Using social media to improve minority students' skills when connecting courses with different educational modalities
Conference
Elzomor, M, Pradhananga, P, Sadri, AM. (2020). Using social media to improve minority students' skills when connecting courses with different educational modalities
. 2020-June
Elzomor, M, Pradhananga, P, Sadri, AM. (2020). Using social media to improve minority students' skills when connecting courses with different educational modalities
. 2020-June
This study evaluates the integration of Social Media (S.M.) platforms as an informal pedagogical tool to support STEM learning by fostering engagement and increasing interactional competence and collaborative skills. Construction engineering education has been plagued with low engagement levels partially due to its timeworn pedagogical means and ineffective use of technology. S.M. platforms are convenient and effective informal educational means that encourage engagement and interactions between peers. Nowadays, construction programs are shifting to online education, and this research is geared to understand the interactions between student bodies within different instructional modalities. This study focuses on the successes of the second-year implementation of integrating S.M. in a Construction Management (CM) program in a minority serving institution. The implementation consisted of periodically collecting student feedback to (1) evaluate students' interactional competency skills and confidence in collaborative skills and; (2) describe how S.M. can be utilized to submit course deliverables, which in turn increases minority students' skills, engagement, and interactions. The novel contribution of this research is to study the effectiveness and student engagement level when integrating S.M. in different CM courses (Sustainability, Construction methods/materials, Automation in Construction) with various instructional modalities (fully online, Face-to-Face, and hybrid). This research initiative presents paired t-test and box plots paired with line plots from pre and post-course surveys of 75 students. Finally, this paper highlights the challenges and lessons learned along with recommendations for transferring this pedagogy to other institutions.
