The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of using social software in higher and further education teaching and learning

By Andreas Schroeder, Shailey Minocha, Christoph Schneider. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 2010

343 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Social software is increasingly being used in higher and further education to support teaching and learning processes. These applications provide students with social and cognitive stimulation and also add to the interaction between students and educators. However, in addition to the benefits the introduction of social software into a course environment can also have adverse implications on students, educators and the education institution as a whole, a phenomenon which has received much less attention in the literature. In this study we explore the various implications of introducing social software into a course environment in order to identify the associated benefits, but also the potential drawbacks. We draw on data from 20 social software initiatives in UK based higher and further education institutions to identify the diverse experiences and concerns of students and educators. The findings are presented in form of a SWOT analysis, which allows us to better understand the otherwise ambiguous implications of social software in terms of its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. From the analysis we have derived concrete recommendations for the use of social software as a teaching and learning tool.

Subfields: Education, Information Systems, Sociology and Political Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/b6fcee2f0a0529038a9960a8435df015cd4b0354

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Citations in the corpus

The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades (2011, background): “…tools (such as blogs, microblogs, video-sharing sites, and social networking) into the learning process (Grosseck & Holotescu 2009; Rankin 2009; Ebner et al. 2010; Schroeder et al. 2010), especially by faculty members with a disposition towards the use of newer technology in education (Crook 2008).”
Active learning: The importance of developing a comprehensive measure (2015, background): “…resources relevant to your studies •• Obtained timely online feedback from assessments •• Persisted with challenging learning activities despite initial setbacks activities using online technologies (Arbaugh, 2005; Kim et al., 2011), possibly facilitated by social media (Schroeder et al., 2010).”
Twitter as a teaching practice to enhance active and informal learning in higher education: The case of sustainable tweets (2012, background): “…in higher education have started to experiment with Twitter in the hope students seize the opportunity to interact more frequently, engage more thought-fully, and foster learning inside and beyond the classroom (Grosseck and Holotescu, 2008; Junco et al., 2011; Perez, 2009; Schroeder et al., 2010).”
Exploring Students’ Acceptance of E-Learning Through the Development of a Comprehensive Technology Acceptance Model (2019, background): “Like any educational technology, there are many strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats associatedwith the use of e-learning [12].”
Evaluating the use of Facebook to increase student engagement and understanding in lecture-based classes (2015, background): “Schroeder et al. (2010) reviewed 20 social-software initiatives in the U.”
Understanding students' perceptions of the benefits of online social networking use for teaching and learning (2015, background): “The increasingly ubiquitous access, ease of use, functionality, and flexibility of social technologies have made them appealing as flexible learning tools to be adopted in higher education (Brown, 2010; Schroeder et al., 2010).”