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91
ARTICLE
Sport Management Education Journal, 2015, 9, 91 -101
http://dx.doi.org/10.1123/SMEJ.2014-0038
© 2015 North American Society for Sport Management
Olan Kees Martin Scott is with the University of Canberra
Research Institute for Sport and Exercise and in the Faculty of
Health, University of Canberra, Bruce, ACT, Australia. Alicia R.
Stanway is with the School of Business, Edith Cowan Univer-
sity, Joondalup, WA, Australia. Address author correspondence
to Olan Scott at olan.scott@gmail.com.
91
Tweeting the Lecture: How Social Media Can Increase
Student Engagement in Higher Education
Olan Kees Martin Scott
University of Canberra
Alicia R. Stanway
Edith Cowan University
The higher education sector increasingly uses social media as an educational tool to develop a sense of com-
munity and foster student engagement, particularly as social networking sites have become an integral part
of the lives of digital natives. The current study sought to explore whether the use of Twitter could foster
student engagement in a sport marketing course, specically by embedding Twitter through two assessments,
online lectures and weekly tasks. Mean score comparisons indicated that over a 13-week semester, students
(N = 68) felt more engaged and included in the course because it had Twitter, found Twitter to be relatively
easy to use, and the use of social media aligned with course objectives. The results of the current study have
salience in sport management education, because the effective use of Twitter within a higher education context
demonstrates how the use of social media can foster engagement with course materials.
Keywords: Twitter, social media, engagement, university courses, higher education
The Internet has transformed the ways in which stu-
dents, professors, and universities interact. Historically,
the media acted as a lter or gatekeeper of information
and only published stories that were vetted by editors
or producers. The media landscape continues to evolve
rapidly: “online gaming, Internet-mediated communities
(IMCs), and social networking sites (SNSs) have all con-
tributed to Internet users being able to foster discussion
and create meaning in ways which were not possible
ve years ago” (Scott, Hill, & Zakus, 2014, p. 740). The
Internet provides a new medium for communication as all
users are able to both create and produce media content
simultaneously as the traditional barriers to dissemination
have been removed (Arsenault & Castells, 2008; Mahan &
McDaniel, 2006). The recent advent, and quick uptake, of
SNSs has provided users with a new interactive platform
for communication and continuous accessibility between
the consumer and other organizations (Meân, Kassing, &
Sanderson, 2010). Social media websites “are a collection
of Internet websites, services, and practices that support
collaboration, community building, participation, and
sharing” (Junco, Heiberger, & Loken, 2011, p. 119). A
common element of SNSs is the creation and maintenance
of social networks (Boyd, 2006; Boyd & Ellison, 2007),
which can help communities to form based on common
elements, such as celebrity worship or a favorite sports
team, or to voice one’s support for a politician.
A more recent development of SNSs is their use in a
university context, particularly when technology is inte-
grated into the classroom environment (Chao, Parker, &
Fontana, 2011). Studies have found that the use of social
media in a university context can enable the instructor
to develop a community of co-creators of course content
(Retelny, Birnholtz, & Hancock, 2012), enable instructors to
bring real-world examples into the course (Lowe & Laffey,
2011), and foster enhanced engagement with course materi-
als (Junco et al., 2011). There exists a plethora of research
on student engagement; however, much of the focus is at a
macro level (e.g., engagement within a university environ-
ment) rather than at a micro level (e.g., student engagement
within a course). Subsequently, the current study seeks
to bridge the gap in the literature between the adoption
of social media by educators by examining whether the
use of Twitter could foster enhanced student engagement
within a university sport marketing course. Specically,
the sport marketing course was designed to develop
student competencies in two objectives: (1) explain the
theories underpinning the marketing of sport and mar-
keting through sport, and (2) apply consumer research
methodologies to the consumption of sport.
92 Scott and Stanway
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
Literature Review
Over the past 10–15 years, the emphasis on university
content has changed. The traditional emphasis on con-
tent has become less important with a shift to teaching
students “how to learn and to think critically about both
content and process” (Light & Dixon, 2007, p. 159).
Further, Skinner and Gilbert (2007) suggested that it
is important that sport management educators deliver
a high-quality curriculum in an attempt to ensure that
graduates of sport management programs can have suc-
cess on the job. Increasingly, there has been a shift from
teaching students content, to teaching critical think-
ing (Zakus, Malloy, & Edwards, 2007). In the current
ever-changing environment, it is becoming increasingly
important that students are taught critical thinking skills
through the focus on curriculum that teaches the how of
learning rather than the what of content. As suggested by
Brooks and Brooks (1999), traditional linear approaches
to education foster neither creative thinking nor adapt-
ability in real-world situations.
It has been suggested that learning occurs best when
“individuals encounter an experience, deal with it through
observation and reection, ask questions and form gen-
eralizations, and seek to answer the question or solve
problems” (Jowdy, McDonald, & Spence, 2004, p.
217). Therefore, it is important for university instruc-
tors to create a course curriculum in which students
can blend theory and practices from the perspectives
of both peers and instructors (Dane-Staples, 2013).
Students are naturally curious individuals who seek to be
active participants in the learning process, provided the
right environment is provided by the instructor (Dane-
Staples, 2013).
Social Media and Social Networking Sites
Through the advances of Web 2.0 technologies and the
popularity of SNSs, organizations have shifted away
from one-to-many mass media advertising and market-
ing to more personal one-to-one communications to
nurture relationships with various stakeholders, mainly
consumers (Williams & Chinn, 2010). The concept of
social media and user-generated content has existed for
many years; Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) reported that the
rst social media started with Open Diary around 1988,
which was a website where blog writers came together
to form a community of writers. Social media has been
dened as “a group of Internet-based applications that
build on the ideological and technological foundations
of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of
user-generated content” (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010, p.
61). Further, Safko and Brake (2009) suggested that social
media encompasses “activities, practices, and behaviors
among communities of people who gather online to share
information, knowledge, and opinions using conversa-
tional media,” which enable a user to “create and easily
transmit content in the form of words, pictures, videos,
and audios” (p. 6).
Since the advent of the Internet and the proliferation
of SNSs, consumers have been able to communicate with
their favorite businesses, athletes, celebrities, and other
Internet users in ways, which were not possible before
the 2000s. The rise of social media, such as Facebook,
Twitter, and the photo-sharing service Instagram, have
provided consumers with new opportunities to communi-
cate (Chao et al., 2011). Further, Booth (2010) suggested
that contemporary media has never been more “personal-
ized, individualized, and made pleasurable to use” (p. 2).
Moreover, SNS users both simultaneously produce and
consumer media content (Mahan & McDaniel, 2006),
which suggests that consumers are actively engaged
(Booth, 2010).
Social networking sites enable consumers to create
and maintain “social networks” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007,
p. 210) and help others to connect with others based on
common interests. Social networking sites have been
dened as “web-based services that allow individuals
to (1) construct a public or semi-public prole within a
bounded system, (2) articulate a list of other users with
whom they share a connection, and (3) view and traverse
their list of connections and those made by others within
the system” (Boyd & Ellison, 2007, p. 211). Similarly,
Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) describe SNSs as “applica-
tion that enable users to connect by creating personal
information proles” (p. 63) and allowing others, cowork-
ers, friends, and family members to connect to one’s
prole. Further, SNSs can contain a myriad of types of
information, such as blogs, photographs, videos (Kaplan
& Haenlein, 2010). Each SNS, such as Facebook and
Twitter, allow users to create a prole that the user can
set to be either publicly or only privately visible on the
Internet. Further, a user’s connections are often available
for others to view and with whom they will possibly con-
nect (Boyd & Ellison, 2007).
With the ease of communication through social
media platforms, it would seem that university instruc-
tors would adopt these media quickly, but uptake, until
recently has been slow. It was found that 80% of uni-
versity faculty in the United States of America had used
YouTube in their teaching but only 20% had used either
Facebook or Twitter for teaching and learning purposes
(Moran, Seaman, & Tinti-Kane, 2011). More recent
research has found that instructors are adopting SNSs
with greater frequency (Wang, Scown, Urquhart, & Hard-
man, 2014) and there is a positive correlation between
SNS usage and student engagement in university activi-
ties (Evans, 2014). With Facebook and Twitter being the
preferred social media platforms of university students,
it would seem that instructors would also adopt these
platforms in the teaching environment, especially in sport
management courses, because the industry has been so
quick to adopt social media platforms (O’Boyle, 2014).
Twitter
Twitter is a 140-character microblogging service where
users can send short messages of 140 characters or less,
Tweeting the Lecture 93
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
which are known as Tweets (Twitter, 2015). The take up
of Twitter has been quite rapid, from 5,000 Tweets per
day in 2007 (Weil, 2010) to over 400 million Tweets per
day in 2012 (Farber, 2012). Twitter has evolved from
prompting users to tell others “what are you doing?”
(Marwick & Boyd, 2011, p. 116) to its current slogan
“Twitter helps you create and share ideas and informa-
tion instantly, without barriers” (Twitter, 2015), wherein
Twitter suggests that its service enables users to connect
in real time and “is the best way to connect with people,
express yourself and discover what’s happening” that a
person nds compelling (Twitter, 2015, para. 1). Further,
Twitter is increasingly being used as an educational and
professional networking tool whereby users gather at
regularly scheduled time periods to take part in a Twit-
ter chat, using an established hashtag to keep track of
conversations. Hashtags are keywords used in Tweets
signied by a # symbol before a word (e.g., #hashtag).
