Technology Report Cite This: J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
pubs.acs.org/jchemeduc
Utilizing Snapchat To Facilitate Engagement with and Contextualization of Undergraduate Chemistry Glenn A. Hurst* Department of Chemistry, University of York, Heslington, York YO10 5DD, United Kingdom
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S Supporting Information *
ABSTRACT: Snapchat is a social media platform with the ability to share media and network with others. The platform has been applied with lower division undergraduate students studying chemistry, biochemistry, and natural sciences. Approximately 140 students followed a “class” account where both images and videos were shared with the aim of allowing them to contextualize subject knowledge in the real world, demonstrate practical setups in the laboratory, and provide an insight into research environments and life as an academic in chemistry. Upon surveying the students, with a 43% response rate, students overwhelmingly agreed that they feel more engaged with chemistry through using Snapchat in this manner (4.32/5.00) and together with it being a useful tool to contextualize their knowledge in chemistry in the real world and their degree program (4.32/5.00). As such, instructors using Snapchat in this way could enhance student engagement with chemistry together with facilitating the ability of students to understand how chemistry can be applied to affect their daily lives. KEYWORDS: First-Year Undergraduate, Demonstrations, Internet/Web-Based Learning, Multimedia-Based Learning, Applications of Chemistry
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INTRODUCTION Mobile learning is a form of e-learning where students and instructors can share knowledge in a timely fashion utilizing small technological devices such as tablets or smartphones.1 Indeed, a recent survey on exploring mobile learning practices in higher education by the Educause Center of Applied Research demonstrated that students are driving the adoption of such mobile devices in higher education with 67% of surveyed students believing that such devices are important to their academic success.2 Examples of how mobile devices can be utilized to facilitate learning opportunities include access to course content and interactions with instructors and student colleagues.3 Social media can be used to enhance the accessibility of such interactions by facilitating facile communication between users.4 Such social media platforms include (a) social networking sites, such as Facebook or Twitter, (b) media sharing sites, such as YouTube or Instagram, (c) creation and publishing tools, such as wikis and blogs, (d) collation and republishing through Rich Site Summary feeds, and (e) remixing of content and republishing tools.5 Owing to the array of free and easy-to-use social media platforms available, educators in chemistry have harnessed these tools to facilitate mobile learning outside of the classroom. For instance, Smith uses YouTube in order to (a) create and share content for students, (b) serve as a platform for his students to create their own content, and (c) facilitate © XXXX American Chemical Society and Division of Chemical Education, Inc.
online discussion through comments, leading to the formation of online chemistry communities.6 Related to this methodology, YouTestTube.com, a YouTube clone Web site to provide a space for video-sharing, social networking, and reflections of chemistry laboratory classes was developed, allowing students to view, rate and comment upon colleagues’ videos.7 Instagram, another media sharing site, has been utilized to share quick “thought problems” where the answer to a question is subsequently posted the following day together with a new question.8 Social networking sites have also been used to communicate chemistry concepts. By using Facebook, students were asked to work through a scientific case study by adopting different character roles and discussing their interpretations as part of an online group chat.9 Similarly, Facebook has been utilized as a discussion/bulletin board to create an online community to discuss organic chemistry.10 The power of using Facebook and LinkedIn to connect with chemistry alumni has also been demonstrated.11 Further to communication and networking, Facebook also has the capabilities for students to share materials and resources to support their learning while generating associated discussion.12 Twitter is used extensively as an instant feedback tool during class, facilitating student− Received: January 5, 2018 Revised: July 12, 2018
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00014 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Technology Report
Figure 1. Representative photos shared via Snapchat to aid contextualization of subject matter in the real world.
image is on the screen, depending on the preferences set by the sender. Recipients do have the option to “screenshot” the image, allowing for it to be saved in their photo album. Users can also send private messages, including making voice and video calls to friends. As an alternative/addition, it is also possible for the sender to add the media to their Story, which is a feed of images/videos that can be watched by anyone who follows the account. This allows followers to rewatch media an unlimited number of times for up to 24 h after the image/video has been added to the feed. Once again, there is scope to screenshot media as part of the Story. There is the option for followers to simply view the media on a story without being able to communicate further or indeed for the sender to see/ receive snaps from followers. Alternatively, if the sender adds a follower as a friend, both parties will be able to communicate as previously discussed and view both stories. There is no limit to the number of friends or followers an account can have. Snapchat is relatively simple to use as the interface is very similar to when a photo or video is taken using the camera functionality of a mobile phone with the added benefit of subsequently sharing media in a facile fashion. It is highly recommended that instructors ensure that their use is aligned with institutional social media policies and that permission is always sought from others if they or their work is to be included in a Snap. The major disadvantage of Snapchat in comparison to other similar platforms is that media disappears depending on the preferences of the sender after between 1 s and 24 h have elapsed upon opening. Although this can be alleviated somewhat by taking a screenshot of images/videos, this is not ideal and affects accessibility of content.
teacher communication together with in-class discussion among students.13 Such “live-tweeting” encourages careful listening, paying close attention, gathering information, and multitasking during sessions.14 Such communication can of course also occur outside of the classroom either between students or between students and instructors. For example, Twitter has been used to spread information in real time through field trips, during which participants tweeted classmates who remained at the university.15 An empirical study evaluating the effects of Twitter on college students communicating with each other and the instructor shows the platform had a positive impact on both student engagement and grades.16 Instructors have also created Twitter accounts to disseminate concepts in chemistry. For example, the @ compoundchem and @eedcAndy Twitter accounts share regular graphics exploring everyday chemistry. This work outlines the use of Snapchat, a mobile phone application offering a blend of both social networking and media sharing used by an average of 158 million people every day with the average Snapchat user visiting the app 18 times per day.17 Snapchat is a photo messaging app available on both iOS and Android platforms that allows users to send images and videos (with sound) that disappear after a set amount of time. Users have the option to send photos or videos (which can be annotated with text/hand-drawn illustrations) to multiple friends at once. The maximum number of characters for each Snap is 250, providing ample opportunity for descriptions to be included. The maximum video length is 10 s, although 6 clips can be combined to make an individual 60 s video Snap. This can be achieved by continuing to hold down the “record” button for up to 60 s. Recipients receive a notification upon being sent such media. Recipients can view photos for either up to 10 s or for an unlimited time while the B
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00014 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
Journal of Chemical Education
Technology Report
Figure 2. Exemplar Snapchat video shoot demonstrating how to run a column in a research laboratory and how the instructor has provided students a glimpse into their professional life.
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IMPLEMENTATION OF SNAPCHAT IN CHEMISTRY A “class” account (as opposed to personal account) was established whereby students can follow the account, viewing image and video updates via the “Story” feature. As an instructor, none of the student accounts was added to the class account, meaning that facilitators cannot see the private content of students. This was made clear to students when introducing the cohort to using Snapchat. This aligns with findings that while students are willing to utilize social media as part of their courses, students dislike the idea of blending their social and academic lives on social media platforms.18 Additionally, this also precludes the possibility of instructors contacting individual students (and vice versa) via Snapchat. As such, as part of this study, Snapchat was utilized predominantly to share media as opposed to facilitate social networking, and hence the students acted as the previously described “followers” of the account. The class Snapchat account was advertised to 198 chemists, 54 biochemists, and 46 natural scientists (lower division undergraduate students) through the first lecture of a course in chemistry and via an email notification. The advertisement outlined the opportunity to follow the account together with the sorts of snaps to be expected pertaining to contextualization of course content, practical work, research, and life as a chemist. Approximately 140 students out of around 300 decided to follow the account. Snapchat has opened up the possibility of allowing subject matter outlined in traditional lectures to be contextualized in the real world. Aligned with a social constructivist theory approach, by linking course content with real life examples and communicating them in this way, it is hoped that students are more engaged with the subject matter together with being able
to see the relevance and application of taught material in their daily lives (Figure 1).19 An example of one of the videos produced can be found in the Supporting Information. Furthermore, Snapchat has been utilized to demonstrate key experimental techniques in the laboratory that students will subsequently practice in an upcoming practical session. As well as depicting exemplar techniques, students were shown a setup/manipulation where there is a mistake (which the instructor engineered), and students were asked to identify the error. The answer or improved/correct demonstration was then posted as an update to the Story. Examples include incorrectly packing a silica column such that the layer of sand at the base was not uniformly distributed or adding a sample to a melting point tube that is either too little in quantity, leading to extreme difficulty in observing the melting point range, or too big, resulting in a melting point range that is too wide and potentially high. When media was posted containing setups with errors, this was engineered by the instructor. It is not recommended to broadcast incorrect work of individual students in the spirit of facilitating an inclusive classroom. Use of Snapchat has also been extended to research laboratories (Figure 2). Further to facilitating research-led teaching and once again allowing students to contextualize subject matter in a research environment, this also gives students a glimpse into a real research laboratory. It is hoped that this encourages students to become excited about chemistry research and provide a large cohort with a birdseye view into the world of research, which many students will subsequently partake in at a later stage in their studies and careers. Finally, Snapchat has been used to give students an insight into the professional life of the instructor. An example is also shown in Figure 2, where the instructor informed students C
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00014 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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that they were midway through designing green chemistry experiments in remote locations such as the Amazon rainforest utilizing local resources. This was subsequently linked to an additional Snap depicting one of the experiments that the students have done in their home institution, which was applicable for use in Brazil. It is hoped that this has allowed for students to humanize the teacher as a real person with the potential for facilitators to enhance the rapport with their students. Furthermore, this gives students an insight into the career of the instructor, which may have utility from a career development perspective.
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STUDENT PERCEPTIONS OF THE USE OF SNAPCHAT IN TEACHING CHEMISTRY After gaining permission from the Institutional Review Board, all students following the Snapchat account (approximately 140 in total) were sent a link to a questionnaire administered by Google Forms to briefly evaluate their experiences. The survey was conducted toward the end of the first term, and approximately 60 students (roughly just less than half of those following) completed the questionnaire. It is noteworthy that as 43% of the number of followers completed the survey, there is the possibility of response bias in that it is plausible that the self-selecting respondents were mostly those who found the media that was shared useful. All of these students viewed all of the Snaps posted (e.g., real-world contextualization, experimental technique, research laboratories, and professional life of the instructor). Figure 3 shows the percentage of students who agree that “using Snapchat is a valuable addition to my learning
Figure 4. Percentage of students who agree that they “feel more engaged with chemistry because of Snapchat” with a total of 59 respondents.
this way is highly significant at enhancing how engaged the students were with the subject as a whole. Given the link between engagement and academic performance,21 such findings may indicate that students are more likely to learn the subject matter in greater depth. Figure 5 shows the percentage of students who agree with the statement “Snapchat is a useful tool to allow me to
Figure 5. Percentage of students who agree that they “Snapchat is a useful tool to allow me to contextualize my knowledge in chemistry in the real world and my degree program” with a total of 59 respondents.
contextualize my knowledge in chemistry in the real world and my degree program”. Once again, many students strongly agree or agree with this statement (88%), with no students disagreeing, yielding an average of 4.32/5.00. Figure 6 depicts the percentage of students who agree with “Snapchat has contributed in improving my experimental technique in the laboratory”. In this case, students were less convinced that utilizing Snapchat had a positive effect on enhancing their lab practice (an average of just 2.95/5.00), with just 30% agreeing with the statement. This may be attributed to the portfolio of other resources available to students, specifically designed to enhance their lab skills such as skills training, walkthrough videos, online content, and training provided by Graduate Teaching Assistants.22−24 Learning gains associated with watching Snaps on experimental techniques have not been determined and would be likely to significantly differ in magnitude depending on the nature and number of other learning resources available to students on different degree programs.
