Students chatting on Twitter both inside and outside the classroom got higher grades than their nontweeting peers in a recent experiment conducted at a medium-size public institution in the Midwest.
At the end of the semester, the tweeters had grade-point averages half a point higher, on average, than did their nontweeting counterparts. And students who tweeted were more engaged. Twitter users scored higher than those who didn’t use the tool on a 19-question student-engagement survey over the course of the semester—using parameters like how frequently students contributed to classroom discussion, and how often they interacted with their instructor about course material.
The results of the experiment were published in the latest issue of the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning in an article titled “The Effect of Twitter on College Student Engagement and Grades.” Researchers did not reveal the name of the university involved to protect the identities of the students.
A total of 125 first-year pre-health-professional majors participated in the voluntary experiment, in which 70 students were assigned to use Twitter to both access information and complete four class assignments required in a first-year seminar course. The control group of 55 students completed the same tasks on a Web-based program that functioned like a typical course-management system’s discussion board.
“One of the hallmarks of any good college education is to have students engaged, because engagement is crucial in developing critical-thinking skills and increased maturity, as well as promoting overall retention,” said Reynol Junco, an associate professor of academic development and counseling at Lock Haven University, and one of the study’s authors. He suggested that Twitter may be able to improve grades because it incorporates a feature into academic study that many students already use in their everyday lives—the “status update” that’s a part of Facebook. He said this familiarity may make students more comfortable in both continuing class discussions outside the classroom, and responding to class material. At the peak of the experiment, occurring three weeks before the end of the semester, the 70 students produced 612 tweets within a single week.
Dave Parry, an assistant professor of emerging media at the University of Texas at Dallas who has used Twitter in his courses, questioned whether the tool was the cause of the improved grades.
Mr. Parry said more specific studies needed to be conducted to truly determine whether or not Twitter use is the deciding factor, and what uses of Twitter are most effective.
“I think more could be done to understand the range of ways that the Twitter design can work better in class assignments and collaborative note-taking,” Mr. Parry said. “But the fact that there is a new communication channel for talking with students is always useful and increases the number of students we reach.”
6 Responses to Tweeting Students Earn Higher Grades Than Others in Classroom Experiment
just_another_human - November 13, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I read the research and am thankful for this forum where it can be discussed. I, like Dave Parry, question whether the tool was the cause. There are actually quite a number of questions regarding this study. In truth, it appears that this study is only truly comparing instructional methods (particularly the “presence” of the faculty. It compares the effects of how this course used Twitter with its own use of Ning (which is not even described). In the Methods section of this paper, the authors have an entire section devoted to their description of the “Twitter procedure” and no section that describes the Ning procedure.
In addition, they mention that all the twitter students had 4 required Twitter assignments the last 4 weeks of class that they had to participate in (which might account for the large number of tweets that last few weeks of the class). Nothing is said in regards to the “control” students having final assignments. According to the authors themselves “The spike in Twitter activity at week 12 was because of the start of the required Twitter assignments”. They also admit that the instructors themselves did NOT use Ning in the same way that they used Twitter, but that they were more responsive to students on Twitter.
You know, if I did a study that compared the same course, on the same learning management system, taught by different professors, I probably could come up with as significant differences in engagement and final scores as this study did.
This study compared instructional methods (one in which the faculty were much more involved, and one where they weren’t). This was not about Twitter, nor Ning, nor the use of a Learning Management System. The authors state “The use of Twitter…demanded that two of the faculty members involved in this study regularly monitor and participate in the Twitter feed. This helped increase students’ sense of connection with faculty…” At least they had the good sense to say “we are unable to tease out how much of the variance in increased student engagement and improved grades is as a result of Twitter and how much is because of a possible orientation of the faculty to be more engaged.” I hope no one believes that Twitter is some magical technology, and realizes that a particular technology is a tool not a method! When we study the effects of a technology, we are studying the methods not a particular tool.
arrive2__net - November 15, 2010 at 4:05 am
If indeed there were differences in the treatment of the experimental and control groups that were not discussed in the article, as just_another_human suggested, then the study report, and possibly the research itself, was seriously flawed.
The key difference between the platforms in this context may be length of message (I’m not familiar with Ning, but since the shortness of the allowed message length is the outstanding characteristic of Twitter, it is likely to be the key difference in the “treatments”). It seems to me that short message length could have an effect on involvement and therefore achievement, to the extent that long drawn out messages in Ning some students could lead to boredom by others, leading many of the students to want to avoid the message board. Also, having to think over what to write in a truncated “Tweet” could actually increase the complexity of the student’s thought process, and lead them to watch more closely for a reaction from others because they ‘couldn’t get in all their points in a Tweet’. I seems to me that a Twitter discussion is less likely to be dominated by the verbal skills of a few more verbose and prolific students, and that may lead to more involvement by less advanced students. However, on the face of it, an increase in professor attention to the student’s does seem more likely to be a more salient feature than message length.
Bernard Schuster
Arrive2.net
wendha1 - November 15, 2010 at 2:48 pm
I wonder how many of the students had used Twitter before and if the novelty of such a tool (for students or faculty) increased the usage of that tool.
craft_ryan - November 15, 2010 at 7:20 pm
I thought this was an interesting study as I am currently working with several college professors on how they can most effectively use Twitter in the classroom.
I run a service called GroupTweet.com which many classrooms are using on a daily basis to encourage and foster group discussion via Twitter.
Two good examples are the following:
http://twitter.com/#!/vis1890s
http://twitter.com/#!/2450fall2010
inmap - November 16, 2010 at 2:01 am
We are investigating uses of social media and mobiles in the classroom, and completed an informal survey asking students several questions about their access to mobiles (types of phones and service) and if they use or not a particular social media (Facebook, Twitter, Blogs in general). I will share with you the results of the survey, it might help with this discussion:
Total Surveys 367. First number is the % Yes second the % No
Do you have a cell phone? 100 0
Do you have a data plan? 55 45
Do you have unlimited SMS? 41 59
Do you have a blog? 18.5 81.5
Do you read blogs? 67.5 32.5
Do you post in blogs? 61 39
Do you use Twitter? 33 67
Do you use Facebook? 45 65
Do you use YouTube? 90 10
Do you upload to YouTube? 30 70
emmadw - November 16, 2010 at 6:22 am
Interesting data, inmap; we’ve done a similar survey, though still analysing data.
Just a quick query – should the facebook one have been 45 yes & 55 no. It’s currently adding up to 110%; though even 55 strikes me as higher non-usage than I’d expect. Was that Facebook via a smart phone, or facebook in general. If the latter, do you have a lot of mature etc., students? (I’m assuming that, unlike me, you’re based in the US)