Given that the sports industry has been quick to
use social media, there has been a recent increase in the
number of studies specically exploring the use of Twitter
(Blaszka, Burch, Frederick, Clavio, & Walsh, 2012; Fred-
erick, Lim, Clavio, Pedersen, & Burch, 2014; Hambrick,
Frederick, & Sanderson, 2015). Many of the studies on
Twitter have focused on self-presentation, parasocial
interaction, relationship marketing, crisis management,
and as a public relations tool; however, in regard to
sport studies using Twitter as its basis, there have been a
number of foci: from athletes and teams, to leagues and
events. For example, Hull (2014) analyzed professional
golfers’ Tweets during the U.S. Masters Golf Tournament
and found that golfers were able to give fans a more inti-
mate view of their life. In terms of self-presentation, golf-
ers used both onstage and backstage personas when using
social media, which is consistent with self-presentation.
In another study on athlete presentation on Twitter, it was
found that athletes from North America’s major sports
(football, baseball, basketball, and ice hockey) attempted
to develop both social and parasocial relationships with
consumers on Twitter (Frederick, Lim, Clavio, Pedersen,
& Burch, 2014 ).
During the Lance Armstrong doping scandal, Ham-
brick, Frederick, and Sanderson (2015) analyzed both
traditional and social media around the Armstrong narra-
tives in 2012 and 2013. They found that Armstrong used
a multifaceted approach to the image repair strategies he
employed, such as showing contrition and regret. Further,
Armstrong may have been able to reinforce and perhaps
increase his followers’ attachment and engagement to
him in the period prior to and after his interview with
Oprah Winfrey. Twitter users have also been studied
around North America’s baseball nals series (Blaszka,
Burch, Frederick, Clavio, & Walsh, 2012) and during
the London 2012 Olympic Games (Frederick, Burch, &
Blaszka, 2015). Both studies found that the majority of
people posting on Twitter were individuals who were able
to discuss their fandom, rather than athletes or profession-
als (e.g., coaches, journalists, or administrators). In addi-
tion, Twitter has been described as a platform that is best
used for interaction and real-time updates (such as score
updates or a play-by-play of a game) (Hopkins, 2013).
Student Engagement
The concept of student engagement was originally
developed by Astin (1984), whose focus was on involve-
ment for university students. Astin (1984) characterized
engagement as “the amount of physical and psychological
energy that the student devotes to the academic experi-
ence” (p. 297). Kuh (2009) characterizes the notion of
engagement in higher education as having two distinct
elements: academic (in class) and nonacademic (outside
the classroom). Furthermore, the notion of engagement
has evolved to encompass many other facets, such as time
and effort that one spends to meet desirable goals at uni-
versity. Additional features of engagement are interaction
with instructors, involvement in other university environ-
ments or activities, and peer interactions (Chickering &
Gamson, 1987; Kuh, 2009).
An ongoing issue for university instructors in higher
education is to engage students both within the institution
and with course materials. Online communications have
changed the scholastic landscape because students and
their instructors can collaborate on tasks online (Chao, et
al., 2011). Online collaboration can create new chances
for enhanced participation in university materials (Parker
& Chao, 2007), both inside and outside of the classroom.
The current generation of university students have been
online their whole lives and have been called digital
natives (Prensky, 2001). Digital natives have used mobile
phones, played video games, surfed the Internet, and used
MP3 players and iPods their entire lives (Prensky, 2001).
It is therefore important for instructors to seek new and
novel ways in which to engage students through inter-
active avenues, many of which students would already
be intimately familiar, such as the use of technology to
search for information or social media to connect with
others. Such an approach would ensure work-ready
graduates (Skinner & Gilbert, 2007).
In their seminal work, Chickering and Gamson
(1987) suggested seven principles for best practice in
higher education, which were related to student engage-
ment: (1) encourage contact between students and
instructors, which does not necessarily have to occur in
the classroom itself, (2) develop reciprocity and coopera-
tion among students, (3) encourage active learning, (4)
provide prompt feedback, (5) emphasize time on task, (6)
communicate high expectations, and (7) respect diverse
talents and ways of learning. Furthermore, Kuh (2009)
suggested that “each of these [principles] represents a
different dimension of engagement” (p. 694).
