Citation: Kumar, P., & Gruzd, A. (2019). Social Media for Informal Learning: a Case of #Twitterstorians. In Proceedings of HICSS. Retrieved from http://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/handle/10125/59691 Abstract: Open, online environments like social media are now a mainstay of life-long informal learning. Social media like Twitter help people gather information, share resources, and discuss with other participant-learners with similar interests. This paper seeks to test and validate the ‘learning in the wild’ coding schema in the context of discussions on Twitter, an approach first developed for studying learning communities on Reddit. The schema considers how participant-learners are leveraging social media to facilitate self-directed informal learning practices, exploratory dialogue, and communicative exchanges. We apply the coding schema on a sample of tweets (n=594) from the History Twittersphere community (#Twitterstorians) to provide a more nuanced understanding of the different kinds of discursive practices, resource exchanges, and ideas being shared and communicated outside traditional classroom settings.

1. Social Media for Informal Learning:
a Case of #Twitterstorians
Priya Kumar Anatoliy Gruzd
@priyakumar613 @gruzd
Social Media Lab
Ryerson University
The Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS-52
January 7th - 11th, 2019

2. Links
•Slides: https://bit.ly/hicss2019
•Full paper in the Proceedings:
https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/
bitstream/10125/59691/0251.pdf
#Twitterstorians @Gruzd 2

3. How do we make sense of the vast
amount of data generated by
learners, especially in the “wild”?
• “Learning analytics is concerned with
collecting data from learners’ actions,
developing techniques to analyze
these data, and making the results
useful to practitioners” (Long &
Siemens, 2011).
• Learning analytics focuses on making
sense of “big data” collected from
learning management systems (LMS),
MOOCs and social media.
@Gruzd 3

4. Using the case of #twitterstorians, we wanted
to know:
1. How are social media sites used in informal
learning?
2. How are people engaging in informal learning on
Twitter?
3. What are the different types of exploratory
dialogue and behaviours that occur through the
#twitterstorians hashtag?
4. Does Twitter facilitate different types of
information and communication exchanges and
discursive practices than Reddit?
http://www.blogs.hss.ed.ac.uk/pubs-and-publications/2015/07/13/twitterstorians/
#Twitterstorians 4@Gruzd

5. Introducing #twitterstorians
• Hashtag created in September 2007 by historian
and blogger Katrina Gulliver
• People can use the #twitterstorians hashtag to:
• share resources and information
• learn about new work and research tools
• connect with other academic researchers,
teachers, and students
#Twitterstorians 5@Gruzd

6. Data Collection
June 20 – July 20 2017
17,391 unique tweets
6,349 tweets
(-RTs)
634 tweets Focus of
Analysis
(10% sample)
Daily Posting Frequency
#Twitterstorians 6@Gruzd

7. Analytic Framework: Discourse Analysis
Exploratory Dialogue Schema from Ferguson et al. (2013)
#Twitterstorians 7
Cue Phrase Linguistic Dialogue Example
Critiques ‘However’, ‘I’m not sure’, ‘maybe’
Discussion of Resource ‘Have you read, ‘more links’
Evaluations ‘Good Example’, ‘good point’
Explanations ‘Means that’, ‘our goals’
Explicit Reasoning ‘Next step’, ‘relates to’, ‘that’s why’
Justifications ‘I mean’, ‘we learned’, ‘we observed’
Others’ Perspectives ‘Agree’, ‘here is another’
@Gruzd

8. Our ‘Learning in the Wild’ Coding Schema
Code Definition
1. Explanation with Disagreement Expresses a NEGATIVE take on the content of the previous posts by adding new ideas or facts to
discussion thread.
2. Explanation with Agreement Expresses a POSITIVE take on the content of the previous posts by adding new ideas or facts to
discussion thread.
3. Explanation with Neutral
Presentation
Expresses a NEUTRAL explanation/judgment/reasoning/etc. with neither negative nor positive
reference to the content of the previous posts, nor necessarily any reference to previous posts.
4. Socializing with Negative Intent Socializing that expresses negative affect through tone, words, insults, expletives intended as
abusive.
5. Socializing with Positive Intent Socializing that expresses positive affect tone, praise, humor, irony intended in a positive way.
6. Information Seeking Postings asking questions or soliciting opinions, resources, etc. (‘Does anyone know …?’ ‘How
does this work?’). This does not include questions answered rhetorically within the post, e.g., if
a question is asked and answered.
7. Providing Resources Postings that include direct reference to a URL, book, article, etc.; postings that call upon a
well-known theory or the name of a well-known figure.
8. Rules and Norms Postings on topics such as what is the appropriate for a particular discussion, hashtagging
conversations, discussing what language is appropriate to use, how to back up claims by using
resources, etc.
#Twitterstorians 8@Gruzd

