Twitter-based SeminarsPsychology micro-debating online for a group of

undergraduate students

Dr Maria Kontogianni

Students who took part

• Year 2 students as part of their Health Psychology module (pilot)• Year 3 students as part of Psychology of Life and Work module• 52 participants in the year 3 cohort

Set up and preparation

• All students receive 1 hour of ‘training’ in a computer room (twitter basics)

• They were instructed to create an account using their Name and Student ID number (i.e. @N012345Emma)

• They all follow the @NTUdebate account and @NTUdebate follows them

• They were instructed to always follow every tweet with the hash-tag #ntudebate

Every week

• I emailed them articles, podcasts, miniclips, audiofiles on a specific topic

• The topic is handpicked for being controversial/current/interesting (i.e. Male suicide, happiness, gay conversion therapy)

• The class is timetabled as DLT and students are reminded to ‘attend’ at 11am every Thursday (seminar time)

• We ‘meet’ at 11 on the dot• Students are encouraged to ‘come-in’ and say ‘hi’ or ‘good-morning’• Following that I ask the first question and manage the debate from

there

Who Participated?

Face to Face VS Twitter basedHow do they compare?

• Enjoyment• Accessibility• Participation/attendance• Belonginess• Reading materials in advance• Interaction with others• Expressing opinions• Usefulness• Motivation

Mean scores

Accessibility and belonginess

Reading

Expressing opinions and Interaction with group

Enjoyment and motivation

Qualitative comments• “because it was less personal I felt more confident in participating

and expressing my thoughts”• “it allowed the quieter members of the group to speak up more”• “I read a lot more due to the debates and it was good to hear the

views of people who don’t always talk up in class”• “as we were already on internet it was easier to follow links to

reading materials”• “being on a pc enables you to look up more sources easily, compared

to face to face seminars”• “you could take part from anywhere therefore it was easier to

participate”

• “it felt more of a group debate and it was refreshing. I found it great that I could search for links at the same time”

• “sometimes I don’t feel confident in class, but with twitter debates it gives me time to think and I don’t feel insecure about it all”

• “people shared ideas and opinions more than they would in a classroom setting”

• “I liked the luxury of being in my own environment and still engage”• “I liked being able to access materials that were relevant to people’s

tweets and back up my own tweets with refs so easily”• “the ‘tweetminars’ were a great idea. I actually got excited to be part

of it”• “I was in bed, on a bus, waiting for a train, anywhere! Being part of

uni on the go-genius!”• “I have copied the tweets into a word doc to ensure I use a wide

variety of ideas in my essay”

Twitter #NTUdebate