What social media can teach lecturers about student engagement

Students tend to experience better outcomes and express greater satisfaction with their learning experiences when they are part of a larger group or community. This raises the question: can institutions use social media principles to keep students engaged?

Below are tips on how to construct your own effective online learning community.

Establish the ground rules, processes and resources

You’ll want to introduce the concept of a learning community to your students, as well as set up the actual structure, as early as possible. You can do this before the semester begins via your university’s learning management system (LMS) for your course page. Then, use part of the first class to help students become familiar with the idea.

Pre-semester content for your learning community can include:

• A visual, auditory, reading, kinesthetic (VARK) learning style assessment

• An eLearning readiness survey (covering preparedness for learning in the online environment, technology readiness, current study habits and motivation)

• Details of university and course policies and procedures, for example, netiquette and electronics use, participation, communication and availability and group work expectations

• Helpful links and tutorial videos on IT support, student services and library use

• Course content and resources glossary

• FAQs, help articles, weekly discussions and a student corner for non-course-related discussions

• Details of your weekly virtual and in-person office hours.

During your first class, you can suggest that students form learning groups for out-of-class study via platforms such as Meetup.com. You can also broach the topic of informal peer tutor arrangements.

If you are particularly social, you might even consider creating a social media page for the class on one or two online platforms, or a WhatsApp group.

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Use social media techniques 

Lecturers can draw parallels from various social media strategies for use in their online learning community.

Student and lecturer introductions: these are particularly useful in virtual and hybrid classes. Encourage students to create videos introducing their academic background, what they hope to gain from the course and one or two fun facts about themselves. These interactions can be open-ended (let students decide what information to disclose about themselves) or structured, for example, where you provide some ideas for them on what to include, along with word limits.

Contract learning: like the terms and conditions on social media platforms, students agree to abide by community rules and define (some of) their own learning objectives. This helps keep students interested and motivated.

Interview the lecturer: like “Ask Me Anything” segments on social media, students can use these to ask the lecturer questions on course content or about their professional journey.

Information scavenger hunt or find-post-vote: direct students to find course-related media online and post it on the LMS. The class can vote for the top 10 and discuss course material applicability to real-life situations. 

Microlearning: lecturers can create their own YouTube channels with bite-sized unlisted videos for students to view. Record the video at 1,080 pixels and 30 frames per second minimum, with auto focus and auto exposure enabled for the best clarity. You can then post the link to the video with the accompanying PDF lecture slides on your LMS course page.

Provide effective feedback to help the community flourish

As the leader of your online learning community, you are heavily responsible for setting the tone and collaborative spirit. 

• Teach students about Bloom’s Taxonomy and metacognitive processes to help them reflect on their learning and succeed in the course.

• Give regular coursework feedback to assist students in evaluating their own progress throughout the semester. I like to use the Window, Star, Wish Method of giving feedback to students (detailing what I noticed about their work, what they did well and what I wish them to improve). 

• Think about alternative feedback formats, such as assignment feedback videos (time permitting) and personalise these by using students’ names. If the class is large, use announcements or a discussion forum post on the LMS to publish specific group or aggregated class feedback. 

With countless factors competing for students’ attention, educators must work harder to keep them engaged. Applying techniques from social media can help students stay focused in class and motivated to learn.

Natalie K. D. Seedan is sports sciences laboratory technician and part-time lecturer at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus.