Authors

  1. Byiringiro, Samuel MS, RN
  2. Nelson, Katie MSN, RN
  3. Akumbom, Alvine MS, RN
  4. Davidson, Patricia M. PhD, RN, FAAN
  5. Li, Mengchi BSN, RN
  6. Moser, Chandler H. BSN, RN
  7. Lee, Jennifer BSN, RN
  8. Logan, Sydnee
  9. Ogungbe, Oluwabunmi MPH, RN
  10. Shattell, Mona PhD, RN, FAAN

Article Content

Social media is an innovative tool for increasing students' engagement in classrooms.1 In the current exemplar, one class session of a PhD course, traditionally offered as an in-person seminar, was delivered as a Twitter chat. Students and the course instructor advertised the Twitter Chat prior to the class, enabling interested individuals within the school and beyond to engage in the discussion. The instructor specifically invited colleagues with expertise on critical social theory, the main topic of discussion. The hashtags "#PhilSci" and "#phdchat" were used to identify the Twitter chat. The instructor moderated the discussion flow by posting 4 discussion questions, allowing 5 minutes of discourse between each post. Questions were posted sequentially to enable participants to make original posts and reply to others' responses. Taking the class session to social media was a success because it attracted contributors from outside participants' immediate networks and the university. The initial 4 prompts resulted in 65 comments, 15 retweets, and 39 total impressions. The hashtag "#PhilSci" also trended in the city during the time of the chat. Students expressed positive feedback after the chat, noting the format helped them grasp a challenging topic. Further, they appreciated the opportunity for intellectual discourse with experts beyond classroom boundaries. Our experience has shown that social media can be an effective tool for increasing networks and engaging in scholarly dialogue.

 

Reference

 

1. Kumar V, Nanda P. Social media as a tool in higher education: a pedagogical perspective. In: Tomei LA, Carbonara DD, eds. Handbook of research on diverse teaching strategies for the technology-rich classroom. 2020:239-253. http://doi:10.4018/978-1-7998-0238-9.ch016. [Context Link]