Transcript HEA: Title - Enhancement Themes

Welcome
Abertay
University
Social Learning Space
Supporting students articulating from FE to
HE by utilising social media technology
By Dawn Carmichael
Introduction
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Social Learning Space (SLS)
Tayside and Fife Articulation Hub funded
Innovative browser based web apps
Informed by Social Networking design patterns
School of Engineering, Computing & Applied
Mathematics students
Rationale
• Students from Further Education to Higher
Education challenges:
– Social contacts (networks)
– Background information (culture)
– Mismatched subject knowledge & skills (subject)
• SLS Project seeks to address all three
Nature of project
• Five web applications including ‘FB Group App’
• The project:
– Doesn’t seek to promote (or measure) academic
achievement
– Does seek to promote social connections and social
learning
• FB app evaluated by:
– Questionnaires, Interviews
– Computer logged data
Project Resources
https://www.facebook.com/SLSAbertay
Project Resources – the app
Social Networks
• Isolation a reason for non-progression
• Social Networks – social presence &
communication
• Social Networking software:
– Sharing opinions and promoting reflection
– Promote sense of academic community
• Facebook – 85%-99% student use
• Increasing academic interest
Facebook pros & cons
• Pros
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Promote digital literacy
Social presence
Promote reflection
Promote social capital
• Cons
– Student privacy concerns
– Time wasting
Academic Facebook
• Student preference for communication over
email and VLEs
• High levels of Facebook checking > low
engagement
• Commenting on content > high engagement
• Facebook groups – questioning, collaboration
and feedback
Results – interviews with
articulating students
• Facebook checked for communication more
often that email
• Facebook not preferred overall to VLEs
• Privacy demarcation between ‘groups’ and
profiles
• Facebook group app –
– Helped with integration
– Preferred to other SLS apps
Results ‘FB Group App’ – Survey
of articulating students
Tutor Participation
Academic community
Results ‘FB Group App’ – Survey
of articulating students
• Correlation between engagement and
participation in using the app
• No evidence of a causal relationship
• Social capital & the app – an average of 36
more friends
Social Network Analysis &
the App
• Before and after using the app
– Degree significant increase
– Betweeness significant increase
– Eigenvector value no significant increase
• Increases may have occurred anyway
• Future study into dynamic measures of social
capital
Results – Social Network Analysis
Tutor high betweeness > connectedness
Provides connectivity for the graph
Conclusions
• The Facebook group app with ‘social tools’
promoted
– Academic community
– Social capital
• Tutor participation is important
• Preserve student privacy by demarcation
• Using social networks means meeting students
where they are
Q&A
• Further information
[email protected]