Teaching Social Media for Social
Good Dr. John Lannon
Dr. Sheila Killian
Dr. Liam Murray
Presentation Structure
• Background to a pilot module
• Module rationale & structure
• What was taught and what was
learned
Broadening the Curriculum Initiative
Graduate Attributes
Why Social Media for Social Good?
• Students’ interest in engaging with
social media
• Social good – institutional mission
• Personal motivations of faculty
Features of module
• 12 weeks – 3 phases
• 4 lecturers & a practitioner
• Mix of young undergraduates
• Discovery-based learning
• Links to local charities / community
initiatives
Student Motivation
What we thought we were teaching
• Social Media
• Context (of social media usage)
• Working with and for charities
• Social media strategy
• Social Responsibility
• Technological skills
• Group Work
• Communication
• Collaboration
• Creative teams
What Students said they Learned
Learning by Gender
Learning by impact motivation
Learning by fun motivation
Learning by business motivation
Learning by social motivation
Confusion… • “to be honest, I didn’t know what to
expect”
• “beforehand, I was quite nervous about the
presentation, and was unsure of how it
would run”
• “We were a bit all over the place for a
while”
Satisfaction… • “At the story fair, it was nice to see the work
the other teams had carried out, and to also
learn more about their charities. It was a
competition, and unfortunately we didn’t
take home first prize. However, I am very
happy with the work that we did.”
• “We also improved out communication,
presentation and creative skills, so for that
reason I thought it was a great success.”
Resilience… • “after meeting the charity we encountered a
few problems. J. .. didn‘t like most of our ideas
which made it hard on us because of all the
work we put in to coming up with all these ways to help them raise money and awareness”
• “but we can’t really do anything about it
because it’s J.’s choice so I guess we’ll just have to see how that goes.”
• “for future practice, I have to remember not to
work myself up so much”
Collaboration… • “things were getting lost in translation”
• “Group meeting before Easter went well.
We all agreed to come up with our own
ideas during Easter and hopefully when we
come back we’ll have a viable option. At
the moment I’m struggling to think of
something good”
Things we learned • Managing expectations
• Some issues of process
• Having “just enough”
confusion in the mix
• Overestimated students’
ease of engagement
with social media
• Unexpected positives
Unexpected outcomes
• Job opportunities
• Resilience
• Self-expression
• Creativity
• Pride
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