Evaluating the Use of Social Media to Increase
Engagement in Public Health Units
Dr Basia Diug 1 & Assoc/Prof Dragan Ilic1
1
Medical Education Research Quality Unit, School of Public Health and
Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia
WTH?…
Is Social Media
& Why Me!
Definition:
 Create and share content or to participate in social
networking
 E.g. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter
Who is Accessing the Internet
minor trend:
 as age 
100
% of Users
80
60
40
20
0
14-19
20-29
30-39
40-49
Age Bracket
50-64
65+
Source: Yellow Social Media 2013
How often is social media used?
Do not use
social media
More than five times a day
A few times a week
Never
Everyday
Once a Week
Most days
Less than weekly
Source: Yellow Social Media 2013 H/T: Hugh Stephens
100
80
60
40
20
0
Which platforms are most used
WHY ‘TWEET’ IN PUBLIC
HEALTH
 Public health teaching is challenging as it focuses on prevention rather
than intervention.
• Twitter has a constant feed to the most current research, news and
opinions of experts as well as organisations.
• # let’s you search by theme
• Our recommendations included:
•
•
•
•
•
•
@RobinBellAus (guest lecturer),
@BasiaDiug (unit coordinator),
@theMJA,
@WHO
@Monash_SPHPM
@MERQMU
AIM: To evaluate whether the use of Twitter
as an assessment is a successful tool in
increasing student engagement with staff,
peers and public health concepts
METHODS
Incorporate interactivity Twitter activity worth (2%)
into a core public health unit. Tasks included:
1) Play ‘dumb ways to die’ health promotion game
and tweet your character’s demise
2) Students identify a public health issue in their
daily lives by posting a photo, image or link to a
journal article of interest
3) Getting students involved in the wider public
health conversation by following recommended
Twitter accounts and using #sphpm
Activity 1: Public Health
Everyday
With the person next to you discuss examples of public health that you see
every day. Describe on for each scenario:
1. When you are commuting to this conference
2. At your hotel
3. Within the media
Questions to discuss:
 How difficult was to come up with public health examples?
 What are the different public health initiatives that effect our everyday lives?
 What role does the media play in public health? Give both a positive and
negative example
13
RESULTS
Student cohort:
 Bachelor of Biomedical Science
 Total of 297 students of which 236 completed all
Twitter-related learning activities (79.4%)
 90% of students had previously used some form
of social media
 All questions posed were either yes/no or used
the Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly
agree).
Table 1. Use of Twitter in Higher Education
Variable
Prior use of social media
N (%)
Yes
260 (87.5)
No
3 (1.0)
34 (11.5)
No response
Previous use of social media *
Facebook
259 (87.2)
13 (4.4)
80 (26.9)
Google +
Instagram
Tumbler
26 (8.8)
39 (13.1)
Twitter
Preferred mode of accessing and using social media
Computer
73 (24.5)
Mobile device
146 (49.2)
Both computer and mobile device
33 (11.1)
None/no response
45 (15.2)
Should social media be used in learning activities?
Yes
No
No response
222 (74.8)
47 (15.8)
28 (9.4)
* Note – Students may have listed more than one form of social media previously used
 Twitter & Grades: Students who completed the Twitter
learning activity had significantly higher end-of-semester
grades compared to those who did not complete the Twitter
learning activity [MD=3.98, 95%CI 0.40-7.55]
 Social Media & Grades: No significant difference
observed in regards to use of social media and end-ofsemester grades [MD=4.28, 95%CI -0.16- 8.59].
 Appropriateness: No significant difference also observed
when comparing whether students believed that using
twitter was appropriate for classroom learning and their
end-of-semester and grades [MD=0.37, 95%CI -3.47- 4.21]
Student Attitudes
Overall were positive
towards the use of
social media in the
learning environment.
Students believed that
the learning tasks using
Twitter (Figure 1):
1)
Enabled greater
accessibility to
staff;
2)
Unique method of
promoting public
health; &
3)
Facilitated
collaboration with
peers.
Student Attitudes between those who completed
and did not complete the activity
Figure 2: Comparison of student attitudes
There was a significant
difference with respect
to:
1. Promoting public
health
[MD=0.547, 95%CI
0.21- 0.94];
2. Facilitating
collaboration with
peers [MD=-1.78,
95%CI -1.66 -1.89].
3. No difference was
observed regarding
accessibility to staff
[MD=0.25, 95%CI 0.11-0.61].
Student Attitudes between
previous use of twitter
Figure 3: Comparison of student attitudes who used twitter
previously
Students who were previous
twitter uses had:

Greater belief that the
tasks would provide
greater accessibility to staff
when compared to nonusers, [MD=-0.36, 95%CI 0.65- 0.07].
However, no difference was
observed in attitudes between
previous twitter users and nonusers with respect to:

Promoting public health,
[MD=-0.16, 95%CI -0.460.12],

Facilitating collaboration
with peers, [MD=0.25,
95%CI -0.60- 0.08].
https://twitter.com/search?q=%
23sphpm&src=typd
Lessons Learnt
 Social media can be difficult to use without instruction.
 E.g. Only 27% of Twitter’s users under 18-29 - don't
assume knowledge.
 Scaffold and model – guide students.
 Be involved
FUTURE DIRECTIONS
 To incorporate this activity into more units with a focus to
increased interaction and recent journal articles and media
articles.
 Develop skills and idea e-professionalism
 Follow us on Twitter: @basiadiug @draganilic99
@Monash_SPHPM @MERQMU #sphpm