This presentation, from #SocMed16, explores the development of a community of Computing students, supported by the use of social media and hackathon events. The community is used to increase student engagement to improve student satisfaction. Examples of how the community evolved and emerged to fill gaps in student employability are presented throughout.

1. Empowering Student Learning
Through The Development Of A
Social Media Community To
Support Computing Students
Dr. Thomas Lancaster
http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
@DrLancaster
#SocMedHE16 - The Empowered Learner?
Sheffield Hallam University
Friday 16 December 2016

2. Background

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My Teaching and Learning Background
Associate Dean (Recruitment) for Digital Technologies
at Staffordshire University
Some subject portfolio areas including computing (my
background field), journalism, broadcasting, TV, radio,
music, games design, visual effects
Formerly employed in a selection of managerial and
academic roles at Coventry University and
Birmingham City University (where this research was
undertaken)
Most research focused on academic integrity, contract
cheating, student plagiarism, social media use,
professional online presences, student employability
Development workshop for PhD students in Montenegro

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Many Opportunities For Your Involvement
Twitter Please tweet thoughts, observations, comments, quotes,
photos, discussion topics
#SocMedHE16
@DrLancaster
Live Please join in the discussion, ask questions and
contribute ideas

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Questions To Be Addressed
Why establish an community to support Computing students?
How are social media communities used more widely in the
Computing industry (and in other disciplines)?
How was the Computing community established and what
recommendations are there for others to learn from this process?
How was social media used to support community development
and events surrounding the community (such as hackathons)?

6. The Computing Curriculum Disconnect

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The Background To Traditional Computing
This is reflective of how I became
a programmer
Modern Computing is not just
programming, but programming
is a core skill and feeds into
many Computing jobs
Commodore 16 plus 4

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What Do Computing Students Get Taught?
Textbook I was teaching from in 2000
Learning outcomes in a core Computer
Science programming module in 2016
1. describe the fundamental programming
principles
2. design a computer program based on a
specification of requirements
3. implement a computer program from a
specification of requirements
4. test computer programs to ensure that they
meet the specification
5. describe fundamental algorithms and
techniques
6. select appropriate algorithm(s) for a computer
program and implement them.
Assessment in 2007

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What Skills Are Industry Looking For Now?
https://blog.linkedin.com/2016/10/20/top-skills-
2016-week-of-learning-linkedin
Data mined from all
hiring and recruitment
activity on LinkedIn
between January and
October 2016

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Difficult To Support A Diverse Student Intake
Liam Sorta
One group of students arrive with
technical skills in advance of those
teaching them
Other students arrive who have
never programmed before

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The Modern World Of The Programmer Is Social!
Twitter,
LinkedIn,
DevPost,
Website/Blog –
and many more

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Reasons To Develop A Social Media Community
To support high performing Computing students
To provide mentoring for inexperienced programmers
To increase student opportunities to engage with new technology and
employers
To ensure student familiarity with the social media tools expected by industry
To help students to develop a positive Professional Online Presence ready for
employability
To improve retention and student satisfaction levels on across suite of large
computing courses with diverse intakes

13. Developing A Community Routed In
Social Media

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Tapping Into The Hackathon Agenda
Hackathons are collaborative programming
events, often held over an extended time
period, often with sponsorship, competitive
elements and prizes
Similar events exist in other disciplines (e.g.
business start-up weekends, collaborations to
write and perform a musical in 24 hours)
BCU Hack Winners 2016

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Community Development
Placement student (paid), used to
establish community
Funding (internal) to provide student
mentors and to support students to
develop hackathon skills
Funding (internal) to support students
to attend hackathons
Funding (internal and external) to
run two hackathons
For more about the hackathons and the funding, see:
http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster/creating-an-engaged-student-community-
through-hackathons-birmingham-city-university-learning-lab-21-april-2016 (slides)
https://youtu.be/psiqWZ4Ls_s (video)

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Teething Problems
Striking a balance between allowing the society to be student-led,
whilst still meeting the reasons for which it was initially funded
Establishing regular events aimed at an inclusive audience
Getting students to understand the marketing needed to engage
students with a social media based society
Expanding the social media reach beyond Facebook
Managing a quest for personal power

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The Society
Facebook
Twitter

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Observed Behaviours
Sharing events (internal and
external)
Sharing student opportunities
Posting useful resources
Engaging in discussions regarding
technology news
Empowering students
Attending and commenting on
hackathons
Social events and poking fun
Collaborations between staff and
students

19. Social Media Examples

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Ownership of employability

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Free stuff notifications

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Start-up
engagement and
external visits

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Mentored
support
activities

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International experiences

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Competition
participation and
entrepreneurship
engagement

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Fun! Fun!
Fun!

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Hackathon
attendance

28. Was Establishing The Community
Worth It?

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The Marketing Price To Pay
A large push was made to promote the internal hackathons on Twitter, in
order to ensure continued funding
Students were encouraged to tweet and share their results – and this activity
was incorporated in the prize structure
Social media marketing was also supported with photographers and a push for
external media
Commercial aspects were not popular with all students, but appreciated by
sponsors
More active teaching of promotion and marketing for students is needed for
the next generation of Computing courses

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Positive Hackathon Outputs

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Continued Society Development
Society still operating, although the focus seems different this year
Staff support (and institutional help) needed to seed the
development of societies like this
Positive activity for those involved, as well as empowered learning
going beyond the subjects taught in the classroom

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Good results
for both
students and
the
institution

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Connect With Me!
(Speaking, PhD Supervision, Research
Collaborations, Consultancy)
Slides available at http://www.slideshare.net/ThomasLancaster
Email: thomas@thomaslancaster.co.uk
Website: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk
Blog: http://thomaslancaster.co.uk/blog
LinkedIn: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/thomaslancaster
Twitter: @DrLancaster