Download Higher Education Research A Collaborative Approach for UOPX

Social Media in Online University
Courses
Presenting Researchers: Michelle Hill, Vinata Kulkarni
Academic Forum Conference Santa Rosa, CA
June22-25, 2014
Researchers: Amy Adolph, Katheleen Andrews, Michelle Hill, Vinata Kulkarni,
Constance Raaz, and Steve Wyre
Authors Note: Special Thanks to the Faculty Research Group for Sponsoring this
research endeavor and to Louise Underdahl for supervising.
Copyright (c) 2014 by Faculty Research Group - All Rights Reserved. This presentation may not be
copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Social Media in Online University
Courses
Quantitative Study of Instructors
Participating in Online College
Courses
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Literature
Review
What is Social Media …..?
Leading Sentence
 A group of Internet-based applications that build on the
ideological and technological foundations
 Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Wiki, and YouTube
platforms for social engagement and direct
communications
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Why?
 social media tools change the way
people communicate with one another
 The question becomes whether tools
influence academic achievement as well
as personal communication processes.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Purpose of the Study
 To evaluate the effectiveness of
online social media used as a
supplemental teaching aid by the
faculty and the social media, which
is integrated into the classroom
instructional design
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Importance for the Field of Higher
Education
Student engagement and
retention to online
universities.
Whether incorporation of
social media tools
initiated, are effective to
the academic instructional
strategy for teaching
online courses.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Research Questions
 R1. How do social media tools, used as
instruction techniques in online classes,
affect student engagement and success in
online class?
 Ho1. Teachers who use social media
instructional tools will have a higher rate of
student engagement than teachers who do
not use social media tools.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Research Questions
 Ha1. Teachers who use social media
instructional tools will have the same rate of
student engagement as teachers who do not
use social media tools.
 Potential further research questions and
hypotheses (see Appendix B).
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Supplementary Research Questions
R1. What difference rate is there for online facilitators
who use social media within their classes as
supplemental learning tools compared to those who do
not?
R2. What factors are associated with online facilitators
choosing to use social media within their classes as
supplemental learning tools?
R3. How beneficial is the use of social media as
instructional tools in promoting online student
learning?
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Supplementary Research Questions
R4. What difference rates for retention are found in
classes where social media are used and classes
where social media is not used?
R5. What difference in percentage rates for students
and facilitators are there for those who desire the use
of social media and those who do not?
R6. For online instructors who use social media, which
ones are utilized?
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Supplementary Research Questions
R7. What difference in rates for retention are found in
classes with teaching population’s age and years of
experience and where social media was used and
classes where social media was not used.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Additional Research Questions
Additional research can be conducted to investigate the
use of social media tools with students at other
institutions, both online and ground-based
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Methodology
 Quantitative Online survey study
 To provide an initial evaluation on the
potential effectiveness of using social media
as part of the classroom instructional design
 Some studies have begun to examine the
efficacy of social media, but there remains a
lack of specific information specifically
applicable to the online student population of
online classes at universities.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Methodology
 The purpose of the current research study is
to evaluate the effectiveness of online social
media used as a supplemental teaching aid
by the faculty and the social media which is
standardized into the classroom instructional
design.
 Use of an online survey method to collect the
quantitative data.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Methodology
 Convenience sample of facilitators who
volunteer to participate with at least 30
instructors who use social media as
instructional tools and 30 instructors who do
not use social media as instructional tools.
 Faculty who indicated their willingness to
participate from the convenience sample, will
be asked to post a student survey in their
respective course rooms.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Methodology
 An adequate response rate (of 5%) is
expected to produce a convenience sample
 Subject matter experts (SMEs) in
instructional technology will participate in a
structured process to validate the surveys
called a Delphi Technique, initially developed
by the RAND Corporation in the 1950s for
the US Air Force to enable faster consensus
by experts (Adler & Ziglio, 1996).
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Methodology
 An online survey company, such as Survey
Monkey, will be used to host the surveys. To
maintain compliance with IRB regulations, no
information will be gathered or provided by
the survey company that will identify
participants in any way.
 Survey participants will be required to agree
to informed consent, which outlines in
accordance with the IRB.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Data Analysis
 The use of a Likert-type scale and
categorical questions in the surveys,
parametric statistics cannot be used to
analyze the data.
 A chi-square test is appropriate to analyze
the nominal variables and a Mann-Whitney
test will be used to analyze ordinal variable
data. SPSS version 20 will be used to
conduct the statistical tests.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Appendix
To add some required info
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Methodology
Type of Study
 Data Collection
o Survey
 Key Information
o Success Factors
 Analysis
o Bullet
 Dates
o Bullet
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
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Conclusion
 The quantitative analysis will provide the basis for insight that may
help to determine the effectiveness of social media as a teaching
tool and the potential impact on virtual college classrooms.
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
Questions?
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copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.
References
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Contact Information
Vinata Kulkarni, Ph.D [email protected]
Michelle Hill, Ed.D [email protected]
Copyright (c) 2014 by Faculty Research Group - All Rights Reserved. This presentation may not be
copied or distributed in whole or in part without the written consent of the Faculty Research Group
Executive Office.