Social Media as a Tool in Higher Education

2020 ◽  
pp. 239-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vikas Kumar ◽  
Pooja Nanda
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Information Technology ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Learning Environment ◽  
Instructional Approaches ◽  
Teaching Pedagogy ◽  
Digital Devices ◽  
Challenging Environment ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Channels

Development of information technology has very much affected the way teachers teach and students learn. Digital devices have become a routine not only for playing games and communicating with classmates but also for the education and knowledge. This has provided opportunities for enriching the learning environment. The classroom today is a very challenging environment. The reason may be the changing focus of the environment which has shifted from the teachers to the learners. Many educators attempt to adopt new instructional approaches to encourage and motivate students to learn; social media can be one of the best approaches. The objective of this chapter is to understand the importance of social media as new teaching pedagogy in higher education institutes. A framework has been proposed to assimilate specific social media channels in teaching pedagogy in higher education. The framework will be useful in identifying how social media platforms can be integrated into teaching pedagogy for higher educational institutes so that the students may be benefited the most.

Understanding the Role of Online Media Platforms in Airport Capital Projects and Community Outreach

2021 ◽  
pp. 036119812199347
Author(s):  
Max Z. Li ◽  
Megan S. Ryerson
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Best Practices ◽  
Community Outreach ◽  
Capital Projects ◽  
The Public ◽  
Online Social Media ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Project Phases ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
Common Content

Community outreach and engagement efforts are critical to an airport’s role as an ever-evolving transportation infrastructure and regional economic driver. As online social media platforms continue to grow in both popularity and influence, a new engagement channel between airports and the public is emerging. However, the motivations behind and effectiveness of these social media channels remain unclear. In this work, we address this knowledge gap by better understanding the advantages, impact, and best practices of this newly emerging engagement channel available to airports. Focusing specifically on airport YouTube channels, we first document quantitative viewership metrics, and examine common content characteristics within airport YouTube videos. We then conduct interviews and site visits with relevant airport stakeholders to identify the motivations and workflow behind these videos. Finally, we facilitate sample focus groups designed to survey public perceptions of the effectiveness and value of these videos. From our four project phases, to maximize content effectiveness and community engagement potential, we synthesize the following framework of action items, recommendations, and best practices: (C) Consistency and community; (O) Organizational structure; (M) Momentum; (B) Branding and buy-in; (A) Activity; (T) Two-way engagement; (E) Enthusiasm; and (D) Depth, or as a convenient initialism, our COMBATED framework.

scholarly journals Building a Vibrant Future for School Librarians through Online Conversations for Professional Development

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Judy O'Connell
Keyword(s):  
Professional Development ◽  
Social Media ◽  
School Library ◽  
School Librarians ◽  
Leadership Challenges ◽  
Personal Learning ◽  
The World ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Teacher Librarians ◽  
Media Channels

Technology and social media platforms are driving an unprecedented reorganization of the learning environment in and beyond schools around the world. Technology provides us leadership challenges, and at the same time offers opportunities for communication and learning through technology channels to support professional development. School librarians and teacher librarians are often working as the sole information practitioner in their school, and need to stay in touch with others beyond their own school to develop their personal professional capacity to lead within their school. The Australian Teacher Librarian Network aims to make a difference, and supports school library staff in Australia and around the world to build professional networks and personal learning connections, offering an open and free exchange of ideas, strategies and resources to build collegiality. This ongoing professional conversation through online and social media channels is an important way to connect, communicate and collaborate in building a vibrant future for school librarians.

Multimodal Mapping of a University’s Formal and Informal Online Brand

2014 ◽  
pp. 120-162
Author(s):  
Shalin Hai-Jew
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
New Media ◽  
Public Relations ◽  
Public Information ◽  
Video Sharing ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
University Reputation ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
The University

