Research question and Literature review

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Benefits and distractions of social Media as tools for UndergradUate stUdent learning

Emily Emerick Paul Caldarella Sharon J. Black

Brigham Young University

Implementing social media in college classrooms can substantially enhance learning: facilitating teacher-student and student-peer com- munication; providing access to the professor- and student-posted information along with the resources of the internet; and promoting collaborative and responsive learning in many forms. But the exces- sive, unwise, or inconsiderate use of social media in the classroom can detract from the learning of the user and her classmates. A population of 447 undergraduate students enrolled in a college of fine arts and communications, completed an online survey created to explore their levels of social media use and their perceptions of how social media were contributing to and distracting from their education. Responses revealed that these students accessed their social media accounts an average of 32 times a day, yet a majority of them did not consider social media important to their formal education, and many found it to be distracting.

Keywords: undergraduate students, social media, classroom learning

An undergraduate music professor re- ceived a last-minute invitation for her night class to attend a final rehearsal for an upcom- ing concerto performance. She emailed her students and also posted an announcement on Blackboard (the university’s teacher-student online network) telling her students to meet at the concert venue for a class that evening. Fewer than half of the students received the message on either source. Most of them, how- ever, had checked their Facebook accounts at last 30 times during the day.

The above example illustrates how today’s students are known as digital natives (Ahern, Feller, & Nagle, 2016; Prensky, 2001). Most have grown up surrounded by various forms

and uses of technology; they have been sending messages, playing games and ac- cessing information since early childhood. They think, reason, learn and communicate digitally as easily they as do these things in their native language (perhaps more easily). As young adults, these natives receive most of their information and communication through social media, so they prefer social media— particularly Facebook—to email, Blackboard, Learning Suite (Ahern et al., 2016), or other less socially oriented and socially complex technology. Social media are changing the way they communicate with others, from close-by peers to individuals who may share their interests around the world (DeAndrea,

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Ellison, LaRose, Steinfield, & Fiore, 2012). In a study by Gikas and Grant (2013), a ma- jority ranked mobile technology as important to their education and were critical of faculty members who did not incorporate social me- dia into their courses. These digital natives considered social media learning to be more organic, more authentic, and more suitable for their needs.

Educators on all levels are frequently irri- tated by students focused on their social me- dia during class. Major difficulties can arise from media distraction, along with its shock- ing prevalence. Tindell and Bohlander (2012) found that 92% of the 269 student participants indicated they sent text messages during class; some even texted during exams (p. 1). But some professors wonder if the “enemy” can somehow be an ally. Published studies have shown that if college teachers can utilize so- cial media as part of their instruction, student learning is often enhanced inside and outside the classroom (Dabbagh & Kitsantas, 2012). Both advantages and disadvantages need to be carefully considered in the context of each class specifically. This article includes liter- ature, possible applications, and quantitative survey data on both sides of the debate. The review and applications are combined and extensive, due to the complexity and contro- versial nature of the topic.

Social Media Use The term social media is broadly used to

describe any number of technological sys- tems related to collaboration and community (Joosten, 2012) which enable individuals or groups to connect without boundaries or restrictions via the World Wide Web. These media can provide platforms for people to form a community, share information, ex- pand global networks, provide real-time up- dates, or learn of breaking news. People can upload photos and videos, support causes, and make comments, as well as approve or

disapprove of other people’s posts, pictures, or updates. The ability to access digital in- formation so readily and instantaneously provides students with unparalleled commu- nication and networking power.

Students can access social media accounts not only from computers, tablets, and their ev- er-present phones but by using smart-watches as well. In 2005 an estimated 12% of adults ages 18–29 used social media; in 2015 that use was 90% (Perin, 2015). In 2007 the Higher Education Research Institute found that 94% of first-year college students used social networking websites at least weekly. In 2010 Facebook passed Google as the number one search site on the internet (Nurik, 2010), and by the end of 2017 there were over 2.13 billion active Facebook users (Facebook, 2017)—those who used Facebook from dai- ly to once a month—1.37 billion of whom logged in daily. The greatest percentage of users (29.7%) are between the ages of 25-34. Other platforms are joining the stampede: In 2018 approximately 8,179 tweets and 867 In- stagram photos were uploaded every second (Internet Live Stats, 2018). The two most popular sites, also the most extensively used by college-age students, are Facebook and Instagram (Internet Live Stats). Facebook us- ers can post comments, share photographs or links to news or other interesting web content, play games, chat live, instant message, up- date their status, and even stream live video. Shared content can be made accessible to all or remain within boundaries and parameters the user selects for privacy. Facebook serves as a tool for communication, collaboration, and creative expression (Dabbagh & Kitsan- tas, 2012).

Instagram, owned by Facebook, is the most popular photo capturing and sharing application. Primarily designed for mobile phone use, it allows users to take a picture from a phone and instantly manipulate a va- riety of filters, graphics, or add-ins to make

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shared photos visually appealing. Approx- imately 800 million people use Instagram monthly, and 500 million use it daily, with over 40 billion total photos shared as of January 2017 (Aslam, 2018). Posts can be cross-shared on multiple social media sites simultaneously via Instagram.

Educational Benefits With its platforms for expression and

connectivity, social media use can provide powerful enhancement for learning when professors and teachers find ways to incor- porate it into their course instruction. Mark Zuckerberg wrote of his original intentions for creating Facebook, “What we’re trying to do is make it really efficient for people to communicate, get information, and share information” (quoted. by Locke, 2007, p. 1).

Sharing information and resources. On its simplest level, as in the example that opens this article, a teacher can quickly communi- cate course information to students. The use of social media has also demonstrated increased teacher-student and student-student interac- tion. Recent studies have mentioned teachers offering out-of-class help to students, deliv- ering lectures and posting lectures by others, and engaging in discussions with students (Chugh, 2018). Students can also communi- cate with each other: to extend the example of the music rehearsal, a student familiar with the concerto could share information to help his classmates better appreciate it. Someone playing in the accompanying orchestra might give more personal insights—perhaps sharing an amusing early rehearsal story. Answers and extensions can be shared in real time, which is time efficient for all involved.

Additional resources for extended reading or research can be posted on Facebook’s com- mon-interest user groups or news postings when relevant. Teachers and students can post examples of visual artwork as photos, short videos or even 3D posts. Links can, of course,

take course participants anywhere on the in- ternet, including YouTube for specific solo or group musical performances, dance sequenc- es, or videos of scenes from plays or films. When teachers provide access and structure effectively, Facebook can serve as an edu- cational accelerant (Gikas & Grant, 2013). Students can access these links on course sites provided by university systems. How- ever, social media systems have a bill-board and media-ad advantage—their content is right in front of people who pass them nu- merous times a day and can’t help noticing them. People of all ages react to audio and visual content they wouldn’t seek out—just because it’s there. It’s more likely (and more natural) for them to notice something as they pass it looking for something else than it is that they’ll often check on the course web affordance.

Learning on demand. Referred to as learning on demand, Dabbagh and Kitsan- tas (2012) considered three main reasons students access the internet: to “address a problem at work, to deal with something at school, or to just satisfy a curiosity” (p.3). On Facebook, students can use the “news” func- tion to access information or ideas transmitted as news stories develop around the world. Through links, students can access videos and live-streaming with every breaking news story. An entire class in news writing or news broadcasting in the fine arts/communications college could tap into a wave of coverage of an event that interests them. Comparing and contrasting different forms of coverage and different commentators would allow them a multifaceted critical learning opportunity. Various related projects could help them be- come “active co-producers of content” (Dab- bagh & Kitsantas, 2012, p. 3) as they create, share, and upload their thinking.

Professors and teachers can share class-rel- evant information, documents, and messages directly with the entire class, saving valuable

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time and resources (Gikas & Grant, 2013) as they supplement traditional textbooks and lectures with content that may be more ex- citing and more motivating for the students. Lectures by the world-acclaimed experts; performances by world-renowned musicians, dancers, or actors; or exhibits of visual arts from countries they might never visit can be posted to enrich their classroom experienc- es. For example, drama students desiring to perform a particular play can access com- mentary describing ways in which producers and directors have re-set the play in other time periods and circumstances, examining pictures of costumes and sets that can help them understand processes and options. As they split up aspects and examples, they can form a Facebook special interest user group so all can learn a broad amount of material by looking up a limited piece.

