Evaluating the Use of Social Media to Increase Engagement in Public Health Units

Dr Basia Diug 1 & Assoc/Prof Dragan Ilic 1 1 Medical Education Research Quality Unit, School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Monash University, Melbourne, Australia

WTH?…

Is Social Media & Why Me!

Definition:

 Create and share content or to participate in social networking  E.g. Youtube, Facebook, Twitter

100% 80% 60%

Who is Accessing the Internet

minor trend:  as age  40% 20% 0% 14-19 20-29 30-39 40-49

Age Bracket

50-64 65+ Source: Yellow Social Media 2013

How often is social media used?

Do not use social media More than five times a day A few times a week Never Everyday Once a Week Most days Less than weekly Source: Yellow Social Media 2013 H/T: Hugh Stephens

40% 20% 0% 100% 80% 60%

Which platforms are most used

WHY ‘TWEET’ IN PUBLIC HEALTH

• • •  Public health teaching is challenging as it focuses on prevention rather than intervention.

Twitter has a constant feed to the most current research, news and opinions of experts as well as organisations.

# let’s you search by theme • • • • • • Our recommendations included: @RobinBellAus (guest lecturer), @BasiaDiug (unit coordinator), @theMJA, @WHO @Monash_SPHPM @MERQMU

AIM:

To evaluate whether the use of Twitter as an assessment is a successful tool in increasing student engagement with staff, peers and public health concepts

METHODS

Incorporate interactivity Twitter activity worth (2%) into a core public health unit. Tasks included: 1) Play ‘dumb ways to die’ health promotion game and tweet your character’s demise 2) Students identify a public health issue in their daily lives by posting a photo, image or link to a journal article of interest 3) Getting students involved in the wider public health conversation by following recommended Twitter accounts and using #sphpm

Activity 1: Public Health Everyday

With the person next to you discuss examples of public health that you see every day. Describe on for each scenario: 1.

When you are commuting to this conference 2.

At your hotel 3.

Within the media

Questions to discuss:

 How difficult was to come up with public health examples?

  What are the different public health initiatives that effect our everyday lives?

What role does the media play in public health? Give both a positive and negative example

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RESULTS

Student cohort:  Bachelor of Biomedical Science  Total of 297 students of which 236 completed all Twitter-related learning activities (79.4%)  90% of students had previously used some form of social media  All questions posed were either yes/no or used the Likert scale (1=strongly disagree to 5=strongly agree).

Table 1. Use of Twitter in Higher Education Variable Prior use of social media

Yes No No response

N (%)

260 (87.5) 3 (1.0) 34 (11.5)

Previous use of social media *

Facebook Google + Instagram Tumbler Twitter 259 (87.2) 13 (4.4) 80 (26.9) 26 (8.8) 39 (13.1)

Preferred mode of accessing and using social media

Computer Mobile device Both computer and mobile device None/no response 73 (24.5) 146 (49.2) 33 (11.1) 45 (15.2)

Should social media be used in learning activities?

Yes No No response 222 (74.8) 47 (15.8) 28 (9.4) * Note – Students may have listed more than one form of social media previously used



Twitter & Grades:

Students who completed the Twitter learning activity had significantly higher end-of-semester grades compared to those who did not complete the Twitter learning activity [MD=3.98, 95%CI 0.40-7.55]  Social Media & Grades: No significant difference observed in regards to use of social media and end-of semester grades [MD=4.28, 95%CI -0.16- 8.59].



Appropriateness:

No significant difference also observed when comparing whether students believed that using twitter was appropriate for classroom learning and their end-of-semester and grades [MD=0.37, 95%CI -3.47- 4.21]

Student Attitudes

Overall were positive towards the use of social media in the learning environment. Students believed that the learning tasks using Twitter (Figure 1): 1) Enabled greater accessibility to staff; 2) Unique method of promoting public health; & 3) Facilitated collaboration with peers .

Student Attitudes between those who completed and did not complete the activity Figure 2: Comparison of student attitudes

There was a significant difference with respect to: 1.

Promoting public health [MD=0.547, 95%CI 0.21- 0.94]; 2.

Facilitating collaboration with peers [MD=-1.78, 95%CI -1.66 -1.89].

3.

No difference was observed regarding accessibility to staff [MD=0.25, 95%CI 0.11-0.61].

Student Attitudes between previous use of twitter

Figure 3: Comparison of student attitudes who used twitter previously

Students who were previous twitter uses had:  Greater belief that the tasks would provide greater accessibility to staff when compared to non users, [MD=-0.36, 95%CI 0.65- 0.07]. However, no difference was observed in attitudes between previous twitter users and non users with respect to:  Promoting public health, [MD=-0.16, 95%CI -0.46 0.12],  Facilitating collaboration with peers, [MD=0.25, 95%CI -0.60- 0.08].

https://twitter.com/search?q=% 23sphpm&src=typd

Lessons Learnt

 Social media can be difficult to use without instruction.  E.g. Only 27% of Twitter’s users under 18-29 - don't assume knowledge.

 Scaffold and model – guide students.

 Be involved

FUTURE DIRECTIONS

 To incorporate this activity into more units with a focus to increased interaction and recent journal articles and media articles.

 Develop skills and idea e-professionalism  Follow us on Twitter: @basiadiug @draganilic99 @Monash_SPHPM @MERQMU #sphpm