An Experimental Test of Using Digital Media Literacy Education and Twitter to Promote Political Interest and Learning in American Politics Courses

Abstract

Digital media affordances create interesting potential opportunities for educators to integrate these technologies into the classroom in an effort to achieve greater student success. While there are many reasons to suspect that using digital media in the political science classroom may yield positive effects, there are few experimental studies of these effects. In this study, I leverage a longitudinal experimental design to study the effectiveness of using Twitter in introductory American politics courses to increase political interest, news consumption, and student learning outcomes. The findings show that using Twitter in the classroom has no significant influence on political interest or news consumption when controlling for prior levels of these variables. However, there may be a small positive influence on student learning outcomes that should be further explored.

Keywords:

• Undergraduate education
• technology
• randomized experiment
• political learning

Notes

1 The University of New Mexico Institutional Review Board determined this study to be exempt from review (#837741).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jessica T. Feezell

Jessica T. Feezell is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of New Mexico where she studies and teaches American politics and political communication. Her research draws on scholarship in political behavior, media effects, social media, and information communication technology.