Social media use and educational preferences among first-year pharmacy students.

BACKGROUND

Social media may offer a means to engage students, facilitate collaborative learning, and tailor educational delivery for diverse learning styles.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this study is to characterize social media awareness among pharmacy students and determine perceptions toward integrating these tools in education.

METHODS

A 23-item survey was administered to 1st-year students at a multicampus college of pharmacy.

RESULTS

Students (95% response rate; N = 196) most commonly used wikis (97%), social networking (91%), and videosharing (84%). Tools reported as never used or unknown included social bookmarking (89%), collaborative writing (84%), and RSS readers (73%). Respondents indicated that educational integration of social media would impact their ability to learn in a positive/very positive manner (75%) and make them feel connected/very connected (68%).

CONCLUSIONS

Selectively targeting social media for educational integration and instructing pharmacy students how to employ a subset of these tools may be useful in engaging them and encouraging lifelong learning.