Classes in fine arts tend to stimulate in- teresting side issues and applications which some students might want to learn more about “just to satisfy a curiosity.” If some students in an introductory or survey music class are curious about the Australian aboriginal in- strument Didgeridoo, someone can easily find and post pictures and a 1-minute video with sound on Facebook (or Instagram if she has been to a performance and seen/heard one). Information on demand through social media can also be more student-centered and more customized, as student groups set their param- eters for group members to search for it, and individual students request according to their interests and needs.

Collaboration. When students are as- signed a group project, what Lévy (2001) referred to as collective intelligence gives them the potential to achieve a better outcome than any one person could achieve individu- ally (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Gikas and Grant (2013) noted that social media could be a “participatory, friendly environment for the growth of new ideas” (p. 19). Students seem

highly motivated to collaborate using Face- book, particularly Facebook Groups; 81% of students in a study conducted by Ahern et al. (2016) found these resources to be “very easy” to use. These researchers recommend that professors step aside and have students organize, mediate, and manage, their own groups. Students can more easily sustain their group’s composition and projects, as students themselves insist on information/knowledge that is compelling and rich enough to keep their interest throughout the course (Ahern et al., 2016). Student-centered learning, sub- ject to student preference and control, can be among the most significant benefits.

With its ability to offer interaction in real time, Facebook is useful for collaboration and writing projects (Shaw, 2017). Some professors encourage this, while others find that the nature of effective feedback for writing is not maximized with this method, particularly when more than two students are involved. Facebook Messenger, which offers the features of many other social media apps is helpful for collaboration on projects. Stu- dents can engage in multi-communication as they engage with text messages, voice calls, video calls, and games with multiple participants, at the same time sending files, editing photos, and exchanging GIFs and stickers. However, so many conversations can simultaneously occur that users may easily get distracted and confused, according to Facebook’s online explanation of the tool (Davis, 2017); thus teachers’ use of purpose- ful planning is necessary for collaboration with this advanced system.

Facebook’s feature 3D Posts allows in- teractive access to three-dimensional assets, through News Feed (Franklin, 2017). Stu- dents working with ceramics or sculpture can post their work for a small group of critical friends or an entire class. Virtual reality is now becoming available, as “An emerging community of artists are pioneering brand

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new types of immersive media, like VR sculpting in Oculus Medium and painting with Quill. They’re reinventing the art world with 3D stories and films made specifically for VR” (Franklin, 2017, p.1).

Social Media as Distraction Along with benefits, difficulties can oc-

cur, particularly as social media can distract students’ attention from their coursework and dull their motivation for academic in- struction and activities. For example, having mentioned many advantages of social media for teaching and learning, the Derek Bok Center for Teaching and Learning at Harvard University warned, “With those advantages, of course, come an equal and opposite set of possible disadvantages, and for many instruc- tors the latter outweigh the former” (2018, n.p.). Of college students participating in a 2012 study, 54% felt that teachers would be shocked if they knew how much texting was going on during class (Tindell & Bohlander, 2012). These students studied out the class situation and were careful they would not get caught. Room size and arrangement, par- ticularly large dance or dramatic performane rooms, are contexts students find convenient for sneaking texts and other social media use (see Tindell & Bohlander, 2012).

Students claim they are merely multi- tasking when they use Facebook in class for reasons other than lesson involvement; but research has found that this “multitasking” results in significantly lower test scores (Kuznekoff & Titsworth, 2013) and lower total grade point averages as well (Junco & Cotton, 2013). Professors have noted that in addition to checking Facebook, students play games, text or tweet, and engage in other digital activities. But the most extensive dis- traction offender seems to be texting. Tindell and Bohlander (2012) found that 92% of the students in their sample had sent or received text messages in class, and 30% admitted that

they did so every day. Texting and similar distractions interfere with students’ ability for self-regulation, which affects their cognitive learning abilities that are necessary for pro- cessing information, which include, in addi- tion to attention and working memory, both short- and long-term memory and metacogni- tion; losing capacity in any of these areas im- pacts others (Kuznekoff & Titsworth, 2013).

