xSince the emergence of social media in the early 2000’s, innovative educators have sought ways to utilise, adapt, and maximise the opportunities for learning within social networking and collaborative online spaces. My colleague and fellow researcher of social media

The purpose of this systematic review was to analyse the work published on social media for learning in the Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice (JUTLP) over the 20-year life of the journal to date. We summarised the current evidence on the use of social media for learning and documented how the field has evolved and changed since its emergence as a pedagogical theme. We explored themes for the use of social media for learning, key challenges, how the use of social media has changed over time, and we looked at specific types of papers that contribute to the original research on social media for learning.

We achieved this through a systematic review 3-step process: 1) scoping and understanding the review context and research questions, 2) undertaking methods using an established approach for a systematic and quality assessment of the literature, and 3) undertaking a thorough thematic analysis of the empirical evidence from the systematic review papers to provide meaningful outcomes and recommendations. This robust approach resulted in the analysis of 11 papers and exploration of 4 key themes: Computer mediated communication, digital capabilities, and confidence, learning community, and social media pedagogy. Finally, we made recommendations that aim to benefit both editors and authors of JUTLP, and editors and authors more generally.

Within this paper we created a taxonomy of social media platforms for learning in higher education. We took this information and created a visual inforgraphic. The full paper is open access and a link to the paper and a further infographic capturing a timeline of socila media communication platforms can be found at the end of this post.

Taxonomy of Social media Platforms for Learning in Higher Education (Purvis and Beckingham, 2024)

References

Purvis, A. and Beckingham, A. (2024) A Decade of Social Media for Learning: A Systematic Review. Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 21(5) https://doi.org/10.53761/vvvccy83

Purvis, A. and Beckingham, S. (2024) Social Media and Communication Platforms [Infographic] Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 21(5). https://open-publishing.org/journals/index.php/jutlp/article/view/760/966

Purvis, A. and Beckingham, S. (2024) Taxonomy of Social Media for Learning in Higher Education [Infographic] Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 21(5). https://open-publishing.org/journals/index.php/jutlp/article/view/760/967