Social media profiles in learning ecologies
Communications students at an online university formed distinct social-media learning profiles, including more academically guided versus more informal/digital resource users.
Source
Social media in the learning ecologies of communications students: Identifying profiles from students' perspective
Study at a glance
- Design
- Cross-sectional — Survey of communications students’ social-media learning ecologies
- N
- N=564 · From a population of 2,522 students
- Population
- Communications students
- Outcome
- How students use social media within their learning ecologies
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Social media profiles in learning ecologies
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564 students responded from a population of 2522.
the total population of students was 2522, the final sample, or respondents, were 564 students
One cluster was about 19% of the sample with high academically guided resource scores.
The second cluster represents 19% of the total sample and is characterized by significantly high scores on variables in place with academically guided learning resources
What they did
Researchers surveyed 564 UOC communications students about social media in their learning ecologies, ran PCA on dozens of items, then clustered respondents into learner profiles.
What they found
Factor/cluster solutions distinguished students who rely more on academically guided resources from those oriented to informal digital resources and actions, informing more flexible, profile-based training.
The limits
What it doesn't show
Cross-sectional self-reports cannot prove that matching instruction to profiles improves learning outcomes, and the sample is one online communications program.
Key terms
- Learning ecologies
- The set of contexts, resources, and activities through which people learn across formal and informal settings.
- Social media
- Platforms students use for communication, content, and networking that can support learning.
- Principal component analysis (PCA)
- Technique reducing many survey items into interpretable factors.
- Learner profiles
- Clusters of students with similar patterns of social-media learning use.
- Academically guided resources
- Learning supports shaped by formal academic structures and guidance.
- Informal digital resources
- Self-directed digital tools and practices outside tightly teacher-directed pathways.
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What was the analytic goal?
Common questions
Who was surveyed?
564 communications students at UOC (from a population of about 2,522).
What analytic steps were used?
PCA followed by cluster analysis of social-media learning items.
What kinds of profiles emerged?
Profiles differing in academically guided versus more informal/digital resource orientations.
What is the practical aim?
Support more flexible, personalized, collaborative training based on learner profiles.
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