With the popularization of the Social Web (or Read-Write Web) and millions of participants in these interactive spaces, institutions of higher education have found it necessary to create online presences to promote their university brands, presence, and reputation. An important aspect of that engagement involves being aware of how their brand is represented informally (and formally) on social media platforms. Universities have traditionally maintained thin channels of formalized communications through official media channels, but in this participatory new media age, the user-generated contents and communications are created independent of the formal public relations offices. The university brand is evolving independently of official controls. Ex-post interventions to protect university reputation and brand may be too little, too late, and much of the contents are beyond the purview of the formal university. Various offices and clubs have institutional accounts on Facebook as well as wide representation of their faculty, staff, administrators, and students online. There are various microblogging accounts on Twitter. Various photo and video contents related to the institution may be found on photo- and video-sharing sites, like Flickr, and there are video channels on YouTube. All this digital content is widely available and may serve as points-of-contact for the close-in to more distal stakeholders and publics related to the institution. A recently available open-source tool enhances the capability for crawling (extracting data) these various social media platforms (through their Application Programming Interfaces or “APIs”) and enables the capture, analysis, and social network visualization of broadly available public information. Further, this tool enables the analysis of previously hidden information. This chapter introduces the application of Network Overview, Discovery and Exploration for Excel (NodeXL) to the empirical and multimodal analysis of a university’s electronic presence on various social media platforms and offers some initial ideas for the analytical value of such an approach.

Investigating the Effects of Social Media on Higher Education with a Case Study

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 (01) ◽  
pp. 2040023 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mamoun Masoud Abdulqader ◽  
Yousof Zohair Almunsour
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Faculty Members ◽  
The Other ◽  
Media In Education ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Teaching Learning

This research aims to investigate the effects of social media use on higher education teaching and learning as well as the students’ academic performance. A total of 275 students and faculty members from the College of Computer Science and Information Technology at Imam Abdulrahman Bin Faisal University took part in the study. The participants answered survey questions to analyse information on their use of social media in education and how that has affected their teaching, learning and grades. A majority of the participants reported that they used social media in training. However, they also stated that social media platforms were beneficial in academic matters. The number of participants who stated that the use of social media in learning helped improve their grades was 43%. The other 57% thought that social media had no impact on their grades or had an adverse effect or were undecided.

scholarly journals Using Social Media to Enable Staff Knowledge Sharing in Higher Education Institutions

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Niall Corcoran ◽  
Aidan Duane
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Knowledge Sharing ◽  
Conceptual Model ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Action Research Project ◽  
Barriers To Participation ◽  
Enterprise Social Networks ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Knowledge Intensive

Higher education institutions (HEIs) are knowledge intensive environments by nature. However, the management of organisational knowledge and the promotion of staff knowledge sharing is largely neglected in these institutions. This study examines how enterprise social networks can enable staff knowledge sharing in communities of practice in that context. The study is framed as an Action Research project, covering three cycles over a 12 month period. A conceptual model was developed for empirical testing and data was collected through focus groups and interviews, supplemented by reflective journaling and content analysis. The findings support the conceptual model and provide insight into the antecedents necessary for the creation of an enterprise social network enabled knowledge sharing environment, the motivators for and barriers to participation, and the perceived organisational and individual benefits of increased staff knowledge sharing activity. The findings indicate that the barriers to participation are influenced by the prevalent organisation structure and culture, and a divide between faculty and other staff. However, individual benefits that accrue from participation may influence greater participation, and organisational benefits that accrue may influence organisational strategies that drive change in structure and culture to promote the development of the knowledge sharing environment. A number of findings have practical implications for the management of higher education institutions, such as the evidence of a divide between faculty and other staff, and the perceived existence of an organisational culture that inhibits staff communication, interaction and collaboration. In general, the study findings provide an opportunity for educationalists to better understand the scope and impact of employing social media platforms for knowledge sharing. This study adds to the growing body of work on organisational implementations of social media, and should be of interest to practitioners and researchers undertaking similar projects.

How Does Firm- and User-Generated Content Benefit Firms and Affect Consumers?

2020 ◽  
pp. 97-120
Author(s):  
Niray Tunçel ◽  
Nihan Yılmaz
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Consumer Behavior ◽  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
User Generated Content ◽  
Specific Effects ◽  
Interactive Nature ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
New Form ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
Practical Implications

Social media marketing is a new form of communication between firms and consumers. The interactive nature of social media platforms enables consumers to share their perceptions about firms by creating their own content in various forms. Besides, firms are able to attract and engage with consumers through creating effective content on their social media channels. Both user-generated content (UGC) and firm-generated content (FGC) have a significant role in firm performance and consumer behavior. However, the previous studies have mostly focused on the effects of UGC and addressed the issue from the consumer side. Therefore, as distinct from existing studies, the study at hand addresses the specific effects and benefits of UGC and FGC from both the firm and consumer sides, within a theoretical framework. In addition, based on the findings of the reviewed studies, the chapter presents some practical implications for business.

