Putting twitter to the test: Assessing outcomes for student collaboration, engagement and success

Herein, we present data from two studies of Twitter usage in different postsecondary courses with the goal of analyzing the relationships surrounding student engagement and collaboration as they intersect learning outcomes. Study 1 was conducted with 125 students taking a first-year seminar course, half of who were required to use Twitter while the other half used Ning. Study 2 was conducted with 135 students taking a large lecture general education course where Twitter participation was voluntary. Faculty in Study 1 engaged with students on Twitter in activities based on an a priori theoretical model, while faculty in Study 2 only engaged students sporadically on the platform. Qualitative analyses of tweets and quantitative outcomes show that faculty participation on the platform, integration of Twitter into the course based on a theoretically driven pedagogical model and requiring students to use Twitter are essential components of improved outcomes. Introduction Twitter, a microblogging and social networking platform that allows users to post 140-character updates, has revolutionized the social media landscape. In the 5 years since its introduction, Twitter has garnered over 200 million users who send an estimated 155 million messages (“tweets”) per day (Twopblog, 2011). While Facebook has been the most popular social networking site for college students, educators have been more willing to use Twitter as part of their college courses possibly because Twitter is primarily a microblogging platform and therefore more amenable to ongoing public dialogue (Antenos-Conforti, 2009; Ebner, Lienhardt, Rohs & Meyer, 2010; Grosseck & Holotescu, 2009; Junco, Heiberger & Loken, 2011; Schroeder, Minocha & Schneider, 2010; Smith & Caruso, 2010). Indeed, a study of nearly 1400 faculty members found that 56% of faculty who were Twitter users used Twitter as a learning tool in the classroom (Faculty Focus, 2010). Another study of 1920 university faculty members found that even though more faculty were Facebook users, an equal percentage used Facebook and Twitter in their courses (Moran, Seaman & Tinti-Kane, 2011). Twitter as an educational intervention Little research exists examining the efficacy of Twitter as a classroom learning tool. Mirvis, Sales and Hackett (2006) found that the efficacy of new educational interventions, especially those British Journal of Educational Technology (2012) doi:10.1111/j.1467-8535.2012.01284.x © 2012 The Authors. British Journal of Educational Technology © 2012 BERA. Published by Blackwell Publishing, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA. involving technologies, are contingent upon a variety of factors including context, choice of technology, methods for implementation and how the particular platforms intersect with students’ technology acumen/familiarity. Additionally, Johnson (2011) examined the effect that different types of Twitter posts had on instructor credibility, while Junco et al (2011) examined the effect of educational uses of Twitter on student engagement and grades.