The truth about Facebook and grades infographic
I’m very excited that yet another graphic designer has taken me up on my offer to work with me on creating a graphic that accurately represents the results of one of my research papers. This one is based on my paper Too much face and not enough books: The relationship between multiple indices of Facebook use [...]
#NoFailWhale: Tweet More, Drop Out Less – SxSWi 2012
Last year, I gave a solo talk at SxSWi where I presented data on how Twitter can be used to improve student engagement and grades. For next year, I’ve proposed a solo talk entitled #NoFailWhale: Tweet More, Drop Out Less. I’ll present brand new data on how Twitter can be used to improve understanding of course content [...]
First semester students and sophomores spend more time on Facebook
Lately, I’ve spent quite a bit of time analyzing data we collected in the Fall of 2010. While I was conducting a completely unrelated analysis, I noticed differences in the mean time spent on Facebook by students in different classes so I thought I’d take a closer look. I ran an analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) [...]
“Is Twitter Hurting Your Grades?” Infographic
Two weeks ago I posted my thoughts and additional research evidence in response to the “Is Social Media Ruining Students?” infographic. I’ve often hoped that someone would create an infographic that used my data but that also didn’t jump to sensational conclusions. Looks like someone did just that– this infographic uses data from our Twitter [...]
Tweeting SSAO’s less interested in engaging in conversations
Earlier this week I was conducting background research for an article I’m writing for NASPA’s Leadership Exchange. I wanted to explore how Senior Student Affairs Officers (SSAO’s) were using Twitter and if their engagement level differed from other student affairs professionals. While exploratory, I theorized that SSAO might be more likely to engage, given that [...]
Meeting them where they are: Social media and student engagement
Here is the replay of my talk at The University of Florida on social media and student engagement. I present new data on the relationship between time spent on Facebook, Facebook activities, and student engagement.
Open Sourcing Online Education
This post isn’t about the OpenCourseWare movement (which I think is really cool) but instead about using open source and/or free online tools to enhance the way we teach online courses. This is my first semester teaching the Social Media in Higher Education course (syllabus) that I developed. For logistical and administrative reasons, I’m teaching the [...]





Will iTextbooks increase student engagement? Not really.
Over at Wired, Tim Carmody wrote a great piece about Apple’s latest foray into the education market – digital textbooks via the iBooks 2 app. Tim hits the nail on the head in his introduction (emphasis mine): Engagement is a big word in education. It combines both objective participation and subjective emotion. It’s one of the [...]
Tags: apple, commentary, digital divide, digital media, education, ibooks, itextbooks, opinion