Connectedness learning in the life sciences: LinkedIn as an assessment task for employability and career exploration

Brown, Jason L.; Healy, Michael; Lexis, Louise; Julien, Brianna

doi:10.4337/9781788972611.00015

Cited by 9 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…After completion of the LinkedIn assignment, most students agreed that it was important to create a profile and use LinkedIn, indicating that they saw the value in developing social network literacy and building a connected identity. This is consistent with perceptions of students in pharmaceutical sciences Badoer et al (2021), human physiology (Brown et al, 2019), sales and marketing (Peterson & Dover, 2014), and business and professional communication (Carmack & Heiss, 2018) disciplines. In the present study, the minority of students not planning to use LinkedIn in the future, or undecided, gave the reasons that they did not think it was an effective way to make connections, it was not relevant to their career path, and because their connection requests went unanswered.…”

Section: Student Perceptions Of Career Development Learning and Linkedinsupporting

confidence: 75%

STEM students see the value of LinkedIn as a career development tool and continue to use it in the long-term post-assignment

Lexis

Weaver

Julien

2023

JTLGE

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Some empirical case studies provide support for using LinkedIn as a 21st century career development tool; however, little is known about the long-term impact on students’ use of LinkedIn. A LinkedIn assignment was implemented in a third-year subject taken by students in non-specialist science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) degrees. The study aimed to determine: 1) Student use of LinkedIn prior to, and during the four months after the assignment was completed; 2) Student intentions to use LinkedIn as a career development tool in the long-term future; 3) Student perceptions of a LinkedIn assignment and associated employability skills; 4) Changes to students’ LinkedIn profiles and professional connections in the two years following completion of the assignment. Four months after the assignment, students completed an anonymous and voluntary questionnaire comprised of open-ended and Likert-scale questions. Descriptive statistical analysis was conducted on the Likert-scale responses and content analysis was conducted on the open-ended responses. Students’ LinkedIn profiles were analysed upon completion of the assignment and two years post-assignment to determine changes during this time. Students saw value in the assignment and LinkedIn as a career development tool, and many thought they had developed skills in building a connected identity and social network literacy. Students were less confident in their ability to build and engage with professional networks, although they thought this was important. Most students continued to use LinkedIn in the two years post-assignment. In conclusion, a LinkedIn assignment is an effective career development tool for students in non-specialist STEM degrees.

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Section: Student Perceptions Of Career Development Learning and Linkedinsupporting

confidence: 75%

STEM students see the value of LinkedIn as a career development tool and continue to use it in the long-term post-assignment

Lexis

Weaver

Julien

2023

JTLGE

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“…Several studies seem to lack any theoretical foundation to the research. Few studies incorporate contemporary graduate employability literature, whilst fewer still apply relevant career development research and only one (Brown et al, 2019) integrates both fields of scholarship in the way advocated by Healy et al (2022aHealy et al ( , 2022b. The connectedness learning model (Bridgstock and Tippett, 2019), predated by most studies in our data set, informed 3 studies out of 30.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Educators who see value in promoting professional networking for careers and employability learning in their curriculum will benefit from reviewing the connectedness learning model, the theories and evidence that inform it and research that has applied it (Brown et al, 2019;de Villiers Scheepers et al, 2019). In addition to describing connectedness capabilities as learning outcomes for students, the model provides useful suggestions for connectedness pedagogies and enabling strategies for educators and institutions (Bridgstock and Tippett, 2019).…”

Section: Limitations and Implications For Practice And Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…LinkedIn is the world's leading professional social networking website, with over 774 million individual users and 57 million company accounts across 200 countries ("LinkedIn: About Us", n.d.). It is reasonable that educators seeking to support their students' networking skills consider LinkedIn an essential platform that students should learn to use (Bridgstock, 2019;Brown et al, 2019).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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LinkedIn as a pedagogical tool for careers and employability learning: a scoping review of the literature

Healy

Cochrane²,

Grant³

et al. 2023

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PurposeProfessional networks are conduits for career insight, vehicles for career exploration and incubators of professional identity. Accordingly, LinkedIn is a rich environment for university students' careers and employability learning. In this article, the authors review how the pedagogical use of LinkedIn has been conceived, implemented and evaluated in higher education research.Design/methodology/approachThe authors conducted a scoping literature review on research articles and chapters investigating the use of LinkedIn for careers and employability learning. The authors conducted a systematic database search and screened the results, resulting in 30 eligible studies. Each study was analysed for research characteristics, theoretical foundations, reported affordances or outcomes and critical concerns.FindingsThe authors find little evidence of cohesion or consistency in the existing research. Studies draw on different theoretical and methodological approaches and use different measures of networking behaviours and competencies. Studies tend not to consider ethical concerns about using LinkedIn as a pedagogical tool.Practical implicationsThe authors argue this is not yet a body of research that supports the synthesis necessary for a reliable evidence base. The authors recommend that educators employing LinkedIn in the curriculum ground their work in more coherent, cohesive and integrated theories of careers and employability learning.Originality/valueThis review summarises a body of literature on the use of LinkedIn as a pedagogical tool for careers and employability learning in higher education. This review describes and critiques the beginnings of an evidence-base from which educators can further investigate how students can be supported to develop their online professional networking skills.

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“…Future orientation provides the grounds for setting goals, planning, exploring options, and making commitments that guide the person's behavior and development processes, which in turn enhance students' employability (Brown et al, 2019;Jackson & Tomlinson, 2020). According to career construction theory (Savickas et al, 2005), access to career resources is important when individuals are actively constructing their careers (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012).…”

Section: Future Orientation and Perceived Employabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Future orientation and perceived employability of chinese undergraduates: a moderated mediation model

Chen

Jiang

et al. 2022

Curr Psychol

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Although scholars and practitioners have highlighted the significance of students’ attitudes for their future employment, few empirical examinations have attempted to determine the potential association between students’ future orientation and their perceived employability. Thus, drawing on career construction theory, we test the positive effect of students’ future orientation on their perceived employability by exploring the mediator of problem-based learning and the moderators of job market knowledge and proactive personality. Collecting our data via a time-lagged design (N = 368), we have found that the positive association between future orientation and employability is mediated by problem-based learning. Our moderation analyses further revealed that job market knowledge positively moderates the relationship between future orientation and problem-based learning and that students’ proactive personality positively moderates the relationship between problem-based learning and perceived employability.

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Connectedness learning in the life sciences: LinkedIn as an assessment task for employability and career exploration

Cited by 9 publications

References 19 publications

STEM students see the value of LinkedIn as a career development tool and continue to use it in the long-term post-assignment

STEM students see the value of LinkedIn as a career development tool and continue to use it in the long-term post-assignment

LinkedIn as a pedagogical tool for careers and employability learning: a scoping review of the literature

Future orientation and perceived employability of chinese undergraduates: a moderated mediation model

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