The Impact of a Course-connected
Twitter Backchannel on Post-secondary
Student Engagement
Heather M. Ross
Ryan Banow
Stan Yu
Gwenna Moss Centre for Teaching Effectiveness
University of Saskatchewan
Overview
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Why?
Course Details
Training Provided
Methods of Evaluation
Challenges Thus Far
Why?
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Determine impact of a Twitter backchannel on
student engagement and academic performance.
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How connected do students feel?
Does the use of Twitter in the class help students
academically and/or to feel more connected?
Do students see a use for Twitter in class?
Course Details
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Geography
○ First year course
○ Approximately 170 students
○ Instructor with no prior Twitter experience
○ PAL peer mentor as facilitator
Nursing
○ Second year course – first year in program
○ Approximately 130 students
○ Instructor experienced using Twitter in class
○ Instructor facilitated
Psychology
○ First year course
○ Approximately 350 students
○ Instructor with no prior Twitter experience
○ TA and instructor sharing role as facilitator
Training Provided
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Introductory Twitter workshop provided for instructors
and facilitators from Geography and Psychology.
Ongoing support provided if needed throughout term.
Accounts and hashtags set up for Geography and
Psychology.
Links to basic resources provided to all students.
Methods of Evaluation
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Start-of-term and end-of term surveys of students (print
and digital):
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Perceptions of student connectedness to their peers/to the class.
Perceived level of comfort with participating in class
discussions/activities.
Perceived level of support for informal learning.
How often were they on Twitter.
How helpful was Twitter to their learning experience.
Monitoring and archiving Twitter course accounts and
course hashtags.
Results: Tweet Tracking
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Number of students that tweeted:
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Geography: 39
Nursing: 22
Psychology: 52
Amount of tweets per student tweeter:
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Geography: 10.5
Nursing: 2.1
Psychology: 1.7
Results: Tweet Tracking
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Ratio of tweets by students vs. tweets by account:
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Geography: 1.4:1 (Student tweets: facilitator tweets)
Nursing: 0.32:1
Psychology: 0.8:1
Number of tweets from the course account:
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Geography: 298
Nursing: 149
Psychology: 126
Results: Tweet Tracking
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Trends:
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Nursing and Geography
■ the first two months were stable and then there was a dip
in the last two months.
Psychology
■ the third month was the most active for students.
No noticeable spike around midterms.
Noteworthy Twitter activity:
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Student missing textbook pages was able to get scans from
classmate by asking on Twitter.
Student started a Twitter account and hashtag for another
class.
Plenty of questions troubleshooting issues with other course
technology.
Term 1 Results: Did students
participate?
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Overall, 46% of students responded that they
participated in the Twitter portion of the course and
54% did not.
Rarely
Occasionally
Frequently
Very Frequently
How frequently did you check the
course's Twitter feed throughout
the term?
22.5%
45.1%
28.4%
3.9%
How frequently did you interact
with the course's Twitter account
throughout the term?
61.8%
28.4%
8.8%
1.0%
How frequently did you interact
with your classmates' Twitter
accounts throughout the term?
69.6%
22.5%
5.9%
2.0%
Term 1 Results: Of the students who
participated, did they feel that Twitter
helped to enhance their learning?
Term 1 Results: Did students recommend
using Twitter in postsecondary classes?
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All Respondents
Overall: Would you recommend using
Twitter as a backchannel for postsecondary
classes?
No
13.6%
Undecided
47.6%
Yes
38.8%
Term 1 Results: Did students recommend
using Twitter in postsecondary classes?
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Comparing students who participated and did not
participate
Would you recommend using
Twitter as a backchannel for
postsecondary classes?
Participated in
Twitter?
Yes
No
No
3.3%
21.9%
Undecided
27.5%
63.2%
Yes
69.2%
14.9%
Term 1 Results: Did students recommend
using Twitter in postsecondary classes?
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Reasons why students did not participate in the
Twitter portion of the course:
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Did not have an existing Twitter account and did not have
an interest in using it.
Found social media as a distraction and burden.
Didn't feel that participating in the backchannel was
necessary for their learning.
Term 1 Results: Impact on Student
Engagement
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Students that reported a higher level of participation on
the Twitter backchannel were significantly more likely to:
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Feel that they were encouraged to find and share educational
resources that they find interesting.
Feel that their class encourages students to learn collaboratively
with their peers.
Participation in Twitter did not have an effect on:
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Students’ feelings of connectedness in the class.
Their level of comfort to engage in class discussions/activities.
Their perceived level of informal support from peers.
Challenges Thus Far
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Learning curve for facilitators, instructors and students
(what to tweet, when to tweet, etc.).
Student buy-in (many students are following, but most
not tweeting).
Types and nature of tweets sent by facilitator.
The best time to send tweets (during class, in evenings,
etc.).
Integrating the backchannel into the heart of the course.
Future Directions
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Received interest from two of the three instructors to
use Twitter in their courses again.
Pilot new ideas and lessons learned in these and
smaller courses.
Share best practices more widely with U of S faculty.