How university teachers navigate social networking sites in a fully online space: provisional views from a developing nation

Abstract

Although social networking sites (SNS) have been widely investigated, very limited information is available about how teachers navigate them within a fully online learning space, the challenges they confront, and the strategies they use to overcome them. Thus, we examined these underexplored areas by interviewing 14 higher education teachers in the field of social sciences. Using a cross-case analysis, overall data indicates that teachers had varied reasons for and considered different factors when adopting SNS for online teaching. Our study also reveals that they used SNS affordances depending on their own teaching contexts and took different roles when teaching online via this platform. Although teachers generally viewed SNS as an instructional approach, they also reported several technical, pedagogical, and learner-related challenges, which they attempted to confront using a variety of strategies. These findings confirmed that teachers’ pedagogical practices and decisions in an SNS-mediated learning environment are shaped by the interaction between and among the teacher-related factors, SNS as an instructional tool, and teaching goals mediated by the policies (existing or not) and their peers. Some key implications of our findings are on designing teacher development programs, recalibrating national, institutional, and classroom policies, and implementing a systemic approach to mitigating pedagogical challenges in an online learning space. Implications for future studies are also discussed.

Interactive Student Learning Technologies in Higher Education

“…The essence of interactive learning is the organization of constant interaction of all participants in the learning process, none of whom remain passive, because they are put in a situation of active learning in a cooperative mode. With this type of learning, by analyzing their own actions and those of their partners, everyone can change their behavior pattern, acquire the necessary knowledge and skills more consciously and feel as close to their future professional activity as possible (Mairéad et al, 2022;Barrot & Acomular, 2022).…”

Relaunching Laboratories for Engineering Disciplines Using an Industry-Oriented Approach

“…The teacher has adopted a modern way of working with students, using various online platforms. Modern methods of interaction between teacher and students, which have become increasingly common during the pandemic period (Barrot & Acomular, 2022), can be very effectively used to increase students' interest in the taught subject. However, face-to-face meetings in the university laboratory remain a key factor in ensuring that students have a good understanding of what they have to do.…”

Online professional development across institutions and borders

“…While there is a substantial body of literature on PD and OPD, most of these studies are either nested within one institutional context (e.g., Bragg et al, 2021 ; Howard, 2021 ; Powell & Bodur, 2019 ) or outside “institutional boundaries” in terms of providing informal PD via social media, MOOCs, and other communities of practice (e.g., Barrot & Acomular, 2022 ; Lantz-Andersson et al, 2018 ; Macià & García, 2016 ; Rehm et al, 2020 ). As institutions are recovering from the pandemic shock and the unprecedented move to online learning for their students and educators, several institutions are starting to structurally support cross-institutional programmes focussed on OPD and sharing expertise and insights beyond their own institutional boundaries (Bragg et al, 2021 ).…”

“…There are obvious potential benefits when designing and implementing OPD to pool resources and expertise together across institutions (Rienties et al, 2013 ), school districts (Kim et al, 2017 ), across a national level (Erixon, 2016 ), or perhaps even between institutions across geographical borders (Howard, 2021 ). Beyond economies of scale and efficiency arguments (i.e., costs savings) there are substantial opportunities for educators to learn from and network with colleagues from other institutions and countries (Rehm et al, 2020 ; Rets et al, 2020 ), which provide educators opportunities for reflection, agency, and meeting like-minded people (Barrot & Acomular, 2022 ; Howard, 2021 ; Lantz-Andersson et al, 2018 ).…”