As the current study seeks to investigate whether
the use of a social medium can foster engagement with
course materials, it is useful to review each of Chicker-
ing and Gamson’s (1987) seven principles of good prac-
tice. The rst principle recommends that the instructor
encourage contact between students and instructors in
motivating students for peak performance (Bangert, 2004;
94 Scott and Stanway
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
Chickering & Gamson, 1987). Further, several instructor
characteristics have been identied to positively create
a classroom climate wherein all students can potentially
feel comfortable (Bangert, 2004). Some of these charac-
teristics are friendliness, good communication skills, and
enthusiasm (Chickering & Erhmann, 1996; Marsh, 1982;
Young & Shaw, 1999). The advent of social media and its
use in the classroom enables instructors the opportunity
to foster student engagement during nonteaching periods
when, historically, instructors may have had little, if any,
student contact. Further, social media enables third-
parties, such as other academics, students, and industry
professionals, to engage with the course, which was not
possible before the proliferation of social media. For
example, historically, a third-party organization would
not be aware that it was being discussed in a university
classroom, because the discussion would occur exclu-
sively on a university campus. With the use of social
media and the ability to tag an organization in a post,
the organization is able to both follow the conversation
and be an active participant in the discussion. Therefore,
social media gives university instructors the ability to
engage with the sporting industry without the need for
the industry to actually attend the classroom.
The second principle recommends that a course
should encourage cooperation among students, because
learning should be a cooperative experience (Chickering
& Gamson, 1987) and working with fellow students can
increase an individual’s involvement in learning (Chicker-
ing & Ehrmann, 1996). Social media applications enable
students to open up communication between students,
instructors and external networks when they are not in
the same physical space.
The third principle posits that instructors should
promote active learning. Chickering and Gamson (1987)
suggest that instructors should provide students with
opportunities to discuss what they are learning, reect
on course content, relate course materials to their lives,
or see how course teachings may be applied to the real
world. Utilizing social media in the classroom can help
to aid active learning, because students can search vari-
ous social media websites and apply relevant course
materials to real-world examples or contemporary case
studies rather than applying their knowledge to case stud-
ies in textbooks that may be outdated. Further, Dwight
and Garrison (2003) suggested that lecturers empower
students to become active in the learning process during
the design of university courses. Using the Internet and
a variety of social media platforms may enable students
to both investigate numerous digital pathways and also
to create and coauthor relevant content (Edwards &
Finger, 2007).
It is important for instructors to provide students
with prompt feedback, which is the fourth principle of
good teaching (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996; Chickering
& Gamson, 1987). This principle suggests that students
need help in assessing their knowledge to benet from
courses. Further, Chickering and Gamson (1987) noted
that feedback must be timely to be most benecial. The
use of social media can enable instructors to provide
prompt feedback on tasks and prevent students from dis-
engaging from the materials. Moreover, the utilization of
social media also facilitates the ability for other students
to comment on another’s post and further develop their
thinking about a topic.
It is important for instructors to ensure that students
remain on task and complete assessments on-time.
Emphasizing time on task helps students learn effective
time management, which forms the basis for the fth
principle (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996; Chickering &
Gamson, 1987). Using social media and having weekly
graded tasks encourages students to stay on top of their
reading and workshops because there are weekly online
assessments.
Another tactic that instructors can use is to promote
high expectations of students. Chickering and Gamson
(1987) argue that high expectations are important,
because when instructors expect more, they will “get
more” from their students. In addition, Chickering and
Ehrmann (1996) suggested that technological use aids
this sixth principle of good teaching, because students are
more motivated to do well when their work will appear on
the Internet. As such, the use of social media can foster
high performance in students because their comments
are posted on the Internet in a public forum and they will
seek to portray themselves positively.
The nal principle of good practice in teaching
suggests that instructors need to respect the many dif-
ferent ways of learning (Chickering & Gamson, 1987).
There are many different ways to learn a concept and a
myriad of ways to study, and instructors should attempt
to provide students with a variety of ways to demonstrate
their learning (Chickering & Ehrmann, 1996; Chickering
& Gamson, 1987). The inclusion of technology into the
learning environment can foster collaboration in learning,
group problem solving, and be more open ended than
traditional forms of teaching, such as tests. As such, the
use of social media in classroom teachings aids instructors
in using new and innovative methods. Further, as social
media is in the public domain, students are able to help
each other in collaborative learning online. Based on the
reviewed literature on social media, SNSs, and student
engagement, the following research question is posed:
Can the use of Twitter foster enhanced student engage-
ment within a sport marketing course?
Method
Participants
On-campus students (N = 68) enrolled in a sport mar-
keting course of an Australian university participated
in a social media module. The course examined the key
concepts and practices in the process of sport market-
ing and was available to students enrolled in a business
undergraduate degree. The majority were domestic stu-
dents (77.9%), studying full time (95.6%), comprised
primarily of male students (60.3%). Before enrolling
Tweeting the Lecture 95
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
in the current course, 40 students did not have a current
Twitter account. Of the 28 students with current Twitter
accounts, usage was inconsistent with approximately a
third of participants accessing Twitter daily. During the
semester, students reported a signicant increase of Twit-
ter usage, with the majority of students accessing Twitter
once or twice per week. Usage of other social media
accounts included Facebook (99%), a personal blog (9%),
and MySpace (13%). Facebook was predominantly used
on a daily basis, as was their personal blog, while use
of MySpace was nonexistent (refer to Table 1), which is
consistent with national average of social media uptake
(Adcorp, 2015). Twitter was selected over other social
media platforms because it is best used for real-time
interaction (Hopkins, 2013), which formed the basis for
the two online discussion lectures and the wider sport
management industry could engage in the discussions
in a public forum.
