The Role of Social Media in Higher Education

Introduction:

In the modern world, social media plays crucial roles in assisting higher education students to use online technologies into the learning environment. This report is going to present how higher education students use social media in their study. Additionally, the report will discuss comprehensively that which social media platforms are generally used by the higher education student in the modern academic world to get the benefits in there study. Here the report will present a suitable literature review in which the data of the selected literature will be compared and analysed in relation to discussing the topic. Then the report will present an evaluation of the selected literature to analyse the usefulness of the literature in analysing the topic. Finally, the report will present a self-reflection in which it will present the self-learning and self-realisations that are gained through the report.

Background:

Evidence suggests that social media becomes an important part of the modern academic world. Through using different social media tools, various sites and online platform, teachers from different corner of the world can connect to the higher education student and provide them with the proper academic guidance. Teachers and student incorporate different social media tools into the academic learning process in terms of making the entire lesion more interesting and engaging. Although social media provides manifold benefits to the higher education student, there are also huge misuses of social media platforms by higher education student that interfere with their learning and development process. Research shows that students spend maximum times chatting with their friend in the academic groups, in which the topic of discussion is far from the actual learning topic. Evidence also shows that use of social media for education makes higher education student addicted to the online tools which destroy their habits of reading and writing books, journals and academic magazine. This report is going to provide insight on these drawbacks of the use of social media platform by the higher education students which can enhance the awareness and concern in the academic world to improve the way student will use the social media.

Description of literature:

Chugh and Ruhi (2018) have presented the secondary data in their research article, in which they mentioned that rapid adoption of the social media in the academic field has made a positive shift in the way of communication and interaction between the student and teachers. In this secondary research paper, authors have presented valid data in terms of showing how social media technologies are used as the potential academic tool in modern higher education. Additionally, the secondary research paper highlights the roles of Facebook in higher education. This research paper has presented that social media benefits education in several ways such as improves the performance, interaction between students and teachers and improves engagement of higher education students into the study.

In this context, Dumpit and Fernandez (2017) conducted primary research by selected 500 students from the public and private higher education institutions (HEI) in the Philippines in terms of analysing the use of social media by the HE students. The research paper presented that, the use of social media is different in the private and the public HEIS, as in the private HEI the overall use of social media is somehow insignificant as compared to public HEI. Dumpit and Fernandez (2017) presented that, students in private HEI are more likely to use social media for their entertainment purpose rather than making the significant use of social media into studies.

In this context, Peruta and Shields, (2017) also present primary research on how the universities and colleges use Facebook to engage the students in the study. Here the researchers have analysed the 66 Facebook posts of different university and college students. The research paper presents the fact that higher education students are more engaged in the social world through Facebook in entertainment and enjoyment purpose rather than academic purpose. The primary data shows that most of Facebook is about the fashion trends, social circumstances and personal enjoyment and there are hardly any posts regarding the academic context. In this context, Ali et al. (2017) also have presented a secondary research article in which it is recommended that, in the modern era, teachers and educators must focus on strengthening the usage of social media into education by engaging the student more into the academic use of social media platform. Chawinga (2017) has mentioned in the secondary research articles that, how social media can effectively facilitate learning and teaching. Here the secondary data presented in the article shows that how the fear of people about social media that the online education acts as the distractor of students can be proved wrong through making positive use of different social media platforms into the academic field.

Methodology of literature selection:

Methods in searching literature (PRISMA tool)

Here PRISMA tool has been used to identify the appropriate literature. PRISMA tool is a widely used literature searching tool, that assists the researcher to select the relevant literature from the large number of literatures that are initially selected. Through using this process, here the literature is selected in multiple steps by excluding the irrelevant literature in each step. Here inclusion and exclusion criteria are used to select the relevant literature through PRISMA tool. Key terms of the research topic have been used to search for the appropriate literature.

The search has generated a total of 50 articles. Then the articles are shortlisted by using the inclusion and exclusion criteria and after removing the duplicate 45 articles are selected. Then again, the irritant articles with the irrelevant titles, lack of information and inappropriate abstract are excluded from the list and now 35 articles are selected. Then based on the irrelevant description and poor information, full-text articles are excluded and 20 articles are selected. Then again, the screening is done which eliminate 5 articles based on the missing key terms, inappropriate research methods and lack of research design. Finally, 15 articles are selected which meet all the inclusion criteria and are highly relevant to the research topic.

Key terms:

Following key terms are used:

Inclusion and exclusion criteria:

Inclusion criteria:

The research paper must be selected based on its relevance to the study topic

The research articles must not be older than five years

The literature that is going to be selected must be fully accessed through the internet

The articles that are going to be selected must have the authentic, valid and highly appropriate data

Exclusion criteria:

Articles that contain the values and baseless information will be excluded from the list

The article that is older than five years will not be selected for the study

The articles that do not contain the high-value data or appropriate information that is relevant to the topic will be rejected

The research paper that can not be accessed a will be eliminated from the list

Literature summary:

Several researches have been done on the use of social media in higher education, which present both the manifold benefits and the adverse impact of social media. As mentioned by Sutherland et al. (2018), in the modern academic world, social media platforms are widely used by the university students to improve their study process, ways of dealing with each subject and their interaction with teachers as well as peers. The authors also present the comparative analysis between the online learning environment to the offline engagement process for the university students. Here Sutherland et al. (2018) mentioned that although some people still think that offline engagement of university student assists students to gather more in-depth knowledge, in the modern academic world, through using the social media platform in a positive way such as Facebook, google+ and Twitter, university students are enabled to connect to the rest of the world which enhance their objectives and subjective knowledge. On the contrary Ali et al. (2017) argued that, although there are manifold benefits of social media in the academic field, modern university and college students are more addicted to using social media platform in the purpose of their entertainment rather than incorporating t social media into their learning. Therefore, the teachers and educator need to inspire the university to make maximum use of social media in their learning. Evidence shows that social media strengthen the learning and development process in which student is exposed to the wide landscape of the academic world, in which they can communicate with teachers, educators, academic trainer and students in a different corner of the world. As mentioned by Peruta and Shields (2017) in the modern academic world, universities and colleges use social media on every aspect of the study, which enables teachers to improve the overall student engagement into their study. On supporting this viewpoint many educators have mentioned that, through adopting social media in the learning process, university teachers can improve their teaching styles by making effective modification of the existing style, that enables the student to better understand the topic.

