Meta-Analytically Exploring the Learning Outcomes Assisted With Twitter in the Pandemic Time

Meta-Analytically Exploring the Learning Outcomes Assisted With Twitter in the Pandemic Time

Min Wang, Zhonggen Yu
DOI: 10.4018/IJICTE.302250
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Abstract

The use of social media such as Twitter has gained popularity in education during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study included 22 high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles for the meta-analysis. The authors reveal that there are no significant differences in teaching effectiveness between the Twitter and non-Twitter-assisted learning approaches. Twitter-assisted learning outcomes are significantly higher than the non-Twitter-assisted whether Twitter is used as a supplementary or an integrated tool. Twitter-assisted learning can lead to significantly higher learning outcomes than non-Twitter-assisted learning in the USA, Greece, and Sweden, but no significant difference is revealed in Spain. Swedish users hold significantly positive attitudes towards the use of Twitter in education, but no significant difference is found in the USA. Twitter-assisted learning can cause significantly more engagement than non-Twitter-assisted in the USA, and male learners have significantly higher learning outcomes than females in both the USA and Spain.
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Positive Findings

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced people to receive education through social media such as Twitter and Facebook (Yu, 2021). Twitter-assisted learning could improve learners’ engagement in learning activities and communities. Active engagement in learning could improve learning outcomes although the link between them proved weak. Tips through Twitter were useful to learners in Spain because they deem Twitter a tool for educational purposes (Fouz-Gonz tool 2017). With Twitter, Spanish students could actively participate in learning activities although they could hardly integrate the use of Twitter into learning interactions. Guidance should, therefore, be provided for students to improve the interaction. The restriction on the length of a message could encourage users to think and decide what to type next. The training schedule could focus on the design of learning activities (Feliz, Ricoy, & Feliz, 2013). With social media such as Twitter, American students, who consider Twitter a useful tool, could actively join in large learning communities and enhance their learning interest (Hitchcock & Young, 2016). Greek Students’ learning attitudes towards Twitter were positive, leading to their active engagement in learning activities (Katrimpouza, Tselios, & Kasimati, 2019). Therefore, this study will focus on learning attitudes, learning achievements, and learning engagement in both Twitter and non-Twitter-assisted learning methods.

The use of Twitter could improve users’ learning outcomes due to various factors. Integrating Twitter into a course coupled with teacher participation could greatly improve students’ learning outcomes in the USA (Junco, Michael Elavsky, & Heiberger, 2013). Twitter-assisted learning approaches could greatly improve students’ learning outcomes by enhancing their engagement (Junco, Heiberger, & Loken, 2010). Twitter use could greatly improve Greek students’ laboratory performance although it is not found significantly correlated with their personality traits. The use of Twitter could improve Greek students’ learning outcomes and social presence and enhance their self-efficacy (Loutou, Tselios, & Altanopoulou, 2018). In a classroom, American students who used Twitter frequently obtained significantly higher learning outcomes than those who seldom used Twitter (Webb, Dugan, & Burchett et al., 2015). Broadcast journalism majors could perform excellently assisted with Twitter in terms of the degree of learning activity engagement and interactivity in the USA (Cozma & Hallaq, 2019). Other smart learning tools such as interactive webinars and podcasts may also improve learning outcomes (Campi, Amparore, Checcucci, Claps, & Zhuang, 2021).

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