Implications of social media use on instruction and student learning: An exploratory study

Authors

Mayur Desai, Texas Southern University, Texas
Lucy Ojode, Texas Southern University, Texas

Abstract

Despite being a norm in contemporary organizations including in academia, there is limited understanding how multimedia technology use might impact learning. We have also seen a rise in the use of social media applications such as Facebook, tweeter, Instagram, skype, flickr, and blogging among students, but it is unclear the extent to which the academe embraces these applications. In this study, we examine the potential role of multimedia technology and social media use in the learning process. We explore the potential implications for instruction and on student learning of the marriage between multimedia technology and social media use. Focusing on the content delivery component of instruction, we explore potential relationship between the rich multimedia content in Multimedia Information Networks (MINets)-- the structured media collections such as documents, images and videos that are linked by nodes, and the ongoing developments in social media to the learning process. We propose a framework that links instructor to students through social media-- supposing that learning impacts of social media depend upon the interface of the content, particular medium adopted, instructor and student demographics including learning style, teaching style and instructor skills. That is, social media becomes a channel through which learning occurs. Classifying multimedia technology as tools and social media as interactive Web 2.0 Internet-based applications, we employ case studies in developing the framework and we follow up with a discussion of potential implications of social media applications in academia.

Recommended Citation

Desai, Mayur and Ojode, Lucy (2017) "Implications of social media use on instruction and student learning: An exploratory study," Southwestern Business Administration Journal: Vol. 16: Iss. 1, Article 2.
Available at: https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/sbaj/vol16/iss1/2