boundaries, privacy, and social media use in higher education: what do students think, want, and...
DESCRIPTION
In this study, we examine university students’ beliefs and behaviors related to social media, identity, and boundaries in a higher education context. Findings suggest a complex and at times contradictory relationship between students and social media, in which they enjoy free access to information about and contributed by other people and freely share about themselves in a social or personal context, but are reticent to be active contributors in an academic context. Although students seek information about their instructors online, they do not believe that instructors might reciprocate. In contrast to a common assumption, they do not want to use social media in their coursework and prefer to restrict both their communication with instructors and coursework to private tools and settings.TRANSCRIPT
Boundaries, privacy, and social media use in higher education:
what do students think, want and do?
Vanessa P. Dennen (@vdennen) Kerry J. Burner
Presentation at IR14.0• October 2013 • Denver CO
Main Issues
Social media use in higher education
• Context
• Boundaries
• Control
• Curiosity
Research Questions
• What types of communications and networking technologies do students use for school versus personal purposes?
• What are students’ beliefs about social media use, privacy, and boundaries in a higher education context?
Method
• Online survey with closed and open ended questions
• Participants recruited via study pool at large research university
• 147 participants – 123 female, 24 male
• Analysis: • Frequency distributions
• Coding content of open items
Findings: Access & Use
• 90% own a smartphone
• 31% own a tablet
• They use these devices for: • Email – 86%
• Internet searches – 89%
• Social networking – 89%
• Academic activities - 80%
Findings: Tool Use
Tool Personal Use School Use Text Message 100% 64% Facebook 94% 41% Email 98% 98% Skype 71% 5% Pinterest 63% 2% TwiGer 59% 32% G+ 42% 28% Blogs 33% 36%
Findings: Contacting Faculty
First Choice Percent Overall
Rank Email 50.34% 1 Face to face 42.86% 2 Text message 4.76% 4 Phone 1.36% 3 TwiGer 0.68% 6 Facebook 0.34% 5
Findings: Students & PRofs
• Look up information • Search engines – 67%
• Facebook – 30%
• Follow professors • Blog – 18%
• Twitter – 16%
• Become a contact • Facebook – 37%
• Twitter – 11%
• Look for • Course information – 94%
• Academic credentials – 76%
• Scholarly work – 24%
• Personal information – 14%
• 63% did not believe profs would search for their information • “THAT IS CREEPY”
FINDINGS: Social media & courses
• OK with required course social media use: 10%
• Encourage instructors to use social media: 29%
• Comfortable sharing personal info with class via social media: 20%
• Want to connect with classmates: 43%
• Want to connect with instructor: 10%
FINDINGS: Online Coursework
• Concerned about quality of work posted online: 52%
• Remove online coursework at end of course: 54%
• Instructor should be only audience for assigns: 67%
• Have learned from examples posted by other students online: 62%
Discussion
• Students have some online boundary concerns and issues
• Want to use tools in some contexts, but not others
• Want to observe, but not always be observed
• Refutes suggestion that social media use in education will motivate and excite students
Extensions
• Current study considering Facebook use and expectations • Friends, access, and boundaries
• Impact on non-users