Twitter’s Impact on Engagement and Grades

This paper describes our semester-long experimental study to determine if using Twitter – the microblogging and social networking platform most amenable to ongoing, public dialogue – for educationally relevant purposes can impact college student engagement and grades. Results showed that the experimental group had a significantly greater increase in engagement than the control group, as well as higher semester grade point averages. Analyses of Twitter communications showed that students and faculty were both highly engaged in the learning process in ways that transcended traditional classroom activities. This study provides experimental evidence that Twitter can be used as an educational tool to help engage students and to mobilize faculty into a more active and participatory role. As there is continuing growth in the use of social media by college students and faculty, it is hoped that this study will motivate further controlled studies of Twitter and other social media to evaluate how emerging technologies can be best used in educational settings and to tease out the variance between the effects of the actual technology and of the ‘Web 2.0 mentality.’

Junco, R., Heibergert, G., & Loken, E. (2010). The effect of Twitter on college student engagement and grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 27(2), 119-132. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2729.2010.00387.x

Online Versus In-Person Courses

According to a study, students taking the course in-person earned roughly a B- grade (2.8) on average while if they had taken it online, they would have earned a C (2.4). Additionally, taking a course online reduces a student’s GPA the following term by 0.15 points; and, if we look only at the next term GPA for courses in the same subject area or courses for which the course in question is a pre-requisite, we find larger drops of 0.42 points and 0.32 points respectively, providing evidence that students learned less in the online setting. The study also finds that taking a course online, instead of in person, increases the probability that a student will drop out of school. The study suggests that continued improvement of online curricula and instruction can strengthen the quality of these courses and hence the educational opportunities for the most in-need populations.

Bettinger, E., & Loeb, S. (2017). Promises and pitfalls of online education. Evidence Speaks Reports, 2(15). https://www.brookings.edu/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/ccf_20170609_loeb_evidence_speaks1.pdf

Benefits to Personalized Learning

According to a report released by the RAND Corporation, customizing instruction for every student can generate improvements in math and reading scores. Results from the study show that schools using a variety of practices that focus on individualized learning needs of students relate to positive effects on achievement – though this requires confirmation by further research. Recommendations for policymakers include incorporating flexibility into policies related to course progressions, allowing staff to have some autonomy to design school schedules that support PL, and incorporating grading policies to incorporate competency-based approaches, and clearly communicate these approaches to students, families, employers, and postsecondary education institutions. Recommendations for implementers at the district and school levels include providing teachers with the resources and time to pilot new instructional approaches and gather evidence of how well they work, providing teachers with time and resources to collaborate on developing curriculum and on reviewing and scoring student work, and providing resources and support for school staff to help them choose the most-appropriate digital or nondigital curriculum materials.

Pane, J. F., Steiner, E. D., Baird, M. D., Hamilton, L. S., & Pane, J. D. (2017). Informing progress – Insights on personalized learning implementation and effects. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation.