Social Media as Teaching/Learning
tool
Prepared for presentation at
The 10th Annual National Economics Teaching
Conference San Diego, California
November 6th, 2014.
There is a famous Chinese adage
“Tell me and I will forget, show me and I will
remember, involve me and I will
understand”
INTRODUCTION
Challenges of economics instructors,
 striving to perfect the art of our teaching,
 teaching economics is the number one
criteria for assessment of faculty
performance
 teaching economics to non-econ majors.
FRESHMAN STUDENTS MINDSET
economics is an abstract often a boring
subject
 passive teaching leads to the perception that
what students learn is conceivably irrelevant
to real-life cases

ECONOMICS SOLELY FROM TEXTBOOKS
Teaching strict economic concepts, relying
solely on textbooks do not resonate with
students
 Theoretically, these concepts may be rich but
poor when it comes to practical applications
and real life applications.

 There
are some elements of learning that
cannot be acquired by students from
lecturing alone
 They are best grasped through practice,
trial and error, problem solving, case
study, open discussion, and etc.
 Accordingly, instructors must create
alternative opportunities for students to
apply their theoretical knowledge in a
suitable environment.
ECONOMICS A HYBRID APPROACH
While there is no universal method that
works best for all students, some methods
have worked better for me.
 There are a few pedagogical methods that I
believe can make teaching more effective,
rewarding, and a pleasant experience for
students.
 I believe good teaching must be rich in terms
of both “content” the “delivery” method.

TWO ESSENTIAL ELEMENTS OF GOOD
TEACHING: CONTENT AND DELIVERY
SYSTEM.
Content
Strong
Poor
Strong
Excellent
Mediocre
Poor
Lackluster
Awful
Delivery
WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA
A digital native is a person who was born
during or after the general introduction of
digital technologies and through interacting
with digital technology from an early age,
has a greater comfort level using it.
 These students may also be referred to as the
"Net Generation" where their exposure to
technology begins at birth

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA
Effective use of online resources may strengthen
both elements of good teaching: content and
delivery
 It, however, requires a good knowledge of
available tools like social media
 The more we learn, the greater is the possibility
of their utilization in higher education and the
improvement in student learning.
 According to a survey results Facebook is the
fastest growing tools in education

WHY USE SOCIAL MEDIA

Everyone is using it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0Enh
Xn5boM
KEY CHARACTERISTICS OF FACEBOOK
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1 Billion people have a Facebook account, 50% login
on any given day
The average user has 150 friends
2.7 Billion “Likes” every day
43% of users say they have rejected a candidate
because of something negative they have found on
social media
250 Million pictures uploaded every day
Career Builder reports that 80% of potential
employers will do an online search using a
candidate’s name.

Understandably, courses in areas of social
science are more amenable to the use of online
resources than courses in natural science like
mathematics, chemistry, or computer science.

Survey results show an increasing number of
faculty members in social science are already
using social media like Facebook in classroom

Whatever is the real purpose for which
Facebook was created, its application has
been extended into new areas such as,
marketing, recruiting, information delivery,
solicitation, and promoting public discourse,
fomenting public action, and of course
teaching/learning.
Online resources are inexpensive to utilize,
and often free
 Social media has some of the characteristics
of public goods like global “nonexcludability”
 No dress code! Real World: No shirt, no
shoes, no service
 Virtual world; no clothes, come in!

Not all of us have a favorable view when it
comes to the use of social media, even those
who use it acknowledge its limitations and the
possible drawbacks
 Whereas, there is no perfect substitute for in
person communication in classroom, when we
have to teach large classes to busy students, it
will be necessary to use the additional tools to
facilitate not only students involvement but also
to get to know them better.

The use of social media can leverage the
instructor's ability to share relevant materials
that that cannot be effectively and
economically shared
 It should also be emphasized that social
media like Facebook can serve just as
another tool of teaching to supplement the
traditional class experience.

WHY SOCIAL MEDIA?
There are many pivotal economic issues, with
profound implications on the US economy, such
as poverty, economic inequality, healthcare
costs, infiltration of market forces into unlikely
sphere of our life, and the fair and sensible
operation of capitalism that must be brought
into students’ attention.
 It is imperative to economics professors to
bringing such issues into their classroom and
engage their students in debate an open and
interactive forum.

THE RATIONALE FOR USING SOCIAL MEDIA, ADVANTAGES
Some students are too shy to express
themselves in classroom and in person, often,
they will be unfairly punished for not being
able to express themselves
 There are also many students, who are
knowledgeable on the subject matter of
economics courses, however, traditional
evaluation methods like test taking alone do not
measure their knowledge and their analytical
ability adequately.