Researchers agree that one of the deficits that most impact students’ learning and their grades is that they do not take effective class notes. Notetaking aids comprehension and memory as students go through the processes of encoding in addition to the more obvious function of providing external storage of in- formation for later study (Kuznekoff & Tits- worth, 2013). Students in Kuznekoff and Tits- worth’s study who had not been using social media in class recorded 62% more informa- tion in their notes, including more details, and were able to recall more detailed information specifically from the lecture afterward. Their test scores were higher by a letter grade and a half. Courses involving a variety of histor- ical, social, cultural, political, economic, and biographic details—as might be involved in music, art, or film history courses—would be particularly penalized by inadequate/inaccu- rate notetaking practice.

Some researchers have been particularly disturbed by the effects of clandestine class- room social media use on other students. Students admit that activities like texting are distracting to students sitting nearby and possibly to the instructor as well (Derek Bok Center, 2018; Tindell & Bohlander, 2012). Although students are instructed to put their phones on “vibrate” or “mute” or else turn them off during classes, this doesn’t always happen. A ringing phone or a loud announce- ment of a text disrupts the entire class. Also of concern is academic honesty. Tindell and Bohlander (2012) noted that students cheat on tests by calling up information stored on the

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phone or by using the internet to find answers. Some use text messaging to get answers from friends: They found that 10% of the partic- ipating students admitted they had sent or received a text while taking an exam (12% of the students refused to answer the question).

Study Purpose Given the complexity and controversy

surrounding this topic, more research on so- cial media presence in college classrooms is desirable. We conducted a survey, specifically targeting Facebook and Instagram, regarding students’ use, distraction, and academic per- formance among undergraduate fine arts ma- jors, as social media use in this population has been largely unstudied. This study addressed the following research questions: 1. What social media accounts do undergraduate fine arts students have? 2. How often are these students accessing social media accounts? 3. To what degree do these students use social media for educational purposes? 4. To what degree does social media use contribute to these students’ education? 5. To what degree does social media use distract these students from their college education?

Method Setting and Participants

Participants consisted of a purposeful convenience sample of 447 undergraduate students in a college of fine arts and commu- nications located at a private university in the U.S. Intermountain West. According to the college website, 3,966 undergraduate students were enrolled across 21 degree programs in six departments in the college at the time of this study. Demographics of the college par- alleled the survey participants’ demographics (see Table 1).

Table 1. Student Participant Demographics Compared with College Demographics

Item Category Sample College

Gender Male 41% 37%

Female 69% 63%

Age Mean 22 29

SD 2.66 3.02

Year in School Freshman 5% 5%

Sophomore 17% 13%

Junior 26% 22%

Senior 52% 60%

GPA Mean 3.56 3.40

SD .37 .45

Measures The researchers created a 17-item survey

consisting of Likert-type questions, with anchors ranging from 1 = strongly disagree/ very unlikely to 5 = strongly agree/very likely. Questions were created to assess the amount of time students spent daily and weekly on Facebook, Instagram, and a cat- egory composed of other social media and to indicate their perceptions of the value of social media in their education and their ranking of the importance of social media to student success. They were also asked to estimate the level of distraction they expe- rienced with social media and compare it to the distraction level of face-to-face (person- al) course interactions Student demographic data were also collected. Researchers esti- mated that the survey could be completed in under five minutes.

Three widely used previously published surveys were considered as model patterns for this instrument. The Anxiety Test (Psy- chology Today, n.d.) and the 360 Assess- ment of Stress Levels (American Institute of Stress, 2018) were used as guides. The Higher Education Research Institute (2007) had published a social networking survey for

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freshmen, which also aided in the develop- ment of this survey. Emphasis was placed on understanding students perceptions of social media use.

Procedures The survey was administered using

Qualtrics, an online survey administration platform selected for cost-effectiveness, use- fulness, and data availability. Strengths of an online survey study include accessibility to students and convenience of automatic data collection. The researchers received Institutional Review Board approval to use de-identified data to protect the confidential- ity of student responses.

All students with a declared major in the college of fine arts and communications (n = 3,966) received an email requesting them to participate in a “brief survey on social media usage,” assuring them that participation was optional and anonymous, and stating that no reward or incentive would be given. No pass- word was required. The survey could only be taken once by each student; 528 surveys were started, and 447 responses were finished, for a completion rate of 84%. The final total re- sponse rate was 11.2%.

Research Design and Analysis A descriptive survey study was select-

ed as the research design, since this is an appropriate methodology when assessing participants’ attitudes and beliefs, as well as their personal behaviors that cannot be readily observed (Martella, Nelson, Morgan, & Marchand-Martella, 2013), such as social media use. Descriptive statistics were used to interpret the data and to facilitate analysis of the relatively large sample size. Means, stan- dard deviations, and percentages were used to summarize Likert ratings.

Results This survey study was undertaken to

explore undergraduate students’ perceptions regarding their current level of social me- dia use and the effects of such use on their learning. The first research question asked students which social media accounts they maintained. Results showed that Facebook was the most popular account, followed by Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, as repre- sented in Table 2.

Table 2. Students’ Self-Reported Social Media Accounts

Type of Account N %

Facebook 434 31

Instagram 388 27

Snapchat 299 21

Twitter 198 14

Other 103 7

To address the second research question, students were asked how often they accessed their social media accounts. As shown in Table 3, the average number of times a day students reported logging on to their top so- cial media accounts was a combined total of 32.82, while the weekly average was a com- bined total of 226.39.

Table 3. Average Number of Times Students Reported Logging on to Social Media Sites

Social media

account

Daily mean

SD Weekly mean

SD

Instagram 12.09 10.60 87.17 79.74

Other 11.18 14.44 69.99 97.02

Facebook 9.55 16.14 69.23 96.40

Total 32.82 13.73 226.39 91.05

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Responding to the third research question, students indicated the degree to which they were using social media for educational pur- poses. Of the students surveyed, 49% marked agree or strongly agree that they used social media for educational purposes, 25% selected neither agree or disagree, while 26% dis- agreed, indicating that they did not use social media for educational purposes.

The fourth research question asked stu- dents to assess how important they consid- ered social media to be in their education. A minority of 7% rated social media as extremely important, 12% marked very im- portant, 29% marked moderately important, 33% marked slightly important, and 19% marked not important at all. A total of 39% of surveyed students responded that they had a class that required use of social media. Furthermore, 49% of students indicated that they were at that time using social media for academic purposes.

The final research question examined stu- dents’ perception of the level of distraction associated with social media use compared to distraction from traditional face-to-face inter- actions. As can be seen in Table 4, students re- ported comparable levels of distraction from social media use (78.65%) compared to face to face interactions (74.27%).

Discussion Using social media tools for learning

can promote a more student-centered course (Greenhow, Sonnevend, & Agur, 2016). Stu- dents are given more personal choice, cus- tomization and familiarity (Hoffman, 2009), as well as executive management opportu- nities (Ahern et al., 2016), with tools like

Facebook’s Groups, News, and Messenger (Davis, 2017), along with 3-D and virtual re- ality posts (Frankin, 2017), creating a more individualized, person-centered, worldwide classroom. However, there are also concerns that social media may be distracting and in some cases hinder student progress (Derek Bok Center, 2018; Kuznekoff & Titsworth, 2013; Tindell & Bohlander, 2012), though more research is needed.

The primary purpose of this study was to determine undergraduate fine arts students’ perceptions of the importance of social me- dia use for learning, considering the degree to which students use social media accounts as part of their undergraduate learning and how such use may be distracting. Students’ responses concerning their social media accounts were consistent with the results reported by others (Internet Live Statistics, 2018; Smith, &Anderson, 2018): Facebook and Instagram were the two most popular social networking sites overall and the sites most used by individuals 25-34. Snapchat and Twitter (also ranked in the study) are becoming more popular specifically with the college-age users (Smith & Anderson, 2018). According to Smith and Anderson (2018) YouTube, used by 73% of U.S. adults and 94% of 18-24 year-olds, actually outranks Facebook’s 68%. YouTube is not categorized as traditional social media, despite having social elements, but since links to YouTube can be shared on Facebook, its usage may be relevant in considering relationships between college education and social media.

What is concerning is that although they engaged with social media an average of 32 times per day, 52% of these students did not

Table 4. Face-to-Face Distraction Level vs. Social Media Distraction Level

Type Strongly disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly agree

Face-to-face 3.39% 8.13% 14.22% 53.50% 20.77%

Social media 2.02% 7.42% 11.91% 52.58% 26.07%

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consider social media important to their ed- ucation. This finding has important implica- tions for both professors and students, as such social media use may be distracting students from their educational progress, rather than facilitating it as others have noted (Derek Bok Center, 2018; Tindell & Bohlander, 2012).