Procedure
Enrolled students were required to sign up to the Twitter
service as part of the assessment requirements for the
sport marketing course. As part of the course’s assess-
ment items, there were two components to the use of
Twitter. First, students participated in two discussion
lectures, which were conducted using Twitter. Second,
students were to regularly post contemporary issues in
sport marketing based on course content. Both aspects
are explained below.
In the rst part of the assessment, the instructor
conducted an online lecture where the students discussed
contemporary issues in sport marketing in Week 5 and
10 of the semester, which was based on 4 weeks of
course content (Weeks 1–4 and 6–9). Each online
lecture had ve topics with three to ve questions in
each; resulting in between 15 and 25 total questions
that the students were to answer (e.g., How does Tennis
Australia use the interest of #AusOpen to market tennis to
wider public and increase overall participation?). Topics
were provided to the students via a public website 48 hr
before the discussion lecture. Students were required
to answer each question posted, reply to at least one
answer for each question, provides examples showing
mastery of course content, show evidence of application
of course materials in either an answer or reply, and to
demonstrate an ability to generate answers that attempt
to engage other students.
Before the online lectures, the local sport manage-
ment industry (professional and semiprofessional team,
National and State Sporting Organizations, and volunteer-
run sport clubs) was also engaged to gauge whether
they would be interested in participating along with the
students to discuss the relevant issues. This allowed the
discussions to have real-world content and engagement
with the wider sport community in the discussion, and
application of, sport marketing principles. As the institu-
tion is the only one with a sport management degree in its
state, acceptance of this offer was positive and students
were engaged by the wider community during both online
discussion lectures.
In addition to the two online lectures, the instructor
set weekly tasks for the students to complete, which were
related to that week’s lecture content. In the weekly tasks,
students were required to post two original Tweets about
the relevant sport marketing topic that was covered during
that week’s lecture and post two replies to other students
between Weeks 3 and 12 of the semester. Therefore, stu-
dents were required to post, at a minimum, four Tweets
per week. To facilitate the online experience, students
were required to include the course code in a hashtag in
their Tweets to enable others who followed the course
code to see and respond to fellow students’ Tweets.
Further, students were advised that they did not have to
censor their regular Twitter activity, as the instructor only
followed the course hashtag and not their Twitter feeds
unless the student followed the instructor. In that case,
the instructor would follow the student back.
As not all students were signed up to Twitter before
enrolling in the sport marketing course, students were
Table 1 Demographic Use of Social Media
Social Media Platform
Frequency of Use (%)
Daily
Once or twice
per week
Once
per month Irregularly Total
Twitter (n = 28)
35.7 25 10.7 28.6 100
Facebook (n = 67)
89.5 10.5 0 0 100
Personal blog (n = 6)
71.4 14.3 0 14.3 100
MySpace (n = 9)
0 0 0 100 100
Twitter use during semester (N = 68)
Daily
Once or twice
per week
Only during
Weeks 5 and 10 Total
23.5 69.1 7.4 100
Note. n = number of participants who had existing respective social media accounts.
96 Scott and Stanway
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
given two supplementary lectures on (1) Internet etiquette
(otherwise known as netiquette) and (2) how to use Twit-
ter and various methods of Tweeting to ensure that each
student had basic knowledge of using Twitter. Students
were taught the basics of netiquette, which “are social
norms that individuals choose to follow to facilitate
effective communication on the internet” (Network
Etiquette, 2011, para. 1). Further, students were instructed
on how to sign up to Twitter, send messages (Tweets),
send replies, retweet, what hashtags were, and how
to use hashtags. Students were encouraged to follow
their instructor and send the instructor an introductory
Tweet, so the instructor could follow each student.
At the commencement of the course, students were
provided with an overview of the current study project
by a colleague, who was not the course instructor, and
subsequently invited to voluntarily participate, which
involved completing a self-administered questionnaire
in Weeks 3 and 13 of a 13-week semester. Although all
students used the Twitter service as part of the require-
ments of the course, only participants who volunteered
to participate in the research component completed the
questionnaires. To ensure voluntary participation, the
advantage of anonymity and minimal threat of disclosure
to the course instructor, data collection was administered
by a colleague at the end of the Weeks 3 (Time 1) and 13
(Time 2) lectures and students who wished to participate
in the project were invited to complete the questionnaire.
Ethics was approved by the institutions Human Research
Ethics Committee.
Materials
Based on a review of relevant literature and student
feedback from the pilot implementation of the social
media module, questionnaire items were developed by
the authors to broadly measure aspects of student engage-
ment that specically relate to the social media module,
including social media engagement (e.g., “Twitter has
kept me connected with what’s happening in sport”),
community engagement (e.g., “Twitter has kept me con-
nected with the lecturer in this course”), application of
course objectives (e.g., “Twitter has allowed me to apply
sport marketing principles to real-world examples”),
perceived ease of use (e.g., “Twitter is relatively easy
to use”) and overall satisfaction (e.g., “I really enjoyed
using Twitter this semester”). Before collecting data for
the current study, the questionnaire was piloted with a
sample of students enrolled in the social media module
in a previous semester to ensure the design of the ques-
tionnaire, as well as to identify and rene problematic
items. A 6-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree to 6
= strongly agree) was selected to encourage participants
to make a choice, rather than accommodate indecision
(Frazer & Lawley, 2000; Sekaran, 2003). In addition,
gender, enrolment status (full-time vs. part-time and
international vs. domestic), social media usage patterns
and perceived skill level (1 = very low skill to 6 = very
high skill) were included as demographic items.
Results
Paired-samples t tests were conducted to compare mean
scores across the 13-week semester. There was a statisti-
cally signicant increase in means scores for 7 of 15 items
(refer to Table 2). The largest mean score increases were
Item 7 “I will feel/felt more engaged in this course
because it had Twitter” (mean increase of 0.90, t(66) =
–5.15, p < .001, η
2
= .29), Item 6 “I will feel/felt more
included in the course content because it had Twitter”
(mean increase of 0.87, t(65) = –5.40, p < .001, η
2
=
.31), Item 8 “I believe Twitter will be/was relatively
easy to use” (mean increase of 0.82, t(66) = –5.26, p <
.001, η
2
= .30), Item 11 “I believe tweeting aligns with
the course objectives” (mean increase of 0.45, t(66)
= –3.00, p < .005, η
2
= .12), and Item 12 “I believe
I will/did enjoy using Twitter this semester” (mean
increase of 0.44, t(66) = –2.88, p < .005, η
2
= .11). In
addition, there was a statistically signicant increase
in perceived skill level from Week 3 (Time 1) (M =
2.82, SD = 1.68) to Week 13 (Time 2) (M = 4.18, SD
= 1.20), t(65) = –7.12, p < .001, with the η
2
statistic
(.43) indicating a large effect size. An independent-
samples t test was performed to analyze differences in
perceived skill level based on participants who had an
existing Twitter account, compared with those who had
not. Results indicated that although both groups reported
a signicant mean increase from Time 1 to Time 2, the
perceived skill level increase was to a greater extent for
participants who did not have Twitter at the start of the
course. There were also signicant differences in scores
for 13 of the 15 items for participants who had an existing
Twitter account compared with those who did not (refer
to Table 3). Finally, there were no signicant differences
in Week 13 mean scores by gender or enrolment status.
Discussion
The current study sought to investigate whether the use
of a SNS would foster enhanced student engagement
with university course materials. Findings suggest that
social media is an effective tool to be used in the univer-
sity classroom, as levels of engagement with a course’s
content increased over the 13-week semester. The use
of SNSs in a university context is an ever-growing phe-
nomenon, which builds on Kuh’s (2009) two elements,
in-class and outside of the classroom engagement. In
using SNSs in the educational context, instructors are
able to facilitate additional opportunities for students to
be engaged in course materials. Further, SNSs enable the
creation of a cohort of learners where online collaboration
can enhance participation. In the current study, students
reported that they felt more included in the course, spe-
cically with the largest mean increases in two items, “I
felt more included in the course content because it had
Twitter” and “I was more engaged in this course because
it had Twitter,” which relate directly to how the course
was facilitated.
Tweeting the Lecture 97
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
The concept of student engagement has evolved
to include more facets than simply academic and non-
academic involvement, the use of SNSs and Twitter can
enable other desirable goals for both universities and
instructors. In terms of the current study, students felt
more engaged with the content, the instructor, and there
was a feeling that the use of Twitter was effective in
achieving learning outcomes, which was to (1) explain
the theories underpinning the marketing of sport and
marketing through sport and (2) apply consumer research
methodologies to the consumption of sport. These are
important ndings as they suggest that students under-
stand the value in using newer modalities of learning.
Further, this nding might be explained by the fact that
digital natives have always used technology in their lives
and therefore, this population might not be hesitant to
adopt these technologies and platforms in their learning
environment.
For university instructors, there is a strong push glob-
ally to have more courses and degrees online, with over
30% of USA higher education students taking at least one
course in a fully online mode (Friedman & Friedman,
2013). As such, it is increasingly important for educators
to have an online presence so students are able to connect
to their instructor and also to create new channels of com-
munication. Further, utilizing a wide variety of media
in the classroom, course management software (e.g.,
Blackboard or Moodle), SNSs (e.g., Facebook, Twitter,
and Instagram), along with the traditional media in teach-
ing (e.g., PowerPoint and Prezi) will expose students to
a variety of media and their uses. Given the reliance of
technology in the workplace, as well as the increasing
advertisement of “social media” job positions, such an
emphasis will enable instructors and higher education
institutions that have a curriculum and course materials
that will ensure work-ready graduates (Skinner & Gil-
bert, 2007). In the current study, students were able to
discuss (sport) marketing examples outside of class time
and use real-world examples in their discussions, which
applied the rst principle of good practice (Chickering &
Gamson, 1987). For example, the instructor would Tweet
relevant (sport) marketing examples using the course code
as the hashtag, which students were encouraged to follow.
As all students had a Twitter account, they were able to
communicate with one another about (sport) marketing
and co-create course content (Retelny et al., 2012). Stu-
dents were able to more easily connect and engage with
the instructor and other students about course related
Table 2 Paired-Samples t Test
Item
Time 1 Time 2
tM SD M SD
1
Twitter will keep/has kept me connected with what’s happening in
the sport industry
4.01 1.20 4.28 1.36 –1.56
2
Twitter will keep/has kept me socially connected with peers in this
class
3.94 1.29 4.15 1.39 –1.12
3
Twitter will keep/has kept me connected with the lecturer in this
course
4.43 1.20 4.32 1.39 0.56
4
Twitter will keep/has kept me connected with third parties 4.00 1.15 3.75 1.38 1.60
5
Twitter will allow/has allowed me to apply sport marketing
principles to real-world examples
3.93 1.15 4.15 1.18 –1.36
6
I will feel/felt more included in the course content because it has/had
Twitter
3.28 1.32 4.15 1.45 –5.40**
7
I will feel/felt more engaged with this course because it has/had
Twitter
3.57 1.36 4.47 1.38 –5.15**
8
I believe Twitter will be/is relatively easy to use 4.25 1.26 5.07 1.15 –5.26**
9
I believe Tweeting will be/is an effective learning resource 3.72 1.28 4.12 1.38 –2.58*
10
I believe Tweeting will be/is an effective assessment item 3.60 1.35 4.06 1.54 –2.29*
11
I believe Tweeting aligns with the course objectives 3.76 1.04 4.21 1.13 –3.00**
12
I believe I will/did enjoy using Twitter this semester 4.03 1.47 4.47 1.42 –2.88**
13
I believe I will/did enjoy this course this semester 4.76 1.11 4.75 1.11 0.11
14
I understood what was expected of me in the social media
assignment
— — 4.81 1.03 —
15
I encourage other courses to use social media in the classroom — — 4.37 1.15 —
16
Perceived skill level 2.82 1.68 4.18 1.20 –7.12**
*p < .05, **p < .01. N = 68.
98 Scott and Stanway
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
materials that would not have been possible during the
three-hour lecture. Further, Twitter enabled conversations
to be taken online and/or ofine depending on where
the discussion originated to foster motivation in course
materials (Chen, Lambert, & Guidry, 2010; Junco et al.,
2011). Through the extended discussions that could take
place either ofine or online, students were provided
opportunities to engage with university materials using
media that would not have been possible 5 years ago.
These opportunities encourage students to be active in
their learning by discussing relevant and contemporary
sport marketing examples with one another online, which
applies Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) third principle
of good practice. Moreover, new media has enabled
students and their instructors to continue classroom con-
versations online, therefore enhancing and increasing the
quantity of discussions about course materials.
With weekly tasks being set by the instructor, stu-
dents were encouraged to stay up-to-date on their tasks
and complete activities in a timely manner. The task also
exposed students to new ways of learning and because
they were assessed on a weekly basis, they had to be
active participants in the process. Through the 10-week
assessment, students were able to be active in the learn-
ing process as they were compiling information about
their weekly lecture topics and posting relevant infor-
mation online that was shared with the rest of the class
through the use of the course hashtag. In addition, the
on-going tasks encouraged students to be active in their
learning through the use of social media and presenting
the course content online. The use of social media sup-
ported students to stay up-to-date in course materials and
promoted active learning, which applies the second and
fth principles of good practice in education, which is
developing reciprocity and cooperation, and emphasiz-
ing time on task.
The use of social media in a classroom environ-
ment enables instructors to create a course that promotes
cooperation and collaboration among the instructors and
students, and long-term information retention of course
materials (Chen et al., 2010). As the weekly tasks required
students to Tweet about the week’s lecture and apply
Table 3 Independent-Samples t Test
Item
Twitter Account No Twitter Account
t 𝛈
2
M SD M SD
1
Twitter has kept me connected with what’s
happening in the sport industry
4.79 1.26 3.39 1.33 2.688** 0.10
2
Twitter has kept me socially connected with peers
in this class
4.71 1.33 3.75 1.30 2.988** 0.12
3
Twitter has kept me connected with the lecturer in
this course
4.89 1.26 3.93 1.35 2.996** 0.12
4
Twitter has kept me connected with third parties
4.21 1.20 3.43 1.41 2.411* 0.08
5
Twitter has allowed me to apply sport marketing
principles to real-world examples
4.25 1.08 4.08 1.25
0.601
ns
6
I felt more included in the course content because
it has/had Twitter
4.68 1.19 3.73 1.51 2.778** 0.10
7
I felt more engaged with this course because it
has/had Twitter
5.11 1.03 4.03 1.42 3.636** 0.17
8
I believe Twitter is relatively easy to use
5.46 0.84 4.80 1.26 2.428* 0.08
9
I believe Tweeting is an effective learning resource
4.68 1.25 3.73 1.34 2.970** 0.12
10
I believe Tweeting is an effective assessment item
4.61 1.37 3.68 1.60 2.548* 0.09
11
I believe Tweeting aligns with the course
objectives
4.61 0.96 3.93 1.16 2.556* 0.09
12
I enjoyed using Twitter this semester
5.25 0.75 3.93 1.53 4.733** 0.25
13
I enjoyed this course this semester
5.11 0.92 4.50 1.18 2.286* 0.07
14
I understood what was expected of me in the
social media assignment
5.07 0.81 4.63 1.12
1.795
ns
15
I encourage other courses to use social media in
the classroom
5.00 1.09 3.93 1.56 3.348** 0.15
Perceived skill level (Time 1)
3.71 1.61 2.16 1.42 4.155** 0.21
Perceived skill level (Time 2)
4.64 1.03 3.83 1.20 2.939* 0.11
*p < .05. **p < .01. N = 68.
Tweeting the Lecture 99
SMEJ Vol. 9, No. 2, 2015
real-world cases to the materials in their Tweets, students
were actively synthesizing course content and showing
their understanding of their sport marketing course. In
addition to working through relevant sport marketing
examples, students were provided with feedback from
one another on their mastery of the week’s learning and
were also providing feedback to others. As a result of the
Twitter experience, students were actively engaged in co-
creation of course content, as well as receiving feedback
from the instructor and each other through the social
media tasks. The practice of prompt feedback conrms
Chickering and Gamson’s (1987) fourth principle of good
practice in university education.
Limitations and Future Directions
The strength of the current study is that is furthers our
understanding of how social media can enhance student
engagement in an educational context. There are, how-
ever, several limitations that deserve discussion. A central
limitation is that the current study had a relatively small
sample of 68 university students, and despite a reasonable
sample size given similar studies (e.g., Browning & Sand-
erson, 2012), it would be useful to replicate the results
using a larger sample size, as well as a more diverse
sample, such as students across various disciplines.
Accompanied with a longitudinal design (see Junco et al.,
2010) to measure how SNS usage can enhance student
engagement across the degree and a control group, as well
as connecting the grades to the achievement of the stated
course outcomes, would enable a more diverse view of
the potential of SNSs to enhance student engagement
and learning in an educational context. In addition, col-
lecting data across multiple modes of platforms such as
Facebook and Discussion Forums would enable better
insight into the most effective platforms to enhance
student engagement. Given the importance of student
engagement and its impact on student retention in the
educational sector (Thomas, 2012; Tinto, 2010), further
research that explores how interaction with SNSs can
improve student engagement and subsequently student
success, is warranted.
Conclusions
As the social media landscape continues to change, future
studies are warranted to explore best practice in the
use of social media platforms in university classrooms.
In the current study, two lectures were replaced with
online discussion-type tasks, as well as weekly tasks.
Both assessment items were created so students could
show their mastery of the course materials. However,
there are many other ways in which social media and
Twitter could be used in a university environment.
For example, instructors have used (closed) Facebook
groups, wikis, blogs, and many other social media. Each
of these media has its own benets depending on the
course objectives. As such, it would be worthy to create
a best practice framework and recommendations for each
of these media to enable instructors to best choose which
social media to use.
The current study provides novel insights about the
use of Twitter in an education context and how engage-
ment with course materials can be enhanced through
the use of social media. Further, setting weekly social
media tasks encourages students to stay up-to-date in
their studies while fostering a collaborative learning
environment. The current study also bridged the gap in
terms of the use of social media in the classroom and how
it can be adopted to foster engagement in a university
course. As the use of social media continues to develop
among university instructors and students, most of whom
are digital natives, it is suggested that social media be
adopted as an integral part of the learning environment
in the educational context.
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