Twitter can play role in higher attainment and better engagement, study finds. Sarah Cunnane reports
The sight of students fiddling with their mobile phones and laptops as they tweet their way through lectures is enough to drive many academics up the wall.
But according to a study at Lock Haven University in the US, tweeting could be used to improve academic performance.
Rey Junco, associate professor in the department of academic development and counselling, assessed the impact of using Twitter as a teaching tool on students taking a pre-health course at the institution, which is a member of the Pennsylvania state system.
Separating the students into two groups, he asked one to use the social-networking site Ning to communicate with lecturers while the other used Twitter.
According to a paper published in the Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, titled “The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades”, the latter group scored on average a grade higher than their counterparts.
Read full article, originally entitled ‘The tweet taste of success: social media’s grade effect’.