Twitter-based Seminars Psychology micro-debating online for a group of undergraduate students

1. Twitter-based SeminarsPsychology micro-debating online for a group of undergraduate students Dr Maria Kontogianni

2. Students who took part • Year 2 students as part of their Health Psychology module (pilot) • Year 3 students as part of Psychology of Life and Work module • 52 participants in the year 3 cohort

3. Set up and preparation • All students receive 1 hour of ‘training’ in a computer room (twitter basics) • They were instructed to create an account using their Name and Student ID number (i.e. @N012345Emma) • They all follow the @NTUdebate account and @NTUdebate follows them • They were instructed to always follow every tweet with the hash-tag #ntudebate

4. Every week • I emailed them articles, podcasts, miniclips, audiofiles on a specific topic • The topic is handpicked for being controversial/current/interesting (i.e. Male suicide, happiness, gay conversion therapy) • The class is timetabled as DLT and students are reminded to ‘attend’ at 11am every Thursday (seminar time) • We ‘meet’ at 11 on the dot • Students are encouraged to ‘come-in’ and say ‘hi’ or ‘good-morning’ • Following that I ask the first question and manage the debate from there

5. Who Participated?

6. Face to Face VS Twitter basedHow do they compare? • Enjoyment • Accessibility • Participation/attendance • Belonginess • Reading materials in advance • Interaction with others • Expressing opinions • Usefulness • Motivation

7. Mean scores

8. Accessibility and belonginess

9. Reading

10. Expressing opinions and Interaction with group

11. Enjoyment and motivation

12. Qualitative comments • “because it was less personal I felt more confident in participating and expressing my thoughts” • “it allowed the quieter members of the group to speak up more” • “I read a lot more due to the debates and it was good to hear the views of people who don’t always talk up in class” • “as we were already on internet it was easier to follow links to reading materials” • “being on a pc enables you to look up more sources easily, compared to face to face seminars” • “you could take part from anywhere therefore it was easier to participate”

13. “it felt more of a group debate and it was refreshing. I found it great that I could search for links at the same time” • “sometimes I don’t feel confident in class, but with twitter debates it gives me time to think and I don’t feel insecure about it all” • “people shared ideas and opinions more than they would in a classroom setting” • “I liked the luxury of being in my own environment and still engage” • “I liked being able to access materials that were relevant to people’s tweets and back up my own tweets with refs so easily” • “the ‘tweetminars’ were a great idea. I actually got excited to be part of it” • “I was in bed, on a bus, waiting for a train, anywhere! Being part of uni on the go-genius!” • “I have copied the tweets into a word doc to ensure I use a wide variety of ideas in my essay”

14. Twitter #NTUdebate