3.8: Hour Usages on Weekdays Correlation Analysis
“Social engagement may operate differently for different types of students” (Wise; Skues; Williams, 2011, p. 1339)
3.2: Smart Phone an Facebook App Analysis As the graph clearly highlights only 98.3% of students use smart devices, whereas in comparison only 1.7% confirmed that they did not own any smart devices. From establishing whether students owned a smart device a not, it was later discovered that 98.2% of the students who owned a smart device had the Facebook app. Again only 1.8% of students did not have the Facebook app. Since Facebook was formed in 2004 it has become one of the most popular used social media sites. This is because the number of members that joined Facebook had intensified within the last 7 years, as shown on figure 1.2. In 2015 there was over 1,500 million members on Facebook, which just shows how the social media site is rapidly rising in popularity. With this outstanding figure in mind, it has enabled us to focus on whether students’ academic engagement and grade profiles are being affected by the use of Facebook. Data from a survey conducted by showed: • “85% of students at a large research university had accounts on Facebook” (Junco, 2010, pg 2). The evidence shown by the Facebook statistical graph shows that with high level of members, a large number of those who are signed up to Facebook could have the potential to be students. This theory is supported by the research carried out throughout this survey and in previous studies
Aims and objectives: 1. To find out the difference between time spent on social media and time spent studying 2. To find out differences between year of study and hours spent on social media/studying 3. To find out gender differences between grades and expectations versus time spent on social media and time spent studying
1.0: Introduction
18 - 19 Year Olds: 22 Responden ts (37.9%)
20-21 Year Olds: 16 Respondent s (27.6%)
21- 22 Year Olds: 10 Respondent s (17.2%)
24-25 Year Olds: 4 Responden ts (6.9%)
This study will demonstrate how social media impacts students’ academic achievement. Throughout this study, from the aims and objectives of the research project were to find the following hypothesises: A negative correlation between time spent studying and time spent on social media, through the use of scatter grams and spearman’s rank The differences in year of the students and time spent on studying and on social media through looking at the mean average per year, it was expected that time spent studying would increase each year Gender differences in time spent on social media and studying, this is to show whether there is a difference between male and female engagement. The research then aims to look at whether or not there is a difference between male and female grades and whether or not this is due to the use of social media. This will be shown through a crosstabulation.
23- 24 Year Olds: 6 Responden ts (10.3%)
26 + Year Olds: No Respondent s
1st Year: 3 Respondents (5.2%)
Figure 1.4
2nd Year: 41 Respondents (70.7%)
29 out of 50 respondents were male students
29 out of 50 respondents were female students
4th Year: 2 Respondents (3.4%)
3.3: Grade Received Analysis
1st
2.1
2.2 3rd 11%
Do not wish to disclose
Figure 1.5 2%
29%
46% of students gained a 2.1 in their last academic year 12%
2% of students gained a 3rd in their last academic year
Figure 1.0 This diagram of Coates (2007) figure 1 represents the typology of student engagement. It has been used within the research project of impacts of social media usages on academic grades, because it shows how they want to bring social media & academic engagement to a “common level” (Wise;Skues;Williams, 2011, pg 1339). Therefore moving them the “higher end of academic engagement” (Wise; Skues; Williams, 2011, p.1339), at the end of their first year, which is shown on the darker section. This diagram also takes into account that “social engagement may operate differently for different types of students” (Wise; Skues; Williams, 2011, p.1339), and this is because the use of social media works in different ways for students. This is why at the beginning of the diagram it shows a division of the two types of students, which are collaborative and passive. So for example, a passive student who is low on both academic and social engagement may “improve their academic engagement through increasing their level of social engagement” (Wise; Skues; Williams, 2011, p.1332).
Was the grade you received higher or lower than expected? Figure 1.7 5%
Lower
32% 32% of students thought that the grade they received in their last academic year was higher than they expected
Facebook has lost its ability to be used to help students with academic engagement, and this is because it has been associated with being a ‘distraction’. The article (Junco, 2010) shows how twitter can be helped to promote academic engagement through the above. However, our research shows how the people we surveyed use Facebook very often for the purposes of entertainment (43.1%), keeping in contact with friends (56.9%), and keeping in contact with family (43.1%). Facebook is very rarely used for keeping in contact with the university (29.3%) and often used to keep in contact with students (51.7%). This therefore shows that Facebook is more for social purposes rather than for academic engagement.
What the study found twitter was used for:
Figure 1.2
Figure 1.2 shows the number of Facebook users increasing steadily from 2008. It also illustrates how Facebook is the most predominantly used social media site. Therefore it has given us the reason to research how Facebook in particular has affected student grade profiles.
1. Continuity for class discussions
6. Providing academic and personal support
2. Giving students a low-stress way to ask questions
7. Helping students connect with each other
3. Discussions about books
8. Organising service learning projects
4. Class reminders
9. Organising study groups
Figure 1.3
3rd Year
Total Asked 20,6,12,8,10,7,5,2,2,13,25,6,15,9 19
0 3
5,20,25 3,3,4 4,5,8,5,20,15,4,2,5,10,9,3 5,3,4
7 16
11 Times 6 Times
0
3,6,6,4,8,3,5,2,10,60
16
17 Times
20,4,5,5,25
12,0,2,100,15,3
3.5: Use of Facebook Analysis
3.1: Word Cloud From the 58 responses that we acquired, it is clear that without taking into consideration the time spent on social media, students at the University of Chichester had seen their social media usage to be as procrastination, often, useful and interesting. The varied response had enabled us to anticipate the likely results for the survey.
On the contrary more females (6) gained a grade lower than they expected. This may be due to their higher level of social media usage.
Figure 2.5
It was evident from the 58 responses received that although there is a varied response again, there is a slight difference in attitude towards student’s social media usages. Current research shows that social media usages and its impacts on studying, it has been regarded that “electronic use is negatively associated with grades due to its distractive function” (Jacobsen; Forste, 2011, p.279).
The most popular response received was “addictive”
The chart shown focuses on what students use Facebook for, key indicators were that most students said they used Facebook for keeping in contact with family and friends. ‘75% of teenagers now own cell phones, and 25% use them for social media, 54% use them for texting, and 24% use them for instant messaging’ – (O'Keeffe, 2011). The results have shown that Facebook Messenger was highly valued, as stated by 93.1% of students. This can be linked back to the reasons as to why students use Facebook as a social media site with keeping in contact with friends and family being used very often at 43.1% to 56.9%.
This therefore supports our point that social media is indeed having a direct impact on students the likely outcomes of the grades in which students achieve.
This word was repeated in the final word cloud, therefore it is evident with this and the literature review that social media is a ‘distraction’
3.11: Word Cloud Analysis
When the word cloud was asked at the beginning of the survey participants had thought of their social media usage as “often”
All of these words: “distraction, addictive and often”, all interlink with one another and have been used in both occasions in the word clouds
4.0: Summary 1. The first aim was to find differences between time spent studying and time spent on social media, the hypothesis assumed was that there would be a negative correlation however through using scatter grams and Spearman’s Rank it was found that there was actually more of a positive correlation between the two. Therefore the hypothesis was rejected. This was surprising, however it did support the idea of multi-tasking, which meant that people are studying whilst being on social media simultaneously. 2. The second aim was to find out the differences in year and time spent on studying and on social media. The results of this found that Year 1 students spent longer on average on social media than any other year group, and that this may be because they cover the whole social cohort as in Figure 1. The results also found that Year 2 students spend longer studying than any other year group. 3. To summarise the third aim was looking at gender differences in time spent on social media and studying. It was found that females spend slightly longer studying than males on average, but that females spend a lot longer on social media than males do. 4. This directly links in to the final aim of finding the differences between grades and expectations people had. Interestingly, males and females got equal amounts of firsts, but males gained more 2-1 classifications. On the basis of this a conclusion was made that this may be because females spent more time on social media. It was also found that majority of males and females had no change in the grades that they received as they were the same as what was expected, however more males achieved a higher grade than they expected.
Total Mean 11 Times
A 2 hour gap was left to check if there was a sufficient increase in the amount of times that’s students browse their Facebook. To justify this chosen area of the research project, it was shown that in 2011 ‘22% of teenagers’ log onto their favourite social media site more than 10 times a day’ (O'Keeffe, 2011).
Female students achieved relatively the same grade as they expected, with 8 students achieving higher than first predicted.
Examining into how this may have impacted grades, the cross tabulation shows that male and female students have equal results on achieving a 1st. However, looking at the 2.1-degree classification, 15 males achieved this, whereas only 11 females achieved this grade profile. With regards to a 2.2-degree classification 6 females achieved this grade and only 1 male did. Due to the difference in social media, a conclusion could be made that the social media usage has affected the grades that people achieved, female’s had slightly lower grades than males.
Figure 1.9
3.6: Facebook Element Values Analysis
The literature review of (Wise; Skues; Williams, 2011, p.1332) had given us the reason to conduct spot checks within the library. This is because the article had concluded on the basis “that Facebook is more likely to operate as a distracting influence”. The checks were carried out between the hours of 3pm to 5pm. 2nd Year
16% of students stated that the grade they were given in their last academic year was lower than expected
5. Campus event reminders
Figure 2
1st year 0
47% of students stated that there was no change between the grades they were given and the grade they expected
3.10: Grades Received vs Expectance Analysis
47%
(Junco, 2010, p.4)
Female (3pm) Male (3pm) Female (5pm) Male (5pm)
Males predominantly achieved the same grade as they expected. 10 males achieved higher than they expected, whereas only 3 male students achieved lower than expected. This can be associated to male students not using social media as much as females do.
Figure 1.8
16%
Social media and university grades are the two aspects which have been focused throughout this poster. The aim of this poster is to find correlations and relationships between the two topics and to establish whether or not they affect one another. With those affects in mind to then discover if social media disturbs the grades of students who attend university and to what extent is social media a distraction for students.