Nowadays, students get most of their
information from social media, than from
any other sources, to write a paper or
conduct a research.
 Raising students’ awareness of
contemporary issues by allowing them to
participate in a debate on an open
democratic equal opportunity platform.

Facebook is a multifaceted platrorm that
allows students to not only share
information, but also photos, videos, and
links.
 Facebook allows students to get to know
each other better through their profile thus
creating a more friendly atmosphere for
sending messages and exchanging other
information.
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Facebook also teaches students who to express
themselves responsibly in a cordial manner, tolerate, and
respect one another.
Unlike traditional media that are like a one-way
relationship, social media are like a two-way street.
They are unique in terms of their live global connectivity,
traditional tools do not have such capabilities.
Using Facebok is practically inexpensive compared to
traditional methods.
Comments are always there in virtual world, you do not
lose them as we do the paper comments are often lost and
you can easily lose track of them.
Facebook allows others (non students) to
participate in underlying debate. Although
some instructors are critical of this idea, I
consider it as an advantage.
 These people that might be experts in a field,
like medical doctors and lawyers, can provide
professional opinions that benefits students.
 larger classes might create obstacles to effective
interaction, the use of Facebook helps to
alleviate this problem.

Responding to incentives, the extra points
serve as a reward to students that stimulates
their active participation
 even though this project was not mandatory.
It was especially a good opportunity for
those busy students who missed some
classes, a quiz and/or a homework, and
sincerely wished to improve their overall
grade.
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POSSIBLE DRAWBACKS
Some may argue that social media like
Facebook may not be suitable for college
courses since it does not have the necessary
rigor.
 Getting too close to your student, by often
becoming their friends on Facebook is a matter
of concern for some but not necessarily so
especially as they become former students
 Some believe that schools should have a policy
concerning the previous point.
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The most important concern is about
“privacy” and “integrity” online
 Some students may not use social media, do
not a Facebook account. You may force them
to do something they may nor want to do.
 Possibility of hacking
 May create extra work for instructor, sifting
through comments, reading, and grading
them, and may take too much of your time.
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THE KEY RESULTS OF PEARSON SURVEY

According to Pearson Survey, Over 72% of
respondents report that “lack of integrity of
student submissions” is an “important” or
“very important” barrier, and 63%say
“privacy concerns” are an “important” or
“very important” barrier

Privacy concerns:
 Risk
to the personal privacy of faculty
 Risk to the personal privacy of students
 Others outside of class should not be able to
view: class-related contents, class discussions,
participate in class discussions
Ethical and legal problem, Facebook may
claim intellectual property right over the
materials posted on its website
 Schools may want to control what instructors
can post onlie
 Poorly written comments may imperil
students’ creditability and negativity
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IMPLEMENTATION
Different approaches for implementing social
media;
 I used it as a tool so that students can obtain
information, post comments, and provide
additional information related to the
underlying topic.
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Student can use social media only as
consumers with no interaction, commenting,
or creating of new media required.
Likewise faculty may use social media as part of
individual assignments, where each student is
expected to act on their own.
 Alternatively, students may practice group
assignments, where multiple students are
expected to work together
 Faculty who teach online courses have greater
levels of engagement for both personal and
professional virtual communities.
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THE PROCESS
The use of social media like Facebook for me
originated from the fact that I used to post
business/economic news stories and articles
on my personal page to share information
publically and I still do that.
 Many of my students studied these articles
and often posted comments. Some of them
inquired if they can post comments for extra
points.
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I explain the process in my syllabus and discuss it in
more detail usually at the first class meeting each
semester
Students are being briefed on the rules, the benefits,
and the online etiquette, the extra-point system, the
dedlines, and etc.
I review the comments carefully and points are
assigned, based on the merit and the relevancy of
comments not its length.
The process will be modified each semester based on
the inputs collected from students at the end of
semester.
HIGHLIGHTS OF PEARSON SURVEY

