Engaging students through social media

Abstract

The ways in which support staffs, engage with students in Higher Education continues to be a robust topic of discussion and the evolution of social media now contributes a new element to this discussion. Much of the current debate about the use of social media in higher education is redundant. The question of 'should we use social media' is irrelevant, given the vast number of individuals who are currently utilizing all manner of media. The real question is how do we continue to capitalize on the advantages delivered by social media? Distributed learners do not have a geographic neighbourhood of peers, but through the use of social media, support staff in higher education can satisfy this expectation of students. Tinto (2006) suggested that we... we already have sufficient research on student success. What is missing... is the ability to transform the knowledge that we have into practical knowledge. Using this as a recommendation, this article describes the practice of deploying social media to engage and support students at the University of New England. With all due respect... one might argue that we already have sufficient research on student success. What is missing... is the ability to transform the knowledge that we have into practical knowledge (Tinto, 2006).