The generation of student engagement as a cognition-affect-behaviour process in a Twitter learning experience

Abstract

Twitter is a microblog that allows users to interact about a topic in online discussion. This makes it an interesting interactive tool with possibilities to increase student engagement and learning performance through active collaboration in an informal learning environment. However, few articles take a quantitative approach to investigate the creation of student engagement using this social networking site. To address this gap, we propose a series of activities conducted through Twitter to analyse the engagement generation process in a sample of 110 students in the first year of a business and administration degree at a large Spanish university. The results show that the engagement process is created through active collaborative learning and enjoyment, and that engaged students are more satisfied with the activity and perceive greater learning performance. This leads us to recommend teachers to encourage active and collaborative activities to make students more engaged and satisfied, and improve their performance. Implications for practice or policy: • Course leaders can use social networking sites to enhance learning performance and student engagement in collaborative learning activities. • Encouraging the engagement generation process in e-learning experiences positively affects students' satisfaction with these experiences and their learning performance. • Group activities are useful to promote student engagement in Twitter-based learning experiences. • Activities consisting of applying the concepts studied in class to practical environments, and activities where students browse for online information and take part in a debate, are more enjoyable.