Have economic educators embraced social media as a teaching tool?

ABSTRACT

In this article, the authors discuss the results of a study of the perceptions of a national sample of economics faculty members from various institutions regarding the use of social media as a teaching tool in and out of the economics classroom. In the past few years, social media has become globally popular, and its use is ubiquitous among students. As such, some instructors have incorporated social media into their courses to engage students. Others are reluctant to embrace social media, citing privacy concerns, social media being more of a distraction than a useful tool, and the challenge of keeping up with social media developments, among others. The authors characterize economics faculty's perceptions of the use of social media platforms for economic instruction.

KEYWORDS:

• Informal learning
• networks
• social media
• teaching/learning strategies

JEL codes:

• A22
• C42

Acknowledgment

The authors thank Jaimie Hoffman for her research assistance and invaluable advice on an earlier version of this manuscript.

Notes

1. This might bias our results. Most studies surveying instructors administer them in paper and electronic format.

2. The results presented here are for the cumulative sample. Responses categorized by frequent/infrequent users are available upon request.