scholarly journals Sex Work and Social Media: Online Advocacy Strategies

2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma E. Duke ◽  
Kathleen C. Sitter ◽  
Nicole Boggan
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Sex Work ◽  
Sex Workers ◽  
Online Communication ◽  
Service Organizations ◽  
Non Profit ◽  
Safe Spaces ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Use Of Social Media ◽  
Media Channels

Online communication continues to provide opportunities to connect, mobilize and disseminate information amongst direct service organizations. While the use of social media among non-profits continues to expand, there is a paucity of research that documents the extent to which online channels – particularly social media – are adopted and used amongst organizations that support sex workers. Online advocacy efforts have grown over the last decade, with sex workers and non-profit organizations at the forefront. This article evaluates the presence and social media strategies amongst organizations providing direct services for sex workers in Canada. Eighty-seven organizations operating in Canada were examined to assess both the types of social media channels used, and the online strategies employed. Results indicate there is a propensity for agencies to engage in multiple social media platforms with spaces for service users to post information in lieu of static sites that predominantly support one-way communication. Recommendations and best practices include integrating postings across platforms for efficiency, developing and maintaining safe spaces online, and focusing on channels that support multilogue communication.             Keywords:  Sex work, social media, knowledge

scholarly journals THE IMPACTS OF FIRM CHARACTERISTICS ON SOCIAL MEDIA USAGE OF SMEs: EVIDENCE FROM THE CZECH REPUBLIC

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 102-113
Author(s):  
Jan Žufan ◽  
Mehmet Civelek ◽  
Iveta Hamarneh ◽  
Ľubomír Kmeco
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Lower Amount ◽  
Firm Characteristics ◽  
Online Questionnaire ◽  
The Czech Republic ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Statistical Program ◽  
Media Channels ◽  
The Cost

Comparing to larger businesses, SMEs face more barriers in their marketing operations since they have a lower amount of financial resources and assets. But the emergence of social media platforms has provided many chances for them to overcome these barriers by enabling them to do marketing and promotion activities. Although these social media channels are easy to access by each of their users, awareness, perceptions, capabilities of SMEs might differ when using these platforms. In this regard, this research aims to analyze and find out whether social media usage differs among SMEs regarding their age and size.  In parallel with this purpose, the researchers used an online questionnaire to collect data from 454 Czech SMEs. These SMEs were selected by applying a random sampling method and then an online questionnaire was directed to the respondents who were owners and managers of these enterprises. To analyze the data, the researchers performed an Independent T-test in SPSS statistical program. According to the results, social media usage does not differ between smaller-larger and younger-older SMEs. The reasons for these similarities among SMEs might stem from the industry that they operate, the cost of social media usage, and the age of younger firms’ executives. Nonexistence of the differences among analyzed Czech SMEs makes this paper differ from other studies. Some policy implementations are also offered by the researchers to increase awareness, skills, and usage of social media platforms by SMEs.

scholarly journals Factors That Influence Instructors’ Integration of Social Media Platforms Into Higher Education Pedagogy in Ghana

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (2) ◽  
pp. 118
Author(s):  
Patricia Ananga
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Social Media ◽  
Sampling Technique ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Ease Of Use ◽  
User Friendliness ◽  
Higher Education Pedagogy ◽  
Social Media Platforms ◽  
Increasing Demand ◽  
Use Of Social Media

Higher Education (HE) institutions have been exploring new approaches that will enable them to manage with the increasing demand of access to education. One key area is in the usage of new models, new innovations, and new ways of delivering the curriculum, connecting students with their instructors such as the use of Social Media (SM) in teaching. This paper examined the factors that influence instructors’ use of SM in Ghanaian HE pedagogy. The study employed the concurrent triangulation mixed method approach using questionnaire and semi-structured interview guide to obtain data from two hundred and thirty-five (235) instructors who were selected using the multistage sampling technique from the University of Education, Winneba (UEW) and the Ghana Technology University College (GTUC). The key findings point to the fact that instructors’ professional rank, intrinsic drive, functionality of SM platforms, user friendliness, motivation, ease of use of the SM platforms, access to internet connection and ease of communication in using the platforms were the factors that influenced instructors use of SM for teaching. The study concludes by indicating the implications of the findings for policy on the use of SM for delivering instruction in Ghana and recommends the need for HE authorities to come up with motivational packages that would encourage instructors to integrate SM into the pedagogy of HE in Ghana.

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