Htay Mila Nu Nu, McMonnies Kate, Kalua Thokozani, Ferley Dylan, Hassanein Mayada
Department of Community Medicine, Melaka-Manipal Medical College, Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE), Melaka, Malaysia.
Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, London, UK.
J Educ Health Promot. 2020 Mar 31;9:61. doi: 10.4103/jehp.jehp_321_18. eCollection 2020.
In the era of technology, social networking has become a platform for the teaching-learning process. Exploring international students' perspective on using Twitter would reveal the barriers and potential for its use in higher educational activities.
This study aimed to explore the postgraduate students' perspective on using Twitter as a learning resource.
This qualitative study was conducted as part of a postgraduate program at a university in the United Kingdom. A focus group discussion and five in-depth interviews were conducted after receiving the informed consent. The qualitative data were analyzed by R package for Qualitative Data Analysis software.
Deductive content analysis was used in this study.
Qualitative analysis revealed four salient themes, which were (1) background knowledge about Twitter, (2) factors influencing the usage of Twitter, (3) master's students' experiences on using Twitter for education, and (4) potential of using Twitter in the postgraduate study. The students preferred to use Twitter for sharing links and appreciated the benefit on immediate dissemination of information. Meanwhile, privacy concern, unfamiliarity, and hesitation to participate in discussion discouraged the students from using Twitter as a learning platform.
Using social media platforms in education could be challenging for both the learners and the educators. Our study revealed that Twitter was mainly used for social communication among postgraduate students however most could see a benefit of using Twitter for their learning if they received adequate guidance on how to use the platform. The multiple barriers to using Twitter were mainly related to unfamiliarity which should be addressed early in the learning process.
在科技时代，社交网络已成为教学过程的一个平台。探究国际学生对使用推特的看法，将揭示其在高等教育活动中使用的障碍和潜力。
本研究旨在探究研究生对将推特用作学习资源的看法。
这项定性研究是作为英国一所大学研究生项目的一部分开展的。在获得知情同意后，进行了一次焦点小组讨论和五次深度访谈。定性数据通过定性数据分析软件的R包进行分析。
本研究采用了演绎性内容分析。
定性分析揭示了四个显著主题，即（1）关于推特的背景知识，（2）影响推特使用的因素，（3）硕士生使用推特进行学习的经历，以及（4）在研究生学习中使用推特的潜力。学生们更喜欢用推特分享链接，并赞赏其在信息即时传播方面的益处。与此同时，对隐私的担忧、不熟悉以及参与讨论的犹豫，阻碍了学生将推特用作学习平台。
在教育中使用社交媒体平台对学习者和教育者来说都可能具有挑战性。我们的研究表明，推特主要用于研究生之间的社交交流，然而，如果他们在如何使用该平台方面得到充分指导，大多数人认为使用推特对他们的学习有益。使用推特的多重障碍主要与不熟悉有关，应在学习过程中尽早解决。
