Communication Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX-XXX
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
ConfChem Conference on Select 2016 BCCE Presentations: Radical AwakeningsA New Teaching Paradigm Using Social Media Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh* Department of Chemistry, School of Math, Sciences and Engineering, Central New Mexico Community College, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87106, United States S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: This Communication summarizes one of the invited papers to the Select 2016 BCCE Presentations ACS CHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education online ConfChem held from October 30 to November 22, 2016. The ConfChem paper (included within Supporting Information) focuses on the results of one instructor’s incorporation of social media into her classroom and her teaching life as both a communication tool and a method for building a community of learners among students. The instructor implemented multivariate statistical analyses to determine the correlational relationship between students’ social media usage and their performance shown by their earned grade on a 40-question final exam similar to the ACS Exams Institute First Semester General Chemistry exam. Initial findings indicated no statistically significant change in pass rate or persistence between models in introductory General Chemistry I classes; however, the potential for a significant difference between models exists in next level (General Chemistry II) and future classes. In all classes analyzed, the instructor observed the generation of a stronger community of learners among her students. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate/General, Second-Year Undergraduate, Graduate Education/Research, Interdisciplinary/Multidisciplinary, Collaborative/Cooperative Learning, Distance Learning/Self Instruction, Internet/Web-Based Learning, Conferences
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INTRODUCTION This paper1 was discussed from October 30th to November 1st during the fall 2016 ConfChem online conference Select 2016 BCCE Presentations. 2 This conference was hosted by DivCHED Committee on Computers in Chemical Education (CCCE).3 This Communication synopsizes highlights from the paper and online discussion (see Supporting Information).
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A NEW TEACHING PARADIGM While active learning pedagogies4,5 were employed for many semesters in several different in-class and online teaching formats (face-to-face (F2F), hybrid, and blended), student relationships built within the classroom were not consistently sufficient to enable overall student success at the levels desired. After consulting relevant literature which showed that social media usage in a classroom context had a significant impact on learning performance,6,7 a social media component was added to the class setting. The social media component, which was added to the active learning classroom pedagogy (summarized in Figure 1), was hypothesized to empower and increase communication within the class community of learners and therefore increase overall student success. The integrated model, which enhanced the active learning model using social media, is described in Figure 2. © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
Figure 1. Active learning model previously employed in the instructor’s chemistry courses. Based on the Learning Strategies Triangle by Gary A. Smith at University of New Mexico (unpublished).
Received: December 23, 2016 Revised: August 16, 2017
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01011 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Communication
The students who took General Chemistry II as a blended class in the spring had a 76% pass rate (obtaining a grade of C or higher) and 85% persistence rate (i.e., remained in the course through the final exam). These integrated model students had begun their chemistry studies in a hybrid section of the General Chemistry I course the previous semester. When compared to the active learning model in the next level class, these results do not show a significant difference (76% pass rate and 79% persistence rate). However, the important distinction is that while students were successful within the active learning model when they moved from hybrid General Chemistry I to hybrid General Chemistry II, students within the integrated model had similar success rates in different class formats, with the F2F component essentially eliminated in the next level coursework. The students in the integrated model independently decided that they needed more ways to communicate and therefore set up their own GoogleDrive and GroupMe accounts in the General Chemistry II blended class. The use of social media to build a community of learners and enhance communication between students tends to “mirror much of what we know to be good models of learning, in that they are collaborative and encourage an active participatory role for users”.16 The discussion surrounding the paper during the Fall ConfChem online conference ranged from clarification and elaborative questions to more in-depth questions. The clarification questions included greater elaboration on (1) the types of students in the classes analyzed, (2) what the final exam grade was and how it was calculated, (3) how the author implemented the social media usage in the classroom, and (4) a primer on how to interpret the statistics. While these questions and answers gave greater clarification on the process used in this study, the discussion on how the author implemented the social media usage was particularly interesting as it led to a short discussion on framing, which details how an instructor “sells” the idea of integrating social media into the classroom. Framing was found to be a crucial factor according to the literature17,18 and, thus, warrants continued future discussion. The in-depth questions included those that could be answered easily on the basis of the instructor’s experience, including how to deal with symbolic representations and suggestions for other instructors to incorporate social media, and those questions that add and enhance future work. These future work questions included the following: 1. Is social media (or the use of social media as a primary platform by my supplemental instructor at the time) a confounding variable, and if so, is it mediating or moderating? 2. How can cause and effect questions, including questions like “does social media help students perform better on the material?” or “do good students just use social media more frequently?”, be integrated and answered within the context of this research? 3. What would be needed (in terms of tests and kinds of research questions) to statistically analyze the General Chemistry II class in a more in-depth way? These questions are an excellent beginning, and future directions should also include qualitative analyses on questions raised by the initial findings. A detailed evaluation of different types of classes (F2F, hybrid, blended) and levels (introductory chemistry through organic chemistry) is still needed to
Figure 2. Integrated model shows a summary of the active learning model from Figure 1 (in red) with add-ons specific to the social media integration (in green and blue).
In agreement with the literature,8−10 the instructor found the integrated model increased the aspect of community within her class because the community’s digital facets were implemented using a social media platform (mostly Facebook in closed groups) which her students already understood. Students’ academic self-efficacy skills also improved because they spent time helping and encouraging one another digitally, as well as in class. Currently, research on the use of social media within chemistry classroom environments is less reported.11,12 This study focused on two research questions exploring the use of classroom social media: 1. How does the presence of class-based social media affect persistence and impact students’ course grades in their beginning chemistry courses? 2. How does the presence of class-based social media in beginning chemistry courses affect persistence and impact students’ course grades in next level coursework? Multivariate regression analysis in the beginning chemistry course and paired t tests between the beginning chemistry courses and the next level course were used to explore these research questions. The study’s convenience sample (n = 63 students for General Chemistry I; n = 25 students for General Chemistry II) included the students within the instructor’s hybrid classes (General Chemistry I) and blended class (General Chemistry II) in the Fall 2015 and Spring 2016 semesters. The data collected as well as the in-depth statistical analyses are included within the original paper.1
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DISCUSSION AND FUTURE WORK There was a positive correlation between social media integration and final exam grades within the context of this study. However, the extent of the relationship between final exam grades and social media is questionable as the correlation value (0.588) is not large and an important factor has yet to be analyzed: the quality of student postings. Counting the number of social media posts gives no information on their content; therefore, analysis on quality of student postings is warranted. Women tended to post to the classroom community’s social media at higher rates (Pearson residual >2.0; p-value = 0.00123) in this study, which was corroborated in several articles.13−15 B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01011 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Communication
determine if the initial findings show a trend or are a one-time occurrence.
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(16) Maloney, E. J. What Web 2.0 Can Teach Us About Learning. Chronicle of Higher Education 2007, 53 (18), B26−B27. (17) Cole, M. Using Wiki Technology to Support Student Engagement: Lessons from the Trenches. Computers & Education 2009, 52 (1), 141−146. (18) Schroeder, A.; Minocha, S.; Schneider, C. The Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats of Using Social Software in Higher and Further Education Teaching and Learning: Implications of Social Software Use. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 2010, 26 (3), 159−174.
ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01011. Full text of the original paper and associated discussions from the ConfChem Conference (PDF)
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AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected]. ORCID
Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh: 0000-0001-7429-4660 Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Sorensen-Unruh, C. Radical AwakeningsA New Teaching Paradigm Using Social Media. https://confchem.ccce.divched.org/ 2016FallConfChemP1 (accessed Apr 2017). (2) American Chemical Society, Division of Chemical Education. Committee on Computers in Chemical Education. Fall 2016 ConfChem: Select 2016 BCCE Presentations. (3) ACS CHED Committee of Computer in Chemical Education. http://www.ccce.divched.org/ (accessed Apr 2017). (4) Freeman, S.; Eddy, S. L.; McDonough, M.; Smith, M. K.; Okoroafor, N.; Jordt, H.; Wenderoth, M. P. Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U. S. A. 2014, 111 (23), 8410−8415. (5) Gasiewski, J. A.; Eagan, M. K.; Garcia, G. A.; Hurtado, S.; Chang, M. J. From gatekeeping to engagement: A multicontextual, mixed method study of student academic engagement in introductory STEM courses. Research in higher education 2012, 53 (2), 229−261. (6) Sanchez-Franco, M. J.; Villarejo-Ramos, A. F.; Martin-Velicia, F. A. Social integration and post-adoption usage of Social Network Sites An analysis of effects on learning performance. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences 2011, 15, 256−262. (7) Yan, J. Social Technology as a New Medium in the Classroom. New England Journal of Higher Education 2008, 22 (4), 27. (8) Dunlap, J. C.; Lowenthal, P. R. Tweeting the Night Away: Using Twitter to Enhance Social Presence. Journal of Information Systems Education 2009, 20 (2), 129. (9) Selwyn, N. An Investigation of Differences in Undergraduates’ Academic Use of the Internet. Active Learning in Higher Education 2008, 9 (1), 11−22. (10) Selwyn, N. Looking beyond Learning: Notes towards the Critical Study of Educational Technology: Looking beyond Learning. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning 2010, 26 (1), 65−73. (11) Conole, G.; Alevizou, P. A Literature Review of the Use of Web 2.0 Tools in Higher Education; Higher Education Academy: York, UK, 2010; p 111. (12) Tess, P. A. The Role of Social Media in Higher Education Classes (Real and Virtual) − A Literature Review. Computers in Human Behavior 2013, 29 (5), A60−A68. (13) Duggan, M.; Page, D. Social Media Update. Pew Research Center, 2016; http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/11/11/social-mediaupdate-2016/. (14) Duggan, M.; Brenner, J. The demographics of social media users, 2012. Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project; Pew Research Center: Washington, DC, 2013; Vol. 14. (15) Correa, T.; Hinsley, A. W.; de Zuniga, H. G. Who interacts on the Web?: The intersection of users’ personality and social media use. Computers in Human Behavior 2010, 26 (2), 247−253. C
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.6b01011 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