Spot Check Results
Figure 2.4
Do not wish to disclose
3.0: Survey Results
3.9: Hourly Usages on University Years Analysis
3.9: Social Media vs Studying Usages on Gender Analysis
3.4: Grade Expectation Analysis
No change
The one aspect which was missing from this diagram was the reflection of the academic performance. This part, however is shown in the three dimensional diagram. The target which is shown on the top right corner of the cube, shows how they want students by the end of their first academic year of study, to be both high on social and academic engagement whilst being able to achieve good grades
Figure 2.2
As the amount of work load increases throughout university, it would be sensible to assume that as workload intensifies, the hours spent studying would also be on the rise. However, this shows that Year 2 students spend more time studying than any other year as they spend 4 hours a day on average studying. Year 1 students spend the most time on social media a day at an average of 5 hours a day. This links into figure 1, as when Year 1 students enter university they cover more of the social cohort. Therefore this means that they are more likely to spend more time on social media in order to fulfil this. From Year 2 onwards the hours spent on studying and on social media reduce which is surprising because of the assumption that hours studying would increase over the years.
46%
Higher
To summarise Coates diagram has been of particular use and interest in the research project, because it illustrates how students social media usage can be both a distraction and also helpful for students. In relation to the word cloud used in the survey, it is evident that social media usage has a different impact towards students in their academic studies. This is because there was a varied response when the question “what three words would you use to describe your social media usage?” was asked. This reflects the two types of students shown in Coates diagram, (Collaborative & Passive).
Figure 1.1
Figure 2.3
Figure 2.4 which looks at gender differences in usages and grades proves interesting. The table shows that females spend slightly longer studying on average studying than males do on weekdays. The reason for using weekdays is so that there could be a more a varied response, therefore enabling a more accurate sample of how much people study. It is also shown that females spend a lot more time on social media than males do, and the maximum hours spent on social media is a lot higher for females at 15 hours than males who spend a maximum of 8.5 hours a day. This means females spend slightly longer studying and longer on social media on average. The standard deviation for females on both studying and social media usage is high which means that the data points are not all close to the mean, this is the same for males on their hours studying. However, the standard deviation is lower for males on their social media usage meaning that the data is closer to the mean.
12% of students gained a 2.2 in their last academic year
2.0: Literary Review
A reason that this may be is because the survey had no questions about how social media has been involved in multi-tasking. (Jacobsen; Forste, 2011, pg276) suggests that “college students and adolescents use electronic media simultaneously with other media or during activities requiring more focused attention, like class” which may be why the hypothesis assumed was actually rejected, because people are using social media whilst studying. The results of the survey conducted in (Jacobsen; Forste, 2011) concluded that two thirds of students reported using electronic media whilst in class, studying and doing homework. The spot checks taken prior to the survey were taken in library, as this where people are likely to be doing academic work. This therefore supports the idea of multi-tasking, because people were frequently checking their Facebook pages.
What grade did you receive in the last Figure 1.6 academic year?
29% of students gained a 1st in their last academic year 3rd Year: 12 Respondents (20.7%)
However, the scatter gram shows that there is no correlation between the two and that the amount of hours’ people spend studying is not a lot higher than the amount of hours spent on social media. Therefore, the hypothesis is to be rejected. This is supported by the Spearman’s r value of 0.217 which shows the correlation leaning more toward actually being positive. The results differed at the weekend where the correlation was more positive, as the Spearman’s r value was 0.82, this therefore means that the hours spent on studying and social media were moving in the same direction and were close to perfect positive correlation.
3.7: Hour Usage Analysis
Figure 2.1 Maximum
The time based questions were based around research by (Jacobsen; Forste,) where they wanted to find out how students spent their time. In this research they used time diaries over a two-week period where they chose two weekdays and one weekend day as they recognised that there would be a difference in the two. The results of the survey conducted gave some interesting results. The mean average for all four questions did no differ greatly and were between 3 and 4 hours, however for time spent on social media at weekends had the highest mean average meaning that most people spent a long time on social media at weekends, more so than the time they spent on social media on weekdays and more time than on studying overall. It was hypothesised that there would be a significant difference between hours spent studying on weekdays and hours spent on social media. The reason for this was that it was assumed that there is an opportunity cost to studying, and this may be the hours an individual spends on social media, therefore a negative correlation was assumed.
Outside of University lectures how many hours do you spend per day studying on weekdays?
17.0
Mean
3.793
Social media is something that is constantly changing as shown throughout this poster. When starting the survey the decision to choose Facebook over other social networking sites was shown through the spot checks which were conducted. Throughout the completion of this poster another social media site called Yik Yak came into existence. This social media site is a combination of Facebook and Twitter with everything that is posted being anonymous. It was felt that doing another spot check would help to show that social media is constantly changing and developing. Results from the spot checks had shown that out of 24 students asked, 