Students Using Social Networking Spaces to Forge Virtual

Students Using Social Networking Spaces to Forge Virtual

Regina Deil-Amen, Associate Professor
University of Arizona, Center for the Study of Higher Education
Manuel Sacramento Gonzalez Canche , Assistant Professor
University of Georgia, Institute of Higher Education
Cecilia Rios-Aguilar , Associate Professor
Claremont Graduate University
https://www.facebook.com/SMTConnect
http://gettingconnected.arizona.edu
 Social media use is near-universal for those under 30 years of
age and actively utilized by 66% of those under 50.
 Social media is reshaping the way students communicate
generally and within their college community.
 BUT, we know almost nothing about the relevance of social
media interactions for engagement, integration, belonging,
and college identity for COMMUNITY COLLEGE STUDENTS.
 Ellison et al. (2011); Junco (2011); Mayer & Puller (2008);
Wimmer & Lewis (2010)
Limitations:
 All studies focus on 4-year college students
 2 studies rely on self-reported data on use of social media
 2 studies focus on the role that “friendships” play in students’
academic success.
 How connection to and engagement in college happens for
community college students in on-line environments?
 How students’ on-line exchanges reflect efforts by students
and institutional agents to seek, offer, and engage particular
forms of “integrative community building”?
 How students’ on-line exchanges reflect efforts by students
and institutional agents to seek, offer, and engage various
social capital exchanges?
 Beyond traditional frameworks (Tinto, 1993/97/00; Astin, 1984; Kuh, 2001; Thomas, 2000)
 Socio-academic integrative moments (Deil-Amen, 2010)
 events, activities, interactions, and relationships with both academic and social
elements
 enhance learning, procedural knowledge, information-acquisition, intellectual
competence, college identity, and connectedness
 tend to occur within and just beyond the classroom, where commuting students meet
other students and instructors, develop feelings of belonging and engagement, and learn
success strategies
 Forms of social capital related to group membership/belonging (Bourdieu, 1986),
trust and obligation (Coleman 1988; Burt, 1997), information-acquisition and
exchange (Coleman, 1988) and access to network-embedded resources (Lin, 1999)
 Cultural wealth perspective (Moll, Amanti, Neff, & González, 1992; Yosso, 2005)
 Acknowledge forms of capital already present in underrepresented and poor communities
yet often unacknowledged and unrewarded by dominant institutions
6
 Text data generated by posts/comments on each college’s
“feed” during the academic semesters of Fall 2011 & Spring
2012.
 We analyzed the “text data” from 38,811 individual posts
and comments generated by approximately 2,788
community college students.
 Text Mining – interdisciplinary set of procedures involving
linguistics, computational statistics, and computer science
(Feinerer, Hornik & Meyer, 2008).
- Pre-process data by removing numbers, punctuation, and
common “stop-words” such as: “for” “the” “to” “in”
- Quantify the frequency of words as they appear on text using
R’s wordcloud package
 Qualitative data analyses in Nvivo to examine the content
and purpose of the the actual social media posts and to
examine how these posts conformed to our theoretical
paradigms
 Student-dominated space (not primarily
directed by administrators, faculty, staff)
 Social media often viewed at odds with
academic success, a distraction, but….
How did students use the
community college social
media space?
We find them engaging in
“integrative community
building”
• on-line communities rich
in socio-academic,
financial, and
procedurally-relevant
social capital exchanges
Students are pro-actively
activating their
“navigational capital”
(Yosso, 2005) to acquire
additional college-going
Getting Connected: Harnessing the Power of Social Media Technology for Community College Student Success
social capital.
@smtconnect • http://gettingconnected.arizona.edu
 Four patterns emerged in the data, showing students’
attempt to BUILD A COMMUNITY characterized by:
(1)The prominence of academic language in this social media space
(2)The prevalence of questioning
(3)A preference for self-identification by campus location and
program/major rather than other demographic characteristics
(4)The financially-based, market-based, procedurally-based, and
socio-academic nature of students’ pursuit of social capital
“class”
(most frequent and central) “math”
“take/taking”
Michelle: Just when I think that I have an understanding of macroeconomics.... I fail another test. ughh :(
Tony: I'm taking macro this semester too. It can be tough! Have you already taken micro?
Dan: Which is it recommended to take first, macro or micro?
Tony: I took micro first, but from what I understand, the first 4-6 chapters are identical for each. So you
could get by choosing either first.
Michelle: I don't need Micro for my degree so I didn't take it. I am doing it online so just when I think I
understand it & get a 100% on my homework I then take the quiz & totally bomb it. This whole graph
nonsense is killing me!
Michelle: Oh my goodness I just read & did hw for chapter 6 & boy oh boy is it way more understandable
when charts aren't involved!
Tony: Glad to hear it! I'm just about to hit chapter 6 myself. :P
“Any one have psy1010 with
instructor Thakkar tomorrow
at 11 at ccw campus?” …“i
had her a few semesters ago
and she is a good teacher.
Students shared:
 Academic experiences
 Strategies
 Advice on how to organize their course-taking
“Has anyone taken
Nutrition class (diet1200) online or in
class? How bad or
good was it?”
“good” (prominent)
Students reached out for academic support (study
groups, study partners, some advice/help with
course content)
Frequently used to
discuss and recommend
particular classes and
instructors.
“what” “how” “does” “who” “can” “any” “anyone” “know”
“looking” “need” “help”
Students asking questions, requesting info, seeking assistance
Ana: I need a good College Algebra 1314 Teacher for Central? Can y'all give me some names please?
“what” “how” “does” “who” “can” “any” “anyone” “know”
“looking” “need” “help”
Students asking questions, requesting info, seeking assistance
Ana: I need a good College Algebra 1314 Teacher for Central? Can y'all give me some names please?
 Conspicuous absence of words representing race/ethnicity
 Identified campus, location/city, and program/major
 Especially Colleges #1, #2, #7, #8 – multi-campus systems (see handout)


