Student attitudes toward use of social media in the learning process : A comparative study of Croatian and German students

The emergence of social media changed the communication landscape and the way people interact. Additionally, instead of being only a digital content consumer, one can also be a digital content producer. The interactivity of social media also provides potential for enhancing the student experience within the higher education. Various types of social media platforms could be used as instructional and communication tools, since student adoption rate of social media is very high. In recent years, social media use in higher education received some attention among academic researchers. As some studies suggest, social media facilitates dynamic interactivity, accessibility, and a new level of semi-formal relations between students and instructors. Social media will continue to play an important role within the constantly changing learning environment. However, the perceived semi-formal character of social media can limit its use. Especially, from a lecturer perspective. On one hand, students seem more willing than faculty to interact through social media while faculty seem relatively cautious toward interaction with students through different social media platforms. Using data from a convenience sample of undergraduate students in Croatia and Germany, this article focuses on the use social media for student-lecturer interaction. . The main aim of this study is to investigate what motivates students to use social media in a course, together with their perception of student-lecturer interaction through social media. The study also focuses on attitude differences between Croatian and German students.

[1]  Mark Johnston,et al.  Connectivism as a Digital Age Learning Theory , 2013 .

[2]  J. Meek,et al.  Facebook, social integration and informal learning at university: ‘It is more for socialising and talking to friends about work than for actually doing work’ , 2009 .

[3]  Joseph Kehinde Fasae,et al.  Use of social media by science students in public universities in Southwest Nigeria , 2016, Electron. Libr..

[4]  Almir Petek,et al.  IMPLICATIONS OF WEB 2.0 USAGE IN HIGHER EDUCATION , 2012 .

[5]  S. M. Bartow,et al.  Teaching with Social Media: Disrupting Present Day Public Education , 2014 .

[6]  Nada Dabbagh,et al.  Personal Learning Environments, social media, and self-regulated learning: A natural formula for connecting formal and informal learning , 2012, Internet High. Educ..

[7]  R. Krumsvik.  Teacher educators' digital competence , 2014 .

[8]  J. Seaman,et al.  Teaching, Learning, and Sharing: How Today's Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media. , 2011 .

[9]  Cathrine Tømte,et al.  Educating online student teachers to master professional digital competence: The TPACK-framework goes online , 2015, Comput. Educ..

[10]  Cheri J. Simonds,et al.  I'll See You On “Facebook”: The Effects of Computer-Mediated Teacher Self-Disclosure on Student Motivation, Affective Learning, and Classroom Climate , 2007 .

[11]  M. Roblyer,et al.  Findings on Facebook in higher education: A comparison of college faculty and student uses and perceptions of social networking sites , 2010, Internet High. Educ..

[12]  Robert Bodle.  Social Learning with Social Media: Expanding and Extending the Communication Studies Classroom , 2011 .

[13]  An Investigation into Perceptions of Facebook-Use in Higher Education. , 2015 .

[14]  George Siemens.  Connectivism: A Learning Theory for the Digital Age , 2004 .

[15]  Baiyun Chen,et al.  Investigating Instructional Strategies for Using Social Media in Formal and Informal Learning. , 2012 .

[16]  Mark J. W. Lee,et al.  Future Learning Landscapes: Transforming Pedagogy through Social Software , 2008 .

[17]  Deborah R. Barnett,et al.  Partnering Industry and Education for Curricular Enhancement: A Response for Greater Educational Achievement , 2011 .

[18]  A. Kaplan,et al.  Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media , 2010 .

[19]  Susan McGrath-Champ,et al.  Supporting student self-study: The educational design of podcasts in a collaborative learning context , 2012 .

[20]  Rune Krumsvik,et al.  Situated learning and teachers’ digital competence , 2008, Education and Information Technologies.

[21]  Pavica Sheldon,et al.  Understanding students' reasons and gender differences in adding faculty as Facebook friends , 2015, Comput. Hum. Behav..

[22]  E. Kassens-Noor.  Twitter as a teaching practice to enhance active and informal learning in higher education: The case of sustainable tweets , 2012 .

[23]  David H. Jonassen,et al.  Constructivism: Implications for the Design and Delivery of Instruction , 1996 .