Using a Private Social Media Platform with Pharmacy Students
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1) The document discusses the development of a custom app called "Study Space" to address concerns about using mainstream social media for educational purposes. It provides a private space for anonymous interaction between students and academics. 2) An initial pilot with 140 pharmacy students was positively received, with 85% finding it useful. Based on feedback, additional units and 600 students were added. 3) Both students and academics saw benefits, including the ability to ask questions and receive answers from both peers and instructors, as well as facilitating discussion and peer learning. It helped address concerns about using public social media for educational purposes.
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Using a Private Social Media Platform with Pharmacy Students
- 1. Study-Space Keith Brown Albert Bolhuis Julie Letchford iOS ▪ Android ▪ Web
- 3. Feedback on use of Mainstream Social Media (MSM) • A Negative Impact on Digital Identity ‘it’s worrying – fear of it being used against you in a fitness to practice issue’ ‘how quickly something can go viral and be seen by so many.’ Also identified at Robert Gordon University: The role of social media in undergraduate pharmacy education Brown, A., Addison, B., 2015. SocMed15 Proceedings (December 2015) • Some students perceive their MSM as ‘personal’ and do not want to use it for ‘work’ • MSM can be distracting since it has many personal references and links • Some students have experienced bullying on MSM and do not wish to use it
- 4. Custom App Development Decision to Build App 1. For iOS and Android 2. Internal and Private Database 3. Anonymous Posts Early Mock-Up the students “If you make it easy enough, we will use it”
- 5. • Contribute to the education and training of other members of the team, including peer review and assessment • Contribute to the development of other members of the team through coaching and feedback • Contribute to identifying the learning and development needs of team members • Contribute to the development and support of individuals and teams Supporting Each Other Standard 10 outcomes
- 6. Timeline:
- 9. Version 1: March to May 2016 The first pilot ran with a cohort of around 140 pharmacy students Version 2: September 2016 onwards Trials across the university: • 25 channels • 11 programme units • 2 SSLC cohorts (Staff Student Liaison Committees) • 600 students • Some channels are more successful than others • It works provided the academic is proactive! Version 3: September 2017 • Student Coder
- 10. Student Evaluation 85% The app was useful in supporting my learning 60% The app increased feedback 85% The app is a good way for students to help each other 95% The app facilitated a community of students and academics working together 85% The posts by academics were important 80% The app was an improvement to the unit 60% The app was a compliment to the materials on Moodle 80% I would like to use the app for other units PA20024: Applied Pharmaceutical Biology 60% of cohort used the app – 85 students out of 140 (n = 24)
- 11. What were the most useful features of the app for your learning? • Both students and lecturers could post in the same place • When lecturers posted some important notes • When people asked a question the answers helped my knowledge and I could also try to answer questions which helped me to learn more • Getting answers from students AND staff. • Aided my revision • Lecturers' responses • Was able to ask questions and get help from other students. Lecturers could intervene if peers were wrong. • The chance to talk to other students in an informal way. Sometimes it feels inappropriate to email the lecturer so having a means of consulting peers instead is very useful • The lecturers answering any unanswered questions • A casual way to communicate and share ideas with the lecturers and other students; rather than writing an email asking about some simple questions • You could ask any question and in most cases it would be answered. It was useful in this way but also I'm quite shy so probably wouldn't have the confidence to ask the lecturers myself in case it was a stupid question, so this enabled me to get answers fast and without any worries • It consolidated my knowledge by me helping other people • It was useful to gain lecturer feedback on some of the questions • very quick Q and A system; feedback from both academics and students n=24 Student Evaluation
- 12. Academic Feedback • A convenient way to engage with students outside of lectures • Enables staff to monitor how well students have understood taught material • Easy to use • Minimal workload ‘Importantly, students are not only asking, but also answering questions that have been posted, and the app thus facilitates a lively peer support community for the unit’. Dr Albert Bolhuis Unit Convenor
- 13. Conclusions 1. ‘Study space’ provides a supportive community for learning. 2. ‘Study Space’ encourages interaction between staff and students, and promotes peer learning which fulfils some of the Standard 10 competencies. 3. Social media can be used to support student learning provided students are given a safe and private space in which to interact. @KeithBrownBath blogs.bath.ac.uk/keithbrownkeith.brown@bath.ac.uk For further information please contact Keith Brown:
Editor's Notes
- In this presentation, I will talk briefly about an app called ‘Study space’ that we have developed in P&P dept and tested in diff depts. at UoB Resulted from a collaboration between an e-developer (Keith Brown), students and academics and dev in response to students wanting more feedback Keith can’t be here today so I’m going to give this presentation on his behalf – I’m one of the academics who’ve used the resource but not an e-developer so please don’t ask any technical questions! Here you can see what the app looks like running on a phone and the types of interaction that are possible – talk about this in more detail during my talk Currently been used in 3 depts. (P&P, Polis and Mech eng). Can be used for posting messages, quizzes and surveys and voting competitions.
- App dev in response to students wanting more feedback and our desire to promote peer learning In 2013, various academics in the department tried using Facebook with students. This is not unusual, and many other departments at lots of universities have tried using Facebook or Twitter, with varying results. In P&P, this worked fairly well, in that some students engaged with the platform, and made contributions. However, informal conversations with students suggested that there were a number of barriers that prevented some students from participating
- The first of these concerned a negative impact on students’ digital identity. This was the main issue we identified – students concerned about the public and persistent nature of any posts on MSM. E.g…. This issue was also highlighted in another study at Robert Gordon University involving pharmacy students - presented at a Social Media conference at the end of 2015, https://blogs.shu.ac.uk/socmedhe/the-role-of-social-media-in-undergraduate-pharmacy-education/ Other barriers were that: students perceive their MSN as personal and related to social life, (e.g. sharing photos with friends and family) so some students seemed reticent to engage with it for work. For example, if a student is enjoying an evening in the pub, then they don’t want to receive notifications that their friend has posted a item of good antibody diagram. MSN can be distracting… Some have experiences bullying…
- As a result of these barriers, we decided to dev a custom app to improve feedback and promote peer learning. We were lucky enough to have an e-developer, K Brown in the dept, with the appropriate expertise. (Keith Brown – background in software engineering, project manager for PCCAL back in the 1990s and involved with the on-line CPD recording system and the MiDatabank system used throughout the NHS). The image shows an early prototype that was simply a mock-up to illustrate what it might look like. - post comments/questions - vote up or down on comments/questions - quizzes / surveys App is available for iOS and android has an internal and private database and allows users to post anonymously This image was shown to students and academics to gain an understanding of whether they’d use it and the approx. uptake. The feedback from students was very positive and a common thread was: ‘if you make it easy enough, we will use it’.
- App also aimed to promote peer learning so aligned well with some of the std 10 outcomes published by the GPhC e.g.
- The app developed is available for both iOS and Android. It is also available as a web app, Here you can see a typical time line which comes up as you use the app. The main idea is that there is a sequence of posts shown in chronological order. The student is able to post anonymously if desired, and it is also possible for users to up-vote or down-vote a post. Interestingly, most students have chosen to post anonymously – this was the case with the trial by pharmacy students, but also when the app was tried in other departments across the university. In general, questions posted by students were initially answered by academics. As time progressed, these questions were increasingly answered by other students.
- Here you can see two other types of posts: A voting competition and a simply question (or survey). These types of posts are only available for academics, but they enable more interaction both inside and outside of the classroom
- Here you can see responses to a voting competition. In this example, I was interested to find out what the students wanted to cover in the upcoming revision lecture but it could be used to gather other types of feedback from students e.g. start/stop/continue information.
- This is a brief history of app dev. It started with the pilot involving my unit, but is now being used in many depts. across the Uni Organised Crime and Democracy in Italy (involves role-play) Biochemical Engineering Managing Product Development Project Management Channels – closed cohorts of users – divided cohorts into 5 groups – each group had own channel – used for discussions amongst themselves It has also been trialled on our department Staff Student Liaison Committees as a way of getting feedback from students However, it should be noted that it hasn’t always been a success. The app works provided that the academic makes it work. If the academic does not engage then it is unlikely that the students will engage. We have a student coder – Y5 chem engineering student working on improvements e.g. for SSLC
- Here are some evaluation results. (from Survey monkey and end of unit evaluation results) For PA20024 around 85 out of 140 students used the app in some way. Take home message here is that these are big numbers and the students found the app valuable.
- The positive value of the app is further emphasised by some of the comments from students relating to their learning. In particular there was a strong sense of peer learning, with students willing to engage with the community and to help each other. This is what we were hoping for, and there is a strong alignment with the Standard 10 outcomes which was one of our original objectives when we decided to build the app.
- The Peer Learning is reinforced by feedback from the unit convenor, and my own observations: As the exams got nearer, there was an increase in the posts by students, and also how students were helping each other. I do have a copy of the app installed on my phone, and I’d be happy to show you the app if you are interested.
- In conclusion… For further information please contact Keith Brown. Currently waiting to hear the result of a funding bid for 300K. Idea is to make the system available to institutions across the UK. Happy for people to join the club if interested Possible Questions: 1. Attendees will want to use the app KB looking into ways of getting other institutions involved Waiting on results from a grant application to dev further 2. Is it really anonymous? No. We can find out who students are and we tell them this. Must stick within the rules and regs (did have one student who promoting party – laughed it off and OK Not moderated at the moment