Remote learning has grown in popularity over the years, with technologies like artificial intelligence shaping personalized instruction and classroom management.
Recently, the debate on the role of tech in education has narrowed down to the possible impact of social media in the field of academia.
There is proof showing that social media already influences business, employment, and social interactions. As the world becomes more interconnected, the significance of social media keeps growing.
This article focuses on how students and educators can use social media to enhance the quality of instruction.
How Does Social Media Benefit Education?
As more than 60% of the world’s population already knows, social media can be an effective tool for sharing information, learning about news, interacting with friends, and disseminating information instantly to large audiences. According to recent studies, close to 95% of college students in the United States currently use at least one social media platform.
As such, it makes perfect sense for educators to find ways of engaging students using the text that they already interact with daily.
Presently, instructors use social media to organize class projects, communicate instructions to students beyond the classroom walls, and share educational resources. Also, social media can connect colleges to wider communities, including by sharing school news, holding virtual meetings, disseminating research, and advertising campaigns and initiatives. Here are some notable benefits of using social media in academia.
- Extends Learning Opportunities Beyond the Traditional Classroom
One of the most notable benefits of social media in education is that it allows greater interaction and extends learning opportunities beyond the borders of the traditional classroom. Through social media, students can access online classes and remote jobs. They can interact with payforessay services and get tutors to help with challenging tasks.
It teaches students the importance of working from home as a crucial component of digital literacy. Students can share announcements, interact with their peers, share information with professors, and engage in educational tasks outside the confines of the classroom. Instructors can also use social media platforms to carry out live lectures.
- Creates Connections Between Students and Alumni
The main function of social media is to connect people from different parts of the world for work, academic, and social reasons. The platforms offer a way for colleges to communicate directly and speedily with faculty, staff, and alumni, encouraging connections across multiple audiences. Through social media pages, colleges can attract new students to their institutions, showcasing their policies and offers. The institutions can also use socials to keep students and parents informed, while also growing alumni networks and promoting on-campus activities.
Using social media to focus on nurturing the local communities and publishing interesting and informative content can also help colleges reach out to prospects and boost enrolment. According to a recent survey, 50% of college admission officials attributed increases in enrollment to a more aggressive social media strategy. Your institution’s posts on social media can help students decide whether or not to join the institution.
- Helps Build Brand Identity
Not only does social media help with building your college’s brand and grow an audience passionate about the existing educational opportunities, but also allows you to create relationships with prospective students. Whether you intend to attract more students, engage the current population, or improve alumni relations, having a good social media strategy is mandatory.
Evidence shows that prospective students tend to turn to social media when looking for guidance during college decisions. So, having a strong social media strategy will improve your brand presence and appeal. In this manner, therefore, social media supports and amplifies your college’s branding. If your institution employs the right strategy, it will be able to attract more students and increase donations.
The point here is that social media has played an immense role in revolutionizing the way we connect and communicate with each other. This is not just in our personal lives as teachers and students can now learn and teach better.
Today, innovative educators are embracing the role of social media in the classroom. The biggest influence of social media in academia is through better engagement. It can connect students from resources across the world, while also facilitating communication and collaboration between students.
Most importantly, social media offers a platform where teachers, students, and administrators can share information and ideas.
Tips for Using Social Media in Education
Social media has numerous opportunities for students and teachers. It can allow learners to enhance their digital literacy and critical thinking skills. Here are some ways colleges and students can use social media to improve the quality of instruction.
- Have a Solid Social Media Strategy
The best way for colleges to benefit from social media is by having a solid strategy for building their social media presence. Regardless of your role in the classroom or college, benefiting from social media requires having a strong presence.
Colleges can build their social media strategies by having smart social marketing goals. Have a plan, which means that you should avoid trying to cover too many bases at once. Your goals could be increasing your college’s brand reputation, managing the brand reputation, generating leads, improving community engagement, or gaining market insights through social listening.
- Initiate Campaigns to Attract New Students
Social media can help colleges attract students and beat the competition by improving the number of applications from qualified students. Once you have a social media strategy in place, you need to review your approaches. Having the right campaigns can help you improve enrolment and allow you to attract new students.
You could run the campaign a few weeks before the admission process starts. You could use urgency and scarcity techniques in your campaigns such as indicating that slots are 40% sold. Tease some of the benefits students are likely to enjoy if they enroll in the course.
Understand that it is vital to choose the right social channel to reach your target audience. The first step in getting the most out of your social media strategy is to know what your audience prefers.
If, for instance, you notice that many freshmen click on the ‘connect with us’ link on your Facebook page, you can tailor your Facebook content to meet the needs of this unique group. The content can include videos and pictures of what your college has to offer.
- Broadcast Alerts and Updates
Another way to use social media in education is to use posts to broadcast updates and alerts. College administrators and professors can meet students outside the traditional classroom by making use of social media posts on platforms like X or Facebook. You can have students follow classes on social media to view posts regarding course updates, tests, and assignments.
Colleges can have publicly accessible social media pages that they dedicate to particular schools or departments. When making use of social media for academic reasons, colleges should adhere to professional boundaries. You could email students links to social media groups or pages for access.
You can also use live streaming to conduct lectures and discussions. Today, many instructors use social media to stream lectures and class discussions. Students who are unable to make it to class, for whatever reason, can keep up with the lesson online or record it to review later. Instructors can also include captions to help students struggling with hearing challenges. Platforms like Facebook, YouTube, and Instagram allow students to record the livestreams for future reference.
- Create Class Blogs for Class Discussions
Blogging is one of the of the most important ways to use social media in education. This is an online activity where students and teachers share thoughts, ideas, and interact on important concepts through written content on a website. Blogging through social media helps online learning as it allows learners to take part in reflective experiences and work on their critical thinking skills. Teachers can use blogs to help students develop a better understanding of the subject matter. Students also get to engage their peers, research information, and present their findings with greater ease.
- Use Social Media for Education Marketing
Social media platforms can also help when it comes to marketing an institution online and increasing its appeal among students and prospects. Social media marketing can be useful to your institution if you are looking to access a larger audience. For instance, you can leverage influencers and social media content creators to educate and engage with students.
Another way to use social media to market your institution is by including links on your college website. Evidence shows that most students use social channels to research schools and make college decisions. In other words, most prospective students and parents check school websites when they are interested in the institution.
Offering additional ways for people to learn more about the institution creates a unique insight into campus life.
The Bottom Line
Using social media for education goes beyond the classroom setting as it allows educators to manage students and organize lectures. Evidence shows that social media allows a more holistic learning experience and allows the building of a community around the campus.
This article offers some useful insights on how colleges and educators can use the power of social media to improve instruction and attract applications.
