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Cited by 53Social Media in Health EducationEducational Technology in LearningInnovations in Medical Education

Attitudes of Health Professional Educators Toward the Use of Social Media as a Teaching Tool: Global Cross-Sectional Study

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D'Souza, Karan, Henningham, Lucy, Zou, Runyu, Huang, Jessica, O'Sullivan, Elizabeth, Last, Jason, Ho, Kendall·2017·JMIR Medical Education
DOI 10.2196/mededu.6429PMC PMC5562930
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Abstract

BACKGROUND: The use of social media in health education has witnessed a revolution within the past decade. Students have already adopted social media informally to share information and supplement their lecture-based learning. Although studies show comparable efficacy and improved engagement when social media is used as a teaching tool, broad-based adoption has been slow and the data on barriers to uptake have not been well documented. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to assess attitudes of health educators toward social media use in education, examine differences between faculty members who do and do not use social media in teaching practice, and determine contributing factors for an increase in the uptake of social media. METHODS: A cross-sectional Web-based survey was disseminated to the faculty of health professional education departments at 8 global institutions. Respondents were categorized based on the frequency of social media use in teaching as "users" and "nonusers." Users sometimes, often, or always used social media, whereas nonusers never or rarely used social media. RESULTS: A total of 270 health educators (52.9%, n=143 users and 47.0%, n=127 nonusers) were included in the survey. Users and nonusers demonstrated significant differences on perceived barriers and potential benefits to the use of social media. Users were more motivated by learner satisfaction and deterred by lack of technology compatibility, whereas nonusers reported the need for departmental and skill development support. Both shared concerns of professionalism and lack of evidence showing enhanced learning. CONCLUSIONS: The majority of educators are open-minded to incorporating social media into their teaching practice. However, both users and nonusers have unique perceived challenges and needs, and engaging them to adapt social media into their educational practice will require previously unreported approaches. Identification of these differences and areas of overlap presents opportunities to determine a strategy to increase adoption.

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  • Social media benefits e-professionalism by improving established networks or enabling collaboration through social media sites.

    “The benefits of SM on e-professionalism of HCPs can be seen as improvements of established networks or possibilities for collaboration through SM sites [33, 34, 36, 38, 39, 44-46, 53, 69, 72, 76, 78, 79, 92, 97, 106-108, 117].”

    From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) identifies peer collaboration and communication with educators as strengths of social media in health education. The Discussion’s Principal Findings (page unavailable) address professionalism, but do not say that social media improves established professional networks or that collaboration benefits e-professionalism specifically. (LLM, conf=0.82)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • Benefits of social media on e-professionalism of health care professionals can be seen as improvements of established networks or possibilities for collaboration through social media sites.

    “Benefits of SM on e-professionalism of HCPs can be seen as improvements of established networks or possibilities for collaboration through SM sites [33, 34, 36, 38, 39, 44-46, 53, 69, 72, 76, 78, 79, 92, 97, 106-108, 117].”

    From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) identifies peer collaboration and communication with educators as strengths of social media use in health care education. It does not say that social media improves established networks or that these are benefits to the e-professionalism of practicing health care professionals; its collaboration example concerns students. (LLM, conf=0.83)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • A lack of free time or time constraint was often recognized as a barrier to health care professionals' use of social media in the context of e-professionalism, as well as a lack of knowledge or technical skills for use of social media.

    “A lack of free time or time constraint was often recognized as a barrier [39,69,74,79,91,93,96], as well as a lack of knowledge or technical skills for use of SM [33,39,76,79,93,118].”

    From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [33]

    The Introduction (page unavailable) identifies demands on time as a challenge to integrating social media into education. The Results and Discussion (page unavailable) identify limited understanding and technical skills as barriers for health professional educators who did not use social media in teaching. The study does not establish these barriers for health care professionals generally in the context of e-professionalism; its focus is educational use. (LLM, conf=0.85)

    Experimental — accuracy not yet measured

  • A total of 8 studies were conducted in several countries simultaneously.

    “A total of 8 studies were conducted in several countries simultaneously [32-39].”

    From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [33]

  • A lack of previous education about social media was emphasized in several studies.

    “A lack of previous education about SM was emphasized in several studies [33,98,102].”

    From Dangers and Benefits of Social Media on E-Professionalism of Health Care Professionals: Scoping Review (2021) · cites this paper as [33]

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Authors
D'Souza, K., Henningham, L., Zou, R., Huang, J., O'Sullivan, E., Last, J., & Ho, K.
Affiliations
  • The University of Melbourne (AU)
  • Fudan University (CN)
  • University of Birmingham (GB)
  • University College Dublin (IE)
  • University of British Columbia (CA)
ORCID
Venue
JMIR Medical Education
Publisher
JMIR Publications Inc.
Published
2017-08-04
Volume
3
Issue
2
Pages
e13
ISSN
2369-3762 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.2196/mededu.6429
PMC
PMC5562930
OpenAlex
W2745010196
Cited by
53
References
39
Citations by year
2025: 3 · 2024: 5 · 2023: 6 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 5 · 2020: 21 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 6
FWCI
9.43
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • JMIR Medical Education (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed Central (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Health › Social Media in Health Education
  • Physical Sciences › Computer Science › Information Systems › Educational Technology in Learning
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health › Innovations in Medical Education
Keywords
social media, health professions education, faculty attitudes, technology adoption, barriers to adoption, health educators, student satisfaction, technology compatibility

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