9. Example: Code 1 – Explanation with Disagreement
#Twitterstorians 9
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Expresses a NEGATIVE take on the content of the
previous posts by adding new ideas or facts to
discussion thread.
‘But’, ‘I disagree’, ‘not sure’, ‘not exactly’ with
explanation/ judgment/ reasoning/ etc.
@Gruzd

10. Code 2 – Explanation with Agreement
#Twitterstorians 10
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Expresses a POSITIVE take on the content of the
previous posts by adding new ideas or facts to
discussion thread.
‘Indeed’, ‘also’, ‘I agree’, with explanation/
judgment/ reasoning/ etc.
@Gruzd

11. Code 3 – Explanation w/ Neutral Presentation
#Twitterstorians 11
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Expresses a NEUTRAL
explanation/judgment/reasoning/etc. with neither
negative nor positive reference to the content of the
previous posts, nor necessarily any reference to
previous posts.
‘I can understand’, ‘interesting’, ‘depends on…’ or
statement responses.
@Gruzd

12. Code 4 – Socializing w/ Negative Intent
#Twitterstorians 12
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Socializing that expresses negative affect
through tone, words, insults, intended as
abusive.
‘no’, ‘you’re an idiot’, ‘this has been
explained multiple times’
@Gruzd

13. Code 5 – Socializing w/ Positive Intent
#Twitterstorians 13
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Socializing that expresses positive affect tone,
words, praise, humor, irony intended in a
positive way.
‘thanks’, ‘great feedback’, ‘you’re correct’
@Gruzd

14. Code 6 – Information Seeking
#Twitterstorians 14
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Postings asking questions or soliciting opinions,
resources, etc. (‘Does anyone know …?’ ‘How does this
work?’). This does not include questions answered
rhetorically within the post, e.g., if a question is asked
and answered.
‘does anyone know’, ‘can anyone explain’
@Gruzd

15. Code 7 – Providing Resources
#Twitterstorians 15
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Postings that include direct reference to a URL,
book, article, etc.; postings that call upon a well-
known theory or the name of a well-known
figure.
Link to resource copied to post (book, URL,
article, audio/video file). Referencing
theory/theorists, scholar or public work
(Einstein, Newton, Freud).
@Gruzd

16. Code 8 – Rules and Norms
#Twitterstorians 16
Definition Linguistic Dialogue Example
Postings on topics such as what is the
appropriate hashtag for a particular discussion,
what language is appropriate to use, how to back
up claims by using resources, etc.
‘See/don’t forget hashtag links’, ‘this post
doesn’t belong here’, acknowledging bots.
@Gruzd

17. RQ1: What types of information and communication exchanges and
discursive practices present on Twitter?
17
0%
1%
1%
4%
12%
17%
17%
38%
Socializing Negative Intent
Explanation with Disagreement
Explanation with Agreement
Norms and Rules
Explanation with Neutral Presentation
Socializing Positive Intent
Information Seeking
Providing Resources
% of tweets
based on 10% sample | n=634

18. RQ2: Does Twitter facilitate different types of information and
communication exchanges and discursive practices than Reddit?
Twitter
#twitterstorians
Reddit
r/AskHistorians/

19. RQ2: Does Twitter facilitate different types of information and
communication exchanges and discursive practices than Reddit?
19
0%
1%
1%
4%
12%
17%
17%
38%
0%
6%
4%
5%
48%
17%
22%
21%
Socializing Negative Intent
Explanation with Disagreement
Explanation with Agreement
Norms and Rules
Explanation with Neutral Presentation
Socializing Positive Intent
Information Seeking
Providing Resources
Reddit Twitter

20. Future Work
• Apply machine learning techniques to automate the coding process
• Extend to other social media datasets
• Facebook, YouTube
• LinkedIn, ResearchGate
#Twitterstorians 20@Gruzd

21. Social Media for Informal Learning:
a Case of #Twitterstorians
Priya Kumar Anatoliy Gruzd
@priyakumar613 @gruzd
Social Media Lab
Ryerson University
The Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences, HICSS-52
January 7th - 11th, 2019