This report is the result of Pearson’s 2012 social media survey, which queried the use of Facebook, Twitter, podcasts, wikis, blogs, and video by higher education faculty, designating usage as personal, in class, or professional. Key findings are as follows:
Personal versus Professional
- Faculty are very aware of social media and considerable numbers use it regularly in their personal lives.
- Levels of adoption for professional and teaching purposes lag behind that for personal use.
- Facebook is the most-visited social site for personal use, with over 50% of faculty visiting at least monthly.
- Daily use of Facebook exceeds daily, weekly, and monthly use of any other site by faculty for personal use.
- Personal use of Twitter is generally low, well behind use of podcasts, LinkedIn, blogs, and wikis.
Demography
- Young faculty members use social media at rates much higher than the rates for older faculty—
a pattern that holds true for personal, professional, and in-class use.
Selectivity
- Faculty are selective about their choice of social media sites, matching different sites to their different needs; the sites they visit most often for personal (Facebook), professional (LinkedIn), and in-class (blogs and wikies) use are all different.
Fluidity
- The use of social media among faculty is fluid and evolving, with the mix of sites changing over time.
- In 2011, Facebook was the most-visited site for faculty professional purposes.
- For 2012, Facebook was replaced by Linked for professional use.
Video
- One area where adoption is almost universal is in the use of video for classes, whether used in class or assigned for viewing out of class.
Barriers
- Faculty continue to see significant barriers to widespread adoption of social media for teaching.
- The top two concerns remain privacy and the integrity of student submissions.
- Also cited was the need or desire to separate course and personal accounts.
- The degree of concern with barriers is decreasing over time, especially around time concerns.