#1 (“metro” “west/western” “east/eastern”)
#2 (“south” “central” “north”)
 College #8 (next slide)
 cities/towns/campus locations (Cheyenne, Laramie, Albany County)
 Majors/programs (business, computer, nursing)
ONE EXCEPTION:
 Non-traditional age students (next slide)
 Older students
returning to
college received
socio-emotional
support from
‘similar’ others
 These students
often expressed
an academic fear
or challenge, and
other students or
staff/faculty
responded with
encouragement.

Nancy: Starting to get freaked out about going back to school....it has been so long ago. and hearing how hard
the rn classes are going to be ....

Paige: (staff) You're going to do fine! My husband went back after more than 20+ years out of school - he's
complaining non-stop, but loving it I can tell :) Our RN program is the best - good luck! If you're ever near the IT
wing - come say hi!

Brent: Hey Nancy, you will do an awesome job! Believe in yourself and give yourself a little more credit! My mom
just finished her Associates and it's been 20+ years! Keep encouraging people by your side and give it all you've
got! I believe in you!

Heather: It's hard at first, I came back after 14yrs!!! But you get into the hang of it quickly....just manage your
time well and you'll do great! And ask others who have been here for advise on what professors to take! That
makes a world of difference too!

Kelly: I felt the same way before the start of my first semester back last Fall. The last time I was in school was
over 20 yrs. ago. I didn't know if I could handle the hard classes but I did. Heather is right, you get the hang of it
really fast. I am a final exam away from being done with my prereqs for nursing! I'm hoping to start nursing this
Fall. I say go for it! You'll do just fine!

Katie: I'm back after 15 years. It took about a month to settle in with a good routine, but it is going fine now!

Nancy: thanks with all this support i hope i do good i think that i will it will just be getting back into the swing
of things that will take a min. to fall into :)

Gary: Hello Nancy, and welcome…it has been 40 yr's for myself, it is not easy and the old saying if you do not use
it" you loose it" is almost right but the teachers are very willing to help. Once you get through the pre req's it will
be easier. If ever you doubt yourself, go to nurse together.com click on forum and check out the nursing week
information and watch the video, yes you will do just fine Always believe, stay positive , we believein you.
 financial aid
 course enrollment and grading procedures
 navigating other organizational aspects of
college-going
 buying and selling books and related supplies
 “How many credits is considered a full time student?”
 “Does anyone else feel lost at the financial aid office at [inst_name]? You ask questions and never
seem to get a decent answer... or you don't know if your financial aid is going to cover fees. So you
ask, and you're more confused afterwards. ??? I don't think it's just me...
 I just received an email reminding me to renew my FAFSA for the 2012-2013 school year. Does anyone
know [name of college]’s deadline? I would assume it is the federal deadline of June 1st, but cannot
find any info...thanks!
Paulina: Does anyone know where we can check our grade so far in the class? Other than asking our
teacher?
Zinahi: you go to your laccd acct and when you log inn you will click the 6th tab on your right click for
the term, school & year and there you have it
Zinahi: some teachers also post it in moodle.
Paulina: Thanks! I dont know what moodle is, but i will check my account.
 Use of the app as market for buying and selling “books” and
related supplies was extremely common among students
“looking” for and offering books.
 “Any Nursing students that haven't taken Electronic Health
Records, I have a used book that is first edition, I will sell. Email
me at [email address] if interested. $15. No CD included-we
didn't use it in class anyway.”
 On-line socio-academic moments reveal the type of “integrative
community building” exchanges students desired
 simple posts seeking answers to specific questions often turned into
opportunities for further “comments” of socio-academic and procedural
information-sharing.
 the longer posts relating to procedural or financial questions, help-seeking, or
book buying/selling regularly transformed into more personal-social
exchanges

For instance,
 book transactions turn into sharing which majors they are pursuing and how they
balance family and school
 questions about financial aid turn into expressions of frustration and
discouragement followed by words of support, advice, and shared experience.
 Students use Schools App to create a community that is not
primarily social in nature

they attempt to enhance their socio-academic and procedural
integration through seeking and providing advice, information, and
guidance


to navigate a HIGHLY COMPLEX institution
student–student / student–institutional agents
 Schools App is a “virtual” window exposing what students both
LACK and POSSESS
Students are confused and lack procedural college knowledge but
possess advanced navigational capital (Yosso, 2005)
 They use the virtual space to acquire:



emotional support related to their academic pursuits
the specific college-relevant forms of social capital (academic and procedural) they
need to succeed.
THE END
THANK YOU!
QUESTIONS??
Getting Connected: Harnessing the Power of Social Media Technology for Community College Student Success
@smtconnect • http://gettingconnected.arizona.edu