Figure 3. Percentage of students who agree that “using Snapchat is a valuable addition to my learning experience in chemistry” with a total of 59 respondents.
experience in chemistry” using a Likert-style response scale.20 Mean values were determined by assigning each category from “Strongly Agree” as “5” to “Strongly Disagree” as “1” and multiplying by the number of respondents in each category. Following this, the total sum in each category was determined and divided by the number that is 5 times the total number of respondents. An average of 4.17/5.00, with 83% of respondents choosing to strongly agree or agree from Figure 3 indicate that the students feel as though utilizing Snapchat in the aforementioned manner is beneficial. Figure 4 indicates the percentage of students who “feel more engaged with chemistry because of Snapchat”. This statement scored a higher 4.32/5.00, with 83% of respondents choosing to strongly agree or agree, indicating that use of Snapchat in D
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00014 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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used the full social networking capabilities of Snapchat as the instructor has not added the students as contacts. There may be potential to facilitate such communication between instructors and students by encouraging students to create an additional account so as not to impinge on personal use.
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ASSOCIATED CONTENT
S Supporting Information *
The Supporting Information is available on the ACS Publications website at DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00014. Representative example of a video Snap (AVI)
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Figure 6. Percentage of students who agree that “Snapchat has contributed in improving my experimental technique in the laboratory” with a total of 62 respondents.
AUTHOR INFORMATION
Corresponding Author
*E-mail:
[email protected].
Finally, students were asked which Snaps (according to category) were the most useful to them (Figure 7). Both real
ORCID
Glenn A. Hurst: 0000-0002-0786-312X Notes
The author declares no competing financial interest.
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REFERENCES
(1) Al-Emran, M.; Elsherif, H. M.; Shaalan, K. Investigating Attitudes Towards the Use of Mobile Learning in Higher Education. Comput. Human. Behav. 2016, 56 (2), 93−102. (2) Educause Centre of Applied Research, Chen, B.; deNoyelles, A. Exploring Students’ Mobile Learning Practices in Higher Education; https://er.educause.edu/articles/2013/10/exploring-students-mobilelearning-practices-in-higher-education (Accessed July 2018). (3) Gikas, J.; Grant, M. M. Mobile Computing Devices in Higher Education: Student Perspectives on Learning with Cellphones, Smartphones & Social Media. Internet. High. Educ. 2013, 19, 18−26. (4) Rodriguez, J. E. Social Media Use in Higher Education: Key Areas to Consider for Educators. Journal of Online Learning and Teaching 2011, 7 (4), 539−550. (5) Greenhow, C. Youth, Learning and Social Media. J. Educ. Comput. Res. 2011, 45 (2), 139−146. (6) Smith, D. K. iTube, YouTube, WeTube: Social Media Videos in Chemistry Education and Outreach. J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91 (10), 1594−1599. (7) McClean, S.; McCartan, K. G.; Meskin, S.; Gorges, B.; Hagan, W. P. Reflections on ‘YouTestTube.com’: An Online Video-Sharing Platform to Engage Students with Chemistry Laboratory Classes. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (11), 1863−1870. (8) Korich, A. Harnessing a Mobile Social Media App to Reinforce Course Content. J. Chem. Educ. 2016, 93 (6), 1134−1136. (9) Geyer, A. M. Social Networking as a Platform for Role-Playing Scientific Case Studies. J. Chem. Educ. 2014, 91 (3), 364−367. (10) Schroeder, J.; Greenbowe, T. J. The Chemistry of Facebook: Using Social Networking to Create an Online Community for the Organic Chemistry Laboratory. Innovate Journal of Online Education 2009, 5 (4), 3. (11) Farmer, S. C. Using Social Networking Sites to Connect with Chemistry Alumni. J. Chem. Educ. 2013, 90 (5), 673−675. (12) Mazman, S. G.; Usluel, Y. K. Modeling Educational Usage of Facebook. Comput. Educ. 2010, 55 (2), 444−453. (13) DeCosta, M.; Clifton, J.; Roen, D. Collaboration and Social Interaction in English Classrooms. Engl. J. 2010, 99 (5), 14−21. (14) Wankel, C. Management Education Using Social Media. Organ. Manag. J. 2009, 6 (4), 251−262. (15) Kassens-Noor, E. Twitter as a Teaching Practice to Enhance Active and Informal Learning in Higher Education: The Case of Sustainable Tweets. Activ. Learn. High. Educ. 2012, 13 (1), 9−21.
