2015 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
Comparison of the uses of Social Media by International Students.
| Project/Area Number |
15K12893
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| Research Institution | Kobe University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2015-04-01 – 2018-03-31
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| Keywords | Social Media / Community of Inquiry / Study Abroad Japan |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
An initial survey of social media (SM) usage in higher education showed SM is used widely to recruit students in global markets, e.g. ‘Border Concepts’, ‘AIRC’.
A pilot interview survey I conducted at The School of Languages, University of Manchester, UK and AJE conference showed that whilst European universities provide mainstream SM tools to support learning and study abroad, students and teachers reported that students create personal SM channels instead. They use these channels to directly access their peers in Japan to gain information on Japanese universities. In Japan, they use SM to interact with international students at their host universities. This allows access to information directly from trusted networks.
At APAIE 2016 in Melbourne, I reported on a 6-month study of SM usage by students on the ‘Introductory Seminar for Promoting Global Leadership’ course at Kobe. Students work in groups to plan and implement the Kobe University International Student Symposium (KISS) held in December every year. The Kobe University learning management system BEEF is provided to support this learning. I argued that students resort to creating their own personal social networks, using Facebook and Line, once they perceive limitations with the BEEF system. They prefer trusted networks that allow them to control content creation/sharing, as well as modes of communication and interaction. This phenomenon is in line with the framework of CoI, with particular reference to Social Presence.
Refer to Links: https://www.facebook.com/groups/692078714267893/
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
2: Research has progressed on the whole more than it was originally planned.
Reason
I was also able to collect data on the use of social media in Japanese and overseas institutions from Kobe using extensive online searches. However, I was able to gain a deeper insight into social media usage in higher education institutions around the world, by attending the AJE 2016 conference in Montaigne University, France, and APAIE 2016 in Melbourne, Australia. In particularly I gathered data on the EU region, which has high student mobility programs, and on the Asia Pacific region where student mobility is growing rapidly.
The insights I gained at conferences were deepened by direct interaction with key people at overseas institutions, that are teaching Japanese, sending students abroad, and aggressively using social media. These include Manchester University, UK; AJE Conference at Bordeaux Montaigne University, France; Melbourne University, Deakin University, Australia. I was also able to directly interview students overseas.
I was able to carry out a detailed study of the use of social media by international students in Kobe University, on the ‘Introductory Seminar for Promoting Global Leadership’ course, which provided me with direct access to international students and allowed me to collect data on their use of social media (BEEF system, Facebook and LINE) backed up with interviews. I was able to present the initial findings of this research at the international conference APAIE 2016 in Melbourne, Australia, which provided valuable feedback from other professionals from the fields of IT strategy, study abroad recruitment, and Japanese language teaching.
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
Institutions worldwide are investing in IT strategies to create study abroad information channels using social media. However, if students perceive these social media channels to be insufficient, they will create their own personal channels, to gain access information sources that are relevant to their needs, and more importantly that they trust and can control. The CoI characteristic ‘Social Presence’ is the main factor at play when students actively seek out social groups that can help to support their students, and allow them to make choices before, during and after their study in Japan.
In the next phase, firstly, I will determine which social media tools and channels are important to students for 1) making choices for study abroad in Japan 2) sustaining their learning and lifestyles whilst in Japan 3) maintaining their networks after study in Japan. I will analyze the social media tools used, but more importantly, how students find information that is being created and shared by other students and how they connect and interact with these support networks.
Secondly, I will clarify the characteristics between institutional and personal social networks, to inform the IT strategies of institutions in Japan, so that they provide the optimum infrastructure for students who are considering study in Japan. I will do this by creating an online survey and a social media channel called ‘Japan Study Abroad Network’ that will capture data on student social media usage, and analyze it within the framework of Community of Inquiry.
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