Social Media as a Tool for Improving Teaching and Learning Experience

Jankauskaitė, Dovilė

doi:10.1515/sigtem-2016-0008

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 19 publications

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“…… we don't necessarily engage with the lecturers privately but more on the group chat where everyone can see our interactions". This preference to use WhatsApp for communication is similar to the student participants in Jankauskaite (2015) who "express the wish to communicate not through university system or e-mail" but social media because they use it "in their daily life and would see [it] sooner" (p. 56).…”

Section: First-timer Whatsapp Users and Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 70%

WhatsApp’s Potential to Broaden Online Teaching and Learning: Perceptions of Undergraduate Students From One South African University

Motlhabane

2022

JITE:Research

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Aim/Purpose: Social media platforms have been increasingly incorporated into teaching and learning. However, studies using mixed methods to explore WhatsApp’s potential to broaden online teaching and learning remain limited. Background: This study reports the experiences and perspectives of undergraduate students in terms of their WhatsApp usage patterns and preferences during COVID-19 using a sequential mixed method. Methodology: Through a quantitative survey of undergraduate students from the Education Faculty in one South African university, quantitative data were collected from 92 participants. Qualitative interviews were followed with ten willing participants to further explore their perceptions and preference. Contribution: This study addresses the literature gap identified by Klein et al. (2018, p. 2) that “few studies that explore WhatsApp use in the natural environment of higher education” and the methodology gap Hashim identifies (2018) that the majority of the literature adopts a quantitative research methodology while only 10% use the mixed method. Our intention is set specifically on WhatsApp’s potential to broaden online teaching as the new norm beyond merely as a supplement teaching platform before COVID-19 or emergency remote teaching mode that WhatsApp serves since the onset of COVID-19. We triangulated the behaviors and perceptions of first-time WhatsApp users (scarcely separately discussed in the literature) and gender to ascertain lessons for more targeted strategies for more effective WhatsApp use. Another unique feature and novelty of this study is our separate analysis of active (e.g., initiating query or discussion) and passive use (e.g., receiving information). Findings: Our findings confirm that COVID-19 has accelerated universities’ digital transition as WhatsApp’s usage has undergone a great expansion from informal to formal spaces. However, informal use among students remains strong, particularly among first-time WhatsApp users. Communication remains one of the primary functions of WhatsApp in teaching and learning, but content-related functions and student discussion activities are clearly feasible and prevalent. However, passive use remains slightly more prevalent than active use even amongst frequent WhatsApp users. WhatsApp’s assignment-related usage is high but mainly limited to queries rather than assessment submissions or marking. Both WhatsApp’s usage and perceived usefulness has surpassed that of e-mail and of the university’s learning management system (LMS) where WhatsApp group functions seem to have contributed greatly to the perceived usefulness. Articulated advantages and challenges of WhatsApp largely corroborate with those identified in the literature, although our participants show some ambiguity concerning WhatsApp’s low cost as its main benefit. Recommendations for Practitioners: WhatsApp’s usages are versatile. So are its perceived benefits. However, practitioners need to consciously encourage its usage beyond passive use and also consider how WhatsApp can be incorporated into marking. Recommendation for Researchers: We found inconsistency regarding perceived benefits related to WhatsApp’s cost. Cost is important in low resource context and this inconsistency merits further examination. Our finding regarding WhatsApp’s limitation in terms of marking is not consistent with some literature. As marking functionality impacts broadening WhatsApp’s usage in teaching and learning, how WhatsApp has and potentially can be incorporated into LMS should be further explored. Impact on Society: WhatsApp has great potential to broaden online learning in higher education. However, it also has its limitation. This study demonstrates that WhatsApp can serve most teaching and learning functions in higher education. However, how these benefits and limitations impact different groups of users (e.g., 1st-time users, frequent users, gender, etc.) should be more consciously thought of, so is how more active use can be encouraged. Future Research: Further studies should examine whether the low cost is an important consideration in students’ preference for WhatsApp. Further studies should also explore how WhatsApp can be better used for marking.

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Section: First-timer Whatsapp Users and Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 70%

WhatsApp’s Potential to Broaden Online Teaching and Learning: Perceptions of Undergraduate Students From One South African University

Motlhabane

2022

JITE:Research

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Differences in the Reasons of Intermittent versus Permanent Discontinuance in Social Media: An Exploratory Study in Weibo

Zhou¹,

Yang²,

Jin³

2018

Proceedings of the Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences

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Discontinued usage (or discontinuance) of social media has aroused extensive interests among researchers and practitioners. Existing research tends to view discontinuance as permanent, but pays little attention to intermittent discontinuance wherein individuals stop using a social medium for a certain period of time but eventually restart using afterwards. Specifically, little is known about the commonalities and differences in reasons underlying permanent and intermittent discontinuance. Addressing this research gap, this paper reports an exploratory field study using qualitative data collected by interviewing 96 users with discontinuance experiences in Weibo, a popular Chinese microblogging platform. Results reveal four categories of reasons for discontinuance: user-, context-, function-and content-related. Comparative analysis shows that user discontinuance because of context-related factors is more likely to be intermittent, while user discontinuance due to function-and content-related factors are more likely to be permanent; results for user-related factors are complicated. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

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Mathematics Teachers’ Perception of Using Social Media in Their Teaching in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

Albalaw¹

2017

INT ELECT J MATH ED

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Social Media as a Tool for Improving Teaching and Learning Experience

Cited by 3 publications

References 19 publications

WhatsApp’s Potential to Broaden Online Teaching and Learning: Perceptions of Undergraduate Students From One South African University

WhatsApp’s Potential to Broaden Online Teaching and Learning: Perceptions of Undergraduate Students From One South African University

Differences in the Reasons of Intermittent versus Permanent Discontinuance in Social Media: An Exploratory Study in Weibo

Mathematics Teachers’ Perception of Using Social Media in Their Teaching in Tabuk, Saudi Arabia

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