social media help to advance your learning? Why do you think so? How do social media promote community or group learning? How can students participate with YouTube or Flickr with an assignment that involves your subject domain? Which subject domain would be best suited with the use of the Pinterest website and why?  Do you feel the integration of the Pinterest website would be beneficial? Do you feel that it is more or less difficult for an instructor to evaluate an assignment that integrates Facebook or Twitter usage?  Do you feel that social discourse tools such as discussion boards, wikis add value to classroom instruction?  Why or why not? To what degree does social media bring the outside world into the classroom? What are some of the limitations associated with social media when implemented in a classroom setting? Should a course require students to know how to use social media without providing any instruction? What alternative methods or devices could be used in the classroom in place of integrated social media?  Do you feel these other methods and devices are more or less effective and why? 3- Student’s rights and social media Does social media cross-societal boundaries or is it safe to use in your personal point of view? What about for international students? What types of activity constitutes violating students’ right using social media and why? Would students be more apt or less apt to participate if their social boundaries were crossed? Describe a scenario in which you feel that another student when using social media has violated students’ rights. What should happen to an individual who violates someone’s rights when using social media? What entity should be notified when a student’s rights has been violated using social media? How concerned are you about having your profile publically available to others on social media? Literature Review Manago, Taylor, & Greenfield (2012) found that on average 21% of university student Facebook friends were close connections, 18% were those that had maintained connections from the past, 27% were acquaintances, 24% were teammates and classmates, 4% were strangers, 2% were online connections, and 4% were classified as other. Thus, only 39% of Facebook friends were either close or maintained contacts. Johnston, Chen, & Hauman (2013) have indicated that Facebook was used for learning purposes; with 55% of respondents using Facebook to contact other students with academically related issues, and 47% using Facebook to discuss class work. Social media has been classified under seven major categories (Kwon,Ojoung, 2013; Kriegler, 2010) including: 1- Social networks (e.g., Facebook, Linkedln, Myspace) 2- Blogs and Microblogs ( Twitter, WordPress, Blogger) 3- Wikis (Wikipedia, Wikispaces) 4- Video (YouTube, VodPod) 5- Pictures (Instagram, Flicker) 6- Audio (Podcast,Odeo) 7- Collaboration( Google Docs, Zoho, WriteWith) The Effectiveness of Social Media In recent years, social media and technologies have become prevalent as a routine in life. Social media was used for various types of academic, and co-curricular discussions, this means that it can be utilized as a tool in education that involves students while engaging the faculty in involving and participatory roles. (Junco, Heiberger & Loken, 2011). The benefits of using social media in education include incorporation of students’ preferred learning styles into instruction, early recognition of students’ learning needs, enhanced communication among students and between students and the instructor, creation a kind of a collaborative atmosphere, and increased student engagement (Blazer & Miami-Dade County Public Schools, 2012). Social media tools can be used to provide great opportunities for children and adults. It has been used in exploring bounders of self, learning, building relationships, exposure to other diverse perspectives, and the self-management of intimacy and privacy (Huffman, 2013). In 2007, the Higher Education Research Institute conducted a survey that indicated that approximately 94 percent of students in first year in college spend much time in social media. In 2011, approximately 30 percent of teaching faculty has used social media for posting content for students to view outside class. (Abe & Jordan, 2013). Odom, Jarvis, Sandlin & Peek (2013) explored students’ perceptions towards social media in a leadership course, their current use of social media, and their comfort level with specific social media tool. In the study, there were 92 undergraduate students enrolled in two leadership courses at Texas A&M University. The students pointed out both advantages and disadvantages of using social media in the leadership classroom. Some of the advantages mentioned include; it provides a good and efficient communication platform between the students and the instructor. Another advantage is that it facilitates access to information in the classroom setting, ease of collaboration, and stronger social presence among classmates. On the other hand, the disadvantages mentioned include, being a source of distraction, loss of classroom interface, among other internet-related evils. Risks of Using Social media Risks often associated with education-based social networking include cyberbullying, exposure to offensive material, invasion of privacy, and reduced opportunities for face-to-face communication. The majority of districts schools have limited in-school use of social networking, based on fears that students will be exposed to inappropriate online content, unwanted adult interactions, and bullying from peers (Blazer & Miami-Dade County Public Schools, 2012). A study involving 4,400 middle and high school students indicated that 26% reported that they had been recently bullied at school while 8% said that they had been recently bullied online (4% on Facebook). In October of 2013, a few hundred middle schools in a small school in the Midwest surveyed, and the findings found that 20% had been bullied at school in the previous 30 days, while 5% were bullied on Facebook during that same time (Cyberbullying Research Center, 2010). Even though many district schools have made efforts to restrict the use of social networking, the U.S. Department of Education’s National Education Technology Plan 2010 encouraged all states and districts to experiment with social networks in expanding collaborative learning opportunities for students and create communities among educators (Blazer & Miami-Dade County Public Schools, 2012). Huffman (2013) suggested that before using social networking tools, the teacher should acquire adequate training not only for themselves, but also for the benefit of their students. Training may include: 1- A basic understanding of social networking (safety guidance, features, etc) 2- The ethical use of online technology 3- The protection of predators’ teachers and students, and snare of cyberbullying 4- The development of positive learning spaces for social networking environment. 5- The benefits of social interaction in teaching online Students’ data has shown that more than 50 % of the students do not invoke the privacy setting of using Facebook, therefore exposing them to potential intrusion of their privacy (Harmon, 2014). Social media can be empowering for victims of intimate partner violence, and can greatly extend the social support network for victims. Victims use the Internet for the same reasons as other users; to share pictures or to connect and talk with their friends and family online using social networking such as Skype, webcams, e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter (Baughman, 2010). Semi-Structured Interviews: In general, three types of interviews do exist (Whiting, 2008); they include the structured interviews, the unstructured interviews, and the semi-structured interviews. Semi-structured interviews are utilized in this research as data gathering method by which allow all participants to be asked the same questions within a flexible framework that provide open ended questions, and further questions as concepts emerge from the dialogue (Dearnley, 2005). Whiting (2008) has indicated that key features of semi-structured includes; scheduled in advance at a designated time, location normally outside everyday events, organized around a set of predetermined questions, other questions emerge from dialogue, and usually last from 30 minutes to several hours. To know participants’ experience and opinions using the social media, an interview is required. Interviews provide information about the participants’ thoughts, behavior, and feelings in response to questions posed through the interview questions. The surveys were followed by deeper qualitative interviews about social media and course quality and are expected to take 30-60 minutes to complete (Whiting, 2008). These questions are primarily open-ended and seek to gather students’ attitudes, beliefs, and experiences in using social media networks and discourse tools. Students’ responses from the interviews will be used to triangulate their responses from the Qualtrics surveys and current social media research. Recording the interviews, and note taking are common methods of recording, it is used in this study through the digital recorder. The transcription of the interview recording was done verbatim. As groups, we conducted One-on-One Semi-structured Qualitative Interviews. Subject selection based on quantitative survey results: 1 International Student (Arin) & 1 US Domestic Student (Bradley), and we used the member checked data with interview subjects, and peer reviewed results with fellow team member. Interviews Based on the quantitative survey questions, Arin is a 34-year-old Ph.D student in the Department of Learning Technology. She is Asian by origin but had lived most of her life in Taiwan. Arin has previously taken 17 online courses, and now she is taking the Blended type of courses (Face-to-Face and Online). Currently Arin is full-time graduate student (enrolled in 9 semester hours of coursework). In addition, Arin has one-year experience in teaching despite not seeking teacher certification. In general, motivation and attitude, she prefers having the instructors compared to when she has to interact with information on her own online. In addition, she needs faculty feedback on her assignments within a few weeks because she can review what she did. She looks forward to learning new skills when she is asked to use technologies such as e-email, Internet, or new software. Regarding her experience and attitude towards the use of learning management systems (LMSs) tools and environment, she has a lot of experience using Blackboard, Moodle, Canvas, and has no experience using Schoology. Arin has some experience with Second Life, and no experience with Civ3, Minecraft. Regarding with social media, she has lots of experience using Discussion Board, some experience using Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Flicker, Linkedln, Online virtual communities, and no experience using Instagram, Pinterest, and Podcast. Regarding her attitude and believe concerning social media, she agrees that social media is an effective tool for learning when integrated with classroom assignment or activities. She slightly supports the view that social media rarely impedes on the right of others. However, she slightly disagrees that using social media in learning environments is fun and interesting. Her teachers use of social media in the classroom makes the subject matter more relevant, and integrating social media in learning environments is easy, social media channels are similar and interchangeable. Regarding online learning course preparation, she strongly agrees that well-organized course content and clear instructions about where to find resources is very important in learning. Arin agrees that the money spent on online courses is well worth spending. She says that watching instructional videos for personal growth (such as youtube, TED Talks, etc) is engaging. On the other hand, she says that instructors should participate actively in online discussions. It is also important to have online discussions with classmates. Concerning video-based lectures, Arin says they are fun and interesting. Video-based lectures are helpful; however, asynchronous text-based discussion forums are too time-consuming. She gives preference to working individually than doing online collaborations in groups for assignments; she wishes could have more one-to-one interactions with the instructor. A thorough student orientation to the learning management system is very important before taking an online course. We can learn more from our classmates as opposed to the instructor in an online course. I much prefer face-to-face interactions in a class than online interactions. Taking an online course is no different from teaching oneself. Arin slightly disagree with the above propositions. Asynchronous text-based environments are fun and interesting. Audio/video-based lectures are more effective to my learning than text-based ones. The technical issues I encounter when participating in online activities negatively impact my learning. I am easily lost in an online course. Regarding her attitude and believe toward gamification, Arin agrees that earning badges should not depend only on the assignments’ grades. She slightly agrees that single-player video games are more interesting than multi-player games; playing video games is beneficial as a brief distraction from doing homework. She agrees that leaderboards in online courses help students to achieve more quickly, leaderboards are fun and exciting, being on the top in leaderboard is hard, leaderboards are boring and pointless, earning badges in online courses is stressful and hard, and she would like to take quizzes as much as she wants to collect badges. Arin slightly disagrees with the following items: Leaderboards can be detrimental to students’ attitudes Leaderboards will make me more engaged in the coursework. Using leaderboards discourages me by being constantly compared to others. I think that leaderboards will make the course more challenging and competitive. Earning badges makes me more engaged in the coursework Using badges in assessment is more satisfying and fair than grades. Earning badges in online courses is fun and exciting. Finally she disagree that I like to share my badges on social networks like Facebook and Twitter, and I like to share the course leaderboard on social networks. Based on this background of demographic section and attitude toward use of social media, online learning and gamification, we intended to interview Arin to give us a deeper understanding, the interview will be based on three major perspectives: Defining social media and gauging usage, The effectiveness of social media when integrated with classroom assignments or activities, Student’s rights and social media Concerning the definition of social media and gauging usage, Arin uses social media to connect and chat with her friends, and she is familiar with approximately five of the most common social media channels, including Facebook and Twitter. Arin uses her smart phone and her computer to accesses social media sites. She used social media as a graduate teaching assistant in helping students determine which content area to focus on and design teaching plans. She often spends around one hour per day on social media. She feels that social media helps the instructor teach, but that whether it is a plus or minus depends on how it is used. Arin feels that social media can help students learn from each other and get more involved in the classwork. However, she thinks that if the experience is not designed well, it will result to cognitive overload. Arin believes that social media promotes collaboration by letting members of a group share information that they have discovered instantly, and she thinks that the feature of social media that most helps to advance her learning is the immediate sharing of information and the immediate availability of additional information on a topic of interest to her. She also believes that social media promotes community or group learning because information can be shared instantly, so people know that their group members are working together and are interested in the same topic. In relation to her subject domain, she said that together her colleagues used social media to talk together about a video that they were making. She feels that it is hard for an instructor to evaluate an assignment that integrates Facebook or Twitter usage because some students do not like using Facebook or Twitter, so it is hard to evaluate them based on their usage of those media. She feels that discussion boards or wiki can add value depending on how they are designed; however, they have a disadvantage of being slower than Facebook or Twitter. She believes that social media makes one to disconnect with the real world, while the classroom setting provides the real world. She believes that social media is not in any way designed for educational purposes and therefore it has several limitations. For example, messages are short, and they are not organized by topic, so it can be hard for students to find what they need. In addition, security and ownership can be an issue. She feels that any requirement to use social media should be accompanied by instruction both in the use of media and in etiquette, and she could not think of an alternative to using social media this time. Arin feels that social media might not be safe for her personally, especially in relation to posting private information. She believes that students’ rights are likely to be violated through cyberbullying. She feels that people who violate others’ rights in social media should suffer the same consequences as those who violate people’s rights in the real world. When someone’s rights have been violated, they should report to the student, teacher, or school district. Finally, she is very concerned about having her profile publicly available on social media. Therefore, she gives only basic information or untrue information for her profile, and she asks her friends not to tag her photos. Conclusion: This study aimed to explore the effectiveness of social media by examining student’s perceptions and attitudes towards social media. There are three major questions of concern: Defining social media and gauging usage, the effectiveness of social media when integrated with classroom assignments or activities, and Student’s rights and social media. The study was done through a mixed methods approach. The explanatory sequential mixed method was conducted in two distinct phases: A quantitative online survey was done first followed by a qualitative interview to explore students’ attitudes and experiences in depth. The result indicated that most Participants, 39.6% (N=38) had some experience using social media while 37.4% had a lot of experience using social media. Only 23% (N=38) indicated that they had no experience using such tools and oddly visual programs such as Pinterest, Flickr and Instagram garnered the largest percentages in this area. Result from the participants indicates that the highly utilized platforms were discussion boards, LinkedIn, Twitter, Youtube and Facebook. The survey results indicated that most students felt positive toward their attitude in using social media. 77 % felt that using social media in a learning environment was fun and interesting. On the other hand, only 55% of students feel that using social media can make the subject matter more relevant. Conversely, the vast majority of students (72%) believes that social media makes course content more interesting when implemented correctly; most students (59%) believe that implementing social media in a learning environment is not difficult; a slight majority (54%) of students view social media channels as being different and unique. In contrast, (80%) of students believe that social media can impede on the rights of other individuals. The greatest concern is protecting the rights of others when using social media. Interview result indicated that the participant correspond with survey result. Arin is an active user because she usually connects with her family and her friends every day. Her major motivation in learning about the social media technology is that it allows her to be familiar with common social media platforms. Her feeling towards integrating social media in the classroom was a positive one. However, Arin has a negative perception towards students’ right because she feels that social media might not be safe for her personally, especially in relation to posting private information, and she is very concerned about having her profile publicly available on social media. She suggested giving only basic or untrue information in her social media profile. References Al-Hamdan, Z., & Anthony, D. (2010). Deciding on a mixed-methods design in a doctoral study. Nurse Researcher, 18(1), 45-56 Abe, P., & Jordan, N. A. (2013). 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