On the contrary, Dumpit and Fernandez (2017) argued that, although social media modernise the education system, it also brings about many adverse impacts on high education students. The authors stated that the analysis of the use of social media by HEI (higher education institution], shows that as compared to the offline engagement of students, through the incorporation of social media platforms into the education, there is lack of trustworthy and strong relationship between the students and teachers that is the basis of a strong education system. In this context, Al-Qaysi et al. (2020) mentioned that use of social media such as Facebook, and Twitter into the education reduces the opportunity of face-to-face interaction between the teachers and students which can sometimes create the knowledge gaps in students. Evidence suggests, while using the social media platform in higher studies, university and college students get addicted to the online chats and the virtual entertainment world that not only distract them from their study but also destroy their positive thoughts and creativity.

Therefore, from the literature summary t can be stated that there are two sides of social media one is full of benefits and opportunities and the other consist of negativities. It is the responsibility of the teachers and educators to inspire higher education students to make positive use of social media platform into their learning process which will assist them to get the academic benefits.

Evaluation of literature:

The selected literature is highly useful in terms of presenting the research topic in a comprehensive way. Here the literature provides the realistic as well as relevant data about the study topic thereby presenting a clear discussion about it. Through comparing the data of different resources that are selected in this report, it is possible to analyse the benefits and the limitation associated with using social media into education by the higher education students. Most of the literature that is selected is peer-reviewed which have successfully highlighted the social media platforms that are widely used by university students in the modern era in the academic purpose. All the references have high credibility, authenticity and validity which has assisted this report to meet all the study objectives. In addition to this, the literature provides useful and high-value data that are highly appropriate to the study topic thereby presenting a clear discussion on it.

Reflection:

Working in this report assisted me to develop my knowledge regarding the social media platform and their use by the higher education institutions. While working on this report I have used my critical thinking skill, which not only improves my judgemental approach abut also improves my overall decision-making ability. Here I have also learned how to write an academic report. I have learned about writing the executive summary and systematic process of writing a high-quality report. This report writing assisted me to develop my skill to search for the relevant literature on a particular topic.

Reference list:

Ali, M., Yaacob, R.A.I.B.R., Endut, M.N.A.A.B. and Langove, N.U., 2017. Strengthening the academic usage of social media: An exploratory study. Journal of King Saud University-Computer and Information Sciences, 29(4), pp.553-561.

Al-Qaysi, N., Mohamad-Nordin, N. and Al-Emran, M., 2020. A systematic review of social media acceptance from the perspective of educational and information systems theories and models. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 57(8), pp.2085-2109.

Bolat, E. and O’Sullivan, H., 2017. Radicalising the marketing of higher education: learning from student-generated social media data. Journal of Marketing Management, 33(9-10), pp.742-763.

Brech, F.M., Messer, U., Vander Schee, B.A., Rauschnabel, P.A. and Ivens, B.S., 2017. Engaging fans and the community in social media: Interaction with institutions of higher education on Facebook. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 27(1), pp.112-130.

Chawinga, W.D., 2017. Taking social media to a university classroom: teaching and learning using Twitter and blogs. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1), p.3.

Chugh, R. and Ruhi, U., 2018. Social media in higher education: A literature review of Facebook. Education and Information Technologies, 23(2), pp.605-616.

Clark, M., Fine, M.B. and Scheuer, C.L., 2017. Relationship quality in higher education marketing: the role of social media engagement. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 27(1), pp.40-58.

Cooke, S., 2017. Social teaching: Student perspectives on the inclusion of social media in higher education. Education and Information Technologies, 22(1), pp.255-269.

Dumpit, D.Z. and Fernandez, C.J., 2017. Analysis of the use of social media in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) using the Technology Acceptance Model. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 14(1), p.5.

Hamid, S., Ijab, M.T., Sulaiman, H., Anwar, R.M. and Norman, A.A., 2017. Social media for environmental sustainability awareness in higher education. International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education.

Lau, W.W., 2017. Effects of social media usage and social media multitasking on the academic performance of university students. Computers in human behavior, 68, pp.286-291.

Peruta, A. and Shields, A.B., 2017. Social media in higher education: Understanding how colleges and universities use Facebook. Journal of Marketing for Higher Education, 27(1), pp.131-143.

Prestridge, S., 2019. Categorising teachers’ use of social media for their professional learning: A self-generating professional learning paradigm. Computers & Education, 129, pp.143-158.

Sterling, M., Leung, P., Wright, D. and Bishop, T.F., 2017. The use of social media in graduate medical education: a systematic review. Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges, 92(7), p.1043.

Sutherland, K.E., Davis, C., Terton, U. and Visser, I., 2018. University student social media use and its influence on offline engagement in higher educational communities. Student Success, 9(2), pp.13-24.