Undergraduate accounting students’ perceptions of using Twitter as a

practical learning support tool: An exploratory case study

Julia Osgerby & Dr David RushUniversity of Winchester, England

What does Twitter look like

What does Twitter look like

Twitter• Twitter was chosen as the social medium

to investigate as it is widely used, free and open social networking site.

• Twitter is more amenable to an on-going, public dialogue rather than Facebook because Twitter is primarily a micro blogging platform (Junco et al., 2010).

• Use of Twitter for academic purposes offers potential benefits to students by way of conciseness, robustness, convenience and non intrusiveness Lowe and Laffey, 2011).

What is the need for this research

Research at the University of Winchester (Osgerby, 2012)

• Identified that during group work there was significant use of social networking sites for inter-student communication and collaboration bypassing the University’s VLE arrangements.

• The students interviewed in the case study appeared to believe that social networking sites better reflected their wider interpersonal relationships.

Literature on Social Networking

Social Networking & Pedagogic Theory:

• Students are digital natives (Buckingham, 2007; Selwyn, 2009).

• List of learning theories supported by social networking- a review: social learning theory, constructivism, learning available on demand, authentic learning, student centred learning, student engagement, digital literacy and media richness and sensory complexity (Buzzetto-More, 2012).

How you can use it: collaborations, project management, assessing opinion, asking questions, class room community, administration, reference research, writing concisely, instant feedback and connecting with a professional community (Dunlap and Lowenthal, 2009; Junco et al., 2010; Conole and Alevizou, 2010; Kassens-Noor, 2012; Zananmwe et al., 2013).

Literature on Social NetworkingEvaluations: On Social Networking, very few on Twitter.• In general positive findings: students achieved higher grades, enhanced

community building, improved engagement and communication (Buzzetto-More, 2012; Lowe and Laffey, 2011; Arguero and Romero-Frias, 2013).

• Positive perceptions, added value to curriculum content (Lowe and Laffey, 2011).

• New form of communication that can support informal learning beyond the class room (Ebner et al., 2009; Kassens-Noor, 2012).

• Draw backs: addictive, encourage poor grammar, call charges/ data consumption, distracting, time consuming, can be rude, privacy, real friendship and miscommunication (Grosseck and Holotescu, 2008; Zaidieh 2012).

Specific areas: • ‘Twitteracy’ (Greenhow and Gleason, 2012).

• Effects of Twitter posts on students; perceptions of instructor creditability (Johnson, 2011).

Most of these authors point out that there is a lack of research in this area .

Functions Educator – Student Student – Student(s) Student – World Communication & Co-ordination

Broadcasting/instant messaging. Timely addressing of student matters. Administrative Messaging Information exchange about course. Mobilisation of others & arranging meetings

Instant messaging. Community highlighting.

Learning & Skill Development

Asking/receiving questions. Providing feedback - learning status. Interventions to individuals & groups. Maximising teachable moments. Concise Writing. Provoking discussion.

Informal learning. Asking peer questions. Concise writing & Literacy practice. Changing ideas, rich discussion of themes & sharing opinions. Social media literacy & careful listening enhancing social skills. Multitasking & maximising use of time. Resource remixing/sharing practices.

Informal learning. Networking & introductions. Gathering information & word tracking. Getting a sense of the world. Autonomous work, developing serendipity & researching the ‘edublogosphere. Improve technical proficiency. Concise writing for an audience. Self-control of expression in social networking.

Monitoring

Trend following. Assessment of students. Monitoring learning climate. Polling, popularity & voting. Monitoring class chatter/murmuring.

Trend following. Comparison own work/progress with other students. Monitoring class chatter/murmuring.

Trend following. Conference tracking, backchannels/undercurrent dialogues. Following professionals, organisations, issues and other educational sources.

Relationship Building and Interpersonal development

Developing teacher presence & credibility. Facilitating Groups/Teams. Question/answer dialogues. Virtual conversations. Maintaining relationships. Developing classroom dynamics.

Inter-student relationships & virtual conversations. Community building maintaining inter-student relationships (life sharing), trust development. Developing students’ personal projection/status (social presence).

Respecting diversity. Making connections with others & networking.

Collaboration [Independent of time and space]

Develop credibility of academic staff & institution. Forming student/tutor communities. Cohort development.

Group/team work & virtual classroom thematic discussions. Co-operation development, brainstorming & collaborative writing.

Collaboration in blogosphere & networking. Personal learning network development.

Sharing Sharing Information ‘nuggets’ information & retweeting. Link promotion.

Student Engagement

Facilitating in-class engagement. Provide encouragement. Contributing to out of class discussions.

Engage with practising communities. Contributing to microblogs.

Feedback Communicating educational/institutional expectations. Communicating results/suggestions. Gathering opinions & backchannel monitoring. Immediate feedback. Generating student reflection.

Assessment Assignment setting/submission & Question/answer dialogues. Researching information

Research Aim

Undergraduate accounting students’ perceptions of using Twitter as a practical learning support tool

What – Research Aim and Research Question.

General perceptions of Twitter

Perceptions of using

Twitter in an academic

environment

Perceptions of using Twitter in specific learning

situations

How - Research Method

• Methodologies from extant literature: questionnaire based case studies (Zanamwe et al., 2013), questionnaires supported with interviews (Lowe and Laffey, 2011), content analysis ( Ebner et al., 2009) and experimental studies (Junco et al., 2010).

• 45 First Year Accounting Students – Module (AN1903) Management Accounting and Information Technology over 2 semesters in the Academic Year 2012-13.

• Student perceptions explored. Obtained as part of the evaluation (questionnaire/focus group).

• Personal evaluation and reflection.

Research Method

Questionnaire: • 32 questions examined by Likert scale.

1 box for students to add qualitative comments.

Personal data, general assessment, proficiency and perception of the use of Twitter on collaboration, assessment and learning (Lowe and Laffey, 2011; Arquero and Romero-Frias ,2013).

• 37 out of 45 (82%) students answered the questionnaire .

Focus Groups:• 2 focus groups • 15 (33%) students participated in total

How Twitter was Used

Communication

Co-ordinati

on

Skill

Development

Monito

ring

Collabora

tion

Sharin

g

Enga

gemen

t

Reflecti

on

Use of IT for LearningUse of Twitter: Setting up Twitter accounts, first posts and following accounting ‘tweeters’& other students (trend following)

● ● ●

Twitter & Concise Writing/Posting

Writing concise listsPosting concide TweetsCommenting on TweetsUsing Tweets in discussions

● ● ● ●

Polling (Popularity Voting)Debating and selecting choicesPopularity Polling. ● ● ● ●

Posting online academic links Posting useful links to other student(s). ● ●Polling (Opinion Voting) Polling class members about preferences. ● ●

Trend FollowingPresentation of technical anwers in the Twitter and starting a microblog for other students to see and comment on.

● ● ● ● ● ● ●Assessment Submission

Formal Twitter based assessment experiment. ●

Some Emerging Issues

Students’ perceptions of:– Twitter use in general– Twitter in an academic environment– Specific use of Twitter

Issues: Twitter in General use.

For the student population used:•Twitter not used generally used (only 32% did).•Twitter not used socially (70%).•75% students do not use it to comment on the accounting course.•80%+ thought Twitter was at least sometimes just a novelty. •General preference for Facebook.

Issues: Twitter in General use.

‘Twitter is like Marmite you either like it or you don’t’

Some Issues

Fast communication

Uncertainty how to use Twitter

Motivation to use Twitter

Use of Facebook

Privacy

Issues: Twitter in the academic environment.

For the student population used:•Very mixed views.•Learning Network preferred (70%)•Enhanced learning (60%+ no opinion to – No)•Used to communicate thoughts about module (80%+ said No!)•Happy with confidentiality (as used) (85%)

Issues: Twitter in the academic environment.

‘I like the use of Twitter in the classroom because I believe Technology plays a big part in our lives in this modern day and the use of social sites are increasing’

Some Issues

Social vs academic use

Relationship with the Leaning Network

Employability and professional community

Issues: Twitter specific uses.

For the student population used:•Most students seem content to use it (60%).•Competency – mixed views but do not want more tuition.•Do not mind other students seeing their work (50%+).•87% would not use Twitter to swap ideas in group work given a choice.•30% do not always trust the work of others using Twitter.

Issues: Twitter specific uses.

‘If the majority of people say the same thing I assume the information is accurate’

Some Issues

Collaboration

Value of Tweets & Trust

Warping & Novelty

What Next?