On the survey for this study, 39% of the students indicated that they had class assign- ments requiring them to use social media. An additional 10% noted that they use social media for educational purposes. Consider- ing the ability of Facebook News to provide extensive and varied coverage of current worldwide happenings professors teaching courses in news media would likely find infinite ways of having students critique examples of coverage and create articles and scripts based on facts and viewpoints they have learned. The School of Commu- nications within the College of Fine Arts and Communications in this study also has a course in advertising. Social media would provide many examples for that course as well. Similarly, professors of courses in- volving creation or performance in any of the arts could post examples as subjects for critique or as mentoring samples for various techniques. Reviewing potentialities and applications might be helpful in thinking out what might be appropriate and useful for particular course content, objectives, and students.

Students are not limited by assignments and requirements. Facebook groups can be or- ganized by any group of students interested in learning together, and these students are able to determine and manage acceptable content and appropriate procedures. Their learning experiences are self-initiated and self-direct- ed; choices include what they want to learn and how. For example, students enrolled in “World Music Cultures” might organize a group interested in one of the lesser-known areas so they could share with each other what

they unearth in their investigations, possibly preparing a presentation to acquaint others with this minority art form. Another affor- dance for music might be applied as a student is preparing for a recital. Those who desire feedback from critical friends may be limited by when a practice room is available and who can come at that particular time. The “My Day” feature in Facebook Messenger allows videos (revealing hands as well as sounds) so that a recitalist can perform and receive feed- back regardless of the geographical locations of helpful colleagues.

Students taking courses in photography, especially those preparing a senior portfolio, can easily share their work with a small group or wide number of individuals on Instagram. They can experiment with some aspects of photo editing right on the platform to get others’ reactions, opinions, and suggestions regarding their options.

Regarding distraction, over 78% of stu- dents reported social media use as distract- ing, with levels similar to distractions from in-person interactions. Teachers and students need to consider carefully whether in their particular situation they can plan, apportion, schedule and control media use to avoid po- tential losses. Tindell and Bohlander (2012) learned that students are less likely to text in class if their professor has a policy against texting and they know that she really cares. Researchers have also suggested that teachers explain to students the cognitive risks and lower-score likelihood described by Kuzne- koff and Titsworth (2013) so they can make decisions informed by more than a momen- tary desire for a social media incident.

Limitations Some weaknesses of this study should

be considered. First, the survey sample was self-selected from the population of students in a college of fine arts and communications. Voluntary participation might have resulted in

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a systematic selection bias, as students were enrolled in a college where study is focused on creativity, artistry, and communication. Testing a sample from another college or de- partment population and considering the lit- erature from a focus on this group of students may yield a different result. More colleges and other universities would need to be sur- veyed to increase external validity,.

The self-administration of the survey also holds potential flaws. Students who complet- ed it may have listed inaccurate answers if a social bias might have influenced them to list more or less use than their usual practice. Also, some students may have been unaware of the actual extent of their use. The self-re- ported GPA question also leaves room for error/biases as there may have been a social desirability to inflate this value. Finally, the research question regarding disruption was not focused or detailed enough; students in- dicated whether a social media use was more or less disruptive than a face-to-face encoun- ter. To realistically consider the difficulties described in the literature by the presence of social media in educational circumstances and settings, more specifics would need to be questioned on the survey on in an inter- view format.

Conclusions The goal of this study was to add to the

research base on possibilities for social me- dia to enhance classroom learning in higher education, without neglecting its potential to distract. Previous research has introduced a considerable variety of possible benefits, along with some sobering recognition of possible losses if social media use is not thoughtfully instituted and controlled. Digital natives are arriving at college with lifestyles centered on navigating social me- dia websites and staying connected online. Some of their professors are also natives; some may still have immigrant status, being adept at using functions they need and want but less “organic” and “authentic” about having life immersed in this culture. Both benefits and risks must be considered by both in a cross-cultural exchange they can accept as agreeable and appropriate.

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