Wide agreement among faculty is whether the
introduction of digital communication into their
professional lives has increased their levels of
communication, 79% of respondents.
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Nearly two-thirds of faculty surveyed report
that digital communication has increased the
number of hours that they worked.
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Faculty personal use of social media sites is
rather high; 84% use social media sites monthly
or occasionally.
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A comparison of 2013 with 2012 surveys shows a
growth in all three types of use of social media.
Professional use had the largest year-to-year gain,
followed by teaching use, then personal use
Faculty in the two middle age groups (35 to 44 and
45 to 54) both have higher rates of teaching usage
than the youngest faculty members.
Faculty in the Humanities and Arts, Professional
and Applied Sciences, and the Social Sciences use
social media for teaching purposes at higher rates
than those in Natural Sciences or Mathematics and
Computer Science.
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However, this difference has narrowed considerably
over the past year, as faculty in the Natural Sciences
or Mathematics and Computer Science have shown
the greatest degree of year-to-year growth (12 and 8
percent, respectively).
Faculty are relatively sophisticated users of social
media—they pick each site based on their specific
needs and its function. This report has shown that
the pattern of popularity of sites for teaching use is
consistently different than the pattern for either
personal or professional use.
PEARSON SURVEY
The most often used group of sites for teaching
is blogs and wikis, while the sites most often
accessed for personal and professionaluse
Facebook
 LinkedIn is used far less frequently for teaching
purposes.
 Podcasts, the second most-used type of social
media for teaching, are used at much the same
rate for teaching as they are for personal or
professional purposes.
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MY OWN SURVEY QUESTIONS
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Students overwhelmingly provided postive
feedback with respect to the follwing question:
Continue to use Facebook
 Relevance of the articles to the subject matter of this
course
 Contribution to my knowledge of economics
 Helpful in meeting the goal of this course
Almost all of them are opposed to:
 Make it a requirement
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STUDENTS COMMENTS
Many students chose to comment, comments
are overwhelmingly positive and sincere. These
are some of the more frequently repeated
comments:
 Also post the articles on blackboard and e-mail
because everyone does not have Facebook, so it
is hard for them to comment
 It may not be appropriate for the instructor to
be friend with their students, not frequently
though.
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KEY TOPICS DISCUSSED
I like the opportunity for extra credit, the
articles are very interesting helped us
practice our skills
 the Facebook postings produce excellent
insights which I really enjoyed
 I engaged Facebook because it allowed us to
receive extra credit which also allowed us to
learn more information about the material
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Some people do not have a Facebook account
therefore it should not be a requirement in the
future however
 The articles were relevant and interesting
 I enjoyed the course very much , thanks for
great semester, Facebook articles were great
 the only thing I had doubt with is the extra
credit that I sent comments over Facebook twice
and over twice and it didn't receive credit so I
printed and brought them in
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Keep doing it next semester, example and assignments walked us
through
I learned a lot from the articles, they wear interesting and
informative grate class
This is good for people who may need some extra points
I think using Facebook articles for extra credit is a good idea
because it relates to the material and future education you are
nice I like having you great job thanks
I really enjoyed the articles and assignments that went along with
them I liked how they were open ended so that could just give
our opinions and thoughts about the topic
Your humorous remarks keep the class interesting and fun thanks
for the time
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I believe that using articles related to economics is a
good idea because students get the Real life in
formation. However I don't think that Facebook
comments should be made a requirement because
some people do not want other people to know their
ideas and opinions publicly
The idea of having his students comment on relevant
articles was a good idea. Commenting on these
articles I believe should be strongly recommended,
make sure that students understand the subject
however I don't believe it should be made a
requirement
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Not only where the Facebook postings informative
but they've their great incentives to earn extra credit
I learned a lot of terminology and definitions that
help with reading economics articles. I would have
been more interested if you related the power point
slides to cases and economic issues and examples
I don't feel it is appropriate for his students to be
friend with their professors on social media website. I
would just prefer that you put the link on blackboard
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Yes use Facebook but may be make and open group.
I was not able to comment on some of the articles the
Facebook. Articles made the class more interesting
by showing us how economics affect us with current
examples from current events, does a good job trying
to make economics more interesting
I like the idea of using the Facebook articles as extra
credit opportunities I would not make it a
requirement
Great course tests and quizzes very helpful in
understanding the material the Facebook Articles has
been extremely helpful as well
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I like the fact that we got the opportunity to read the
opinions of other classmates I believe that it helped to
further discussion, an interesting way to learn about
current event and the economy
Very informative class Facebook helps keep it
interesting and doing it in the future
If you want to use Facebook, make a page for your
class don't use your personal page you can create a
page for each class each semester, this way only
economic topics can be discussed and not lots of your
page feed
This was one of my interesting classes, the only
thing is that we did not always use the textbook,
so I bought it for no reason
 The Articles are great for learning what is
happening in the economy because they
focused on things we don't really learn in the
textbook
 Continue to use the Articles for extra points
makes Facebook optional not everyone has
Facebook account
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Facebook gave us the opportunities to use real
world examples and discuss them publicly
 I think there should be more extra credit
assignments like Facebook assignments
 not everyone has a Facebook account
 I think that Facebook is helpful and contributed
to my knowledge however I think that it should
be done in blackboard for private I don't really
use Facebook
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