Figure 7. Percentage of students who voted for the most useful category of Snaps for them with a total of 67 respondents.
world (39%) and professional life (36%) predominate in terms of utility, with just 4% feeling as though the Snaps pertaining to experimental technique are the most useful. This links in with the results in Figure 6. Representative free text comments regarding the use of Snapchat as a teaching aid in chemistry include the following: “Has been a great source to tell me of other areas I should go to for extra revision content and has helped me understand more of the research that goes on at the university!”. “It has enriched my engagement in my course” and “I find it very interesting to see some of the things you do on day to day basis as a research scientist”.
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CONCLUSIONS Snapchat can be used to engage students in chemistry by contextualizing subject matter in the real world together with providing students insights into research environments and life as an instructor, which ultimately contributes toward enhancing their engagement with chemistry as a subject. However, it is noteworthy that images and videos shared via the “Story” feature do disappear after 24 h, which has the potential to lead to frustration for instructors and students. One solution to this issue is to repost the media to an alternative social networking site such as Instagram for the material to be made available indefinitely. This study has not E
DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00014 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
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(16) Junco, R.; Heiberger, G.; Loken, E. The Effect of Twitter on College Student Engagement and Grades. Activ. JCAL. 2011, 27 (2), 119−132. (17) http://uk.businessinsider.com/how-many-people-use-snapchatuser-numbers-2017-2 (Accessed July 2018). (18) Ritter, N. L.; Delen, E. Undergraduates’ Facebook Use: Evidence-Based Practice to Implement Social Media in Education. IJSMILE 2013, 1 (4), 387−405. (19) Azzarito, L.; Ennis, C. D. A Sense of Connection: Towards Social Constructivist Physical Education. Sport Educ. Soc. 2003, 8 (2), 179−198. (20) Joshi, A. C.; Kale, S.; Chandel, S.; Pal, D. K. Likert Scale: Explored and Explained. Br. J. Appl. Sci. Technol. 2015, 7 (4), 396− 403. (21) Carini, R. M.; Kuh, G. D.; Klein, S. P. Student Engagement and Student Learning: Testing the Linkages. Res. High. Educ. 2006, 47 (1), 1−32. (22) Chaytor, J. L.; Al Mughalaq, M.; Butler, H. Development and Use of Online Prelaboratory Activities in Organic Chemistry to Improve Students’ Laboratory Experience. J. Chem. Educ. 2017, 94 (7), 859−866. (23) Fung, F. M. Using First-Person Perspective Filming Techniques for a Chemistry Laboratory Demonstration to Facilitate a Flipped PreLab. J. Chem. Educ. 2015, 92 (9), 1518−1521. (24) Flaherty, A.; O’Dwyer, A.; Mannix-McNamara, P.; Leahy, J. J. Evaluating the Impact of the ‘Teaching as a Chemistry Laboratory Graduate Teaching Assistant’ Program on Cognitive and Psychomotor Verbal Interactions in the Laboratory. J. Chem. Educ. 2017, 94 (12), 1831−1843.
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DOI: 10.1021/acs.jchemed.8b00014 J. Chem. Educ. XXXX, XXX, XXX−XXX
