Introduction
In academic year 2015/16, the eLearning Course Director's Forum and VLE Futures Working Group worked on a recommendations paper for using Twitter for Student Engagement. The paper was subsequently endorsed by the Digital Learning Sub Committee. The recommendations have been reviewed by Media and Publications.
Recommendations
- Communicate with your students through a personal Twitter presence rather than a generic course account. If you are new to Twitter, this can be a daunting prospect but the value of developing your personal and professional network through online connections can be a valuable professional development opportunity.
- Use Hashtags to help connect Tweets to a community.
- What is a hashtag? This helpful resource helps explain how hash tags work. http://twitter.pbworks.com/w/page/1779812/Hashtags
- How do I choose a hashtag? it’s a good idea to check that it is not already in use and connecting a tag to a place minimises the chances of hashtag conflicts. #ixdbelfast is a good example of a hashtag that connects a course, Interaction Design, to a geographical location, Belfast. You can consider using Ulster in the hashtag but this does run a risk of conflicting with existing institutional branding and marketing initiatives.
- Focusing on authenticity rather than broadcasting marketing material can really help create a community around your Twitter presence. IXDBelfast creates a credible identity by tweeting authentic messages that help attract students without broadcasting traditional marketing materials.
- Encourage students to contribute to the hashtag and show examples of their work, influences and sources. It’s a great way of opening curriculum through shared resources. It also helps keep material fresh and relevant.
- Be careful to protect Ulster’s data. The Staff Handbook – Protecting Ulster University Information is a really useful resource to help you understand risk.
https://www.ulster.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/131992/staff-handbook.pdf - Be aware that hashtags can be hijacked, it’s rare but it can happen. Hashtags are a community-driven, flexible categorisation system so you should be aware that this is a risk. If it does happen, and it is causing distress, you can report misuse on the Twitter website at: https://support.twitter.com/articles/20169998?lang=en
- There are some useful guidelines to provide practical guidance on effectively using social media at: https://www.jisc.ac.uk/blog/listen-understand-act-social-media-for-engagement-28-jan-2014
- Have a conversation with your students about using Twitter for Teaching and Learning purposes, manage expectations and agree use that feels comfortable for you and your students.
- Decide whether you will actively monitor and answer questions or use Twitter instead to build a self-sustaining community.
- Manage expectations of how you will communicate. Twitter can get unmanageable if there is an expectation that you will be available to answer questions at any time. A self-sustaining community presence is an attractive idea and changes the dynamic from one to many (you to students) to many to many (students partnering, sharing and contributing).
- Ensure that your students know about Ulster’s Social Media Guidelines and Social Media Policy - https://www.ulster.ac.uk/connect/guide/policies/social-media-guidelines
Additional Resources
A number of supplementary resources were reviewed during the development of the guidelines and are recommended for further reading: