Podcast Series: Innovations in Education

Explore the full series of eCampus News podcasts hosted by Kevin Hogan—created to keep you on the cutting edge of innovations in education.

Social media in higher education: Pros, cons, and overall impact

A new infograph illustrates social media’s surge in popularity in the last three academic years.

Once regarded as a passing fad, social media is now an essential language that today’s college students—and officials—must learn in order to remain relevant and well-informed.

The University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research recently surveyed numerous four-year accredited U.S. colleges and universities to assess the use of social media in higher education.

The study’s findings are based on 456 interviews conducted between November to May of the 2010-11 academic year. UMass Dartmouth previously assessed social media findings for the 2008-09 and 2009-10 academic years.…Read More

Facebook pages for college classes? Students say yes, please

Even without official course pages, students organize groups via Facebook.

When offered a smorgasbord of social media choices, college students have continually chosen Facebook as the best social site for class collaboration. And the reason is simple: Students are most familiar with Facebook.

Colleges and universities have experimented with a host of social networks, but one of the foremost researchers of how students use social sites said Facebook – one of the first networks to gain traction among technology-savvy educators – remains the favorite for organizing group meetings and discussing upcoming assignments and exams.

Read more about social media in higher education……Read More