PurposeEmerging technologies offer an ever expanding variety of means to support and enrich learning environments. However, there is currently a lack of information on how to best implement new media in tourism and hospitality education. This paper aims to describe an example of an international, collaborative learning project that involves Facebook so that future practice regarding social media use in teaching can be informed.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a case study approach to describe in detail how Facebook was used to foster self‐directed learning about sustainable tourism.FindingsThe findings presented in the paper are based on the postings of the students in Facebook as well as student and faculty reflections on the success of the project. Overall, the project was a success and led to the construction of a useful, current and engaging knowledge base about sustainable tourism. Also, the students appreciated the more informal learning environment. However, there were clear barriers to collaboration that could not be overcome by using Facebook. In addition, not all students were equally engaged and some clearly lacked experience with the medium.Originality/valueThe paper documents the use of Facebook in support of a collaborative learning project to illustrate the potential of social media in creating engaging learning environments. It situates the case study in the theoretical discussion of the value of edutainment and the promise of social media to foster self‐directed and social learning. The findings provide theoretical implications for the conceptualization of social media use in education and practical implications for tourism and hospitality educators who would like to integrate social media in their teaching.

The case study presented in this article illustrates an example of value-based teaching in the context of sustainable tourism. Specifically, the five TEFI core values of mutuality, stewardship, knowledge, ethics and professionalism were integrated in an innovative learning environment that involved students from two universities in Finland and the United States who built a collaborative knowledge base via Facebook, worked on group reports, and produced a video reflecting on their learning experience. The article discusses the structure of the learning experiment and some of its outcomes while reflecting on the importance of value-based teaching in tourism.

There is still lack of information on how to best implement social media in project collaboration and tourism marketing education despite the fact that social media offer interesting intercultural learning opportunities and enriching learning environments. This article aims to describe an example of an international, collaborative learning project conducted on Facebook in the context of vocational hospitality education/spa marketing. The aim of the Facebook project was to enhance work-based pedagogy, and to construct flow in learning. The article adopts a case study approach to describe in detail how Facebook was used to foster self-directed and co-constructive learning in a social environment. The findings presented in the article are based on the postings of participating students in Facebook, and on teachers and project team reflections. Overall, the project was a success and led to the construction of a useful, current and engaging knowledge base in the context of spa marketing. Moreover, the students appreciated the informal learning environment, and the teachers learned how to enhance learning without suffocating the learning process with too many guidelines or information. The students learned how to collaborate independently, and in pairs, and to take responsibility of their own learning.

PurposeThe aim of the study was to research higher education students' meaningful emotions when studying and develop a model for understanding and verbalising the role of emotions. The model will facilitate the awareness of the role of emotions when learning.Design/methodology/approachThe qualitative data consist of 45 narratives, gathered within three Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences in the Finnish metropolitan area. Emotions and their role in different encounters within a learning setting were analysed. The approach was narrative, and content analysis was used to analyse the data. The survey was shared through a link that was visible in the intranet of the students. The questionnaire was open for three weeks in spring 2018. It consisted of five open-ended questions that aimed at helping students in sharing their story which included different emotional experiences in the learning context. The questions were partly inspired by the Critical Incident Technique (CIT).FindingsThe results of the research show that most of the stories related to negative emotions. Most of the stories also described how the situation was resolved because our questions prompted respondents to write about that. The stories also described how students progressed with their studies. Some students considered the emotional experience to be “a lesson learned” for the future. Students also described how they had learned something about themselves and their reactions.Research limitations/implicationsWe collected the qualitative data within different fields and levels of study (Master and Bachelor). The statistical population consisted of approximately 35,000 enrolled students in the three Universities of Applied Sciences (hereafter UAS). The survey generated 45 answers. As the data were qualitative, we consider the richness of the accounts to be sufficient to answer our research questions.Practical implicationsWe have concentrated mainly on students' verbalized emotions, but we are aware of the fact that emotions are born in interaction with other students, systems, contexts, with teachers and with the organizational culture in our universities. No man is an island; so, in other words emotions cannot be taken out of the context. Connecting all the verbalized emotions and the interpretations and combination of them (seven ways of talking about emotions) we created an educational practice “chart” called “Emotional Footprint”, using the concept as introduced by Levine (2015). This practice chart aims at visualizing that emotions should be understood in all possible learning contexts. It is about individuals understanding themselves, understanding others and using emotions as energizers.Originality/valueIt is important to support emotional expression and improve emotional competence during life-long learning. An uncertain future, described as volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguity need more people, who have a strong understanding of emotions and how these enhance and prohibit. With this model for expressing, verbalizing emotions that is easy to transfer to other contexts in the future professional life of students, we also want to emphasize how our universities can learn to turn negative emotions into constructive energy as well as boost authentic, positive emotions. We have to be aware of the emotional spectrum in order to create a learning experience of high quality. Our emotional footprint as professionals of learning is central. It is part of our societal responsibility.