The rise of social media has impacted every sector of the modern economy, and higher education is no exception. This study takes a deep dive into faculty awareness, personal use, and professional use of social media. Analysis also examines faculty adoption of social media in the classroom and the potential impacts of this on teaching and learning.

This study reveals that a high percentage of faculty are aware of social media and that awareness does not vary with years of teaching experience, tenure status, and whether or not faculty teach online. Faculty personal use of social media is also relatively high with a significant percentage of faculty visiting one or more social media sites and posting to those site on a regular basis. Professional use of social media is very high for faculty in comparison to workplace employees, contrary to the popular perception that academia is slower to adopt new technologies than other industries. This study shows that social media is also finding its way into the classroom with 80 percent of faculty reporting that they have used social media for some aspect of a course that they taught.

While this study demonstrates that many faculty are adopting social media in their personal and professional lives and into their teaching, faculty are still mixed about how, if at all, social media can be leveraged as a useful educational tool.

Access the full article to learn more about faculty awareness and adoption of social media, and opinions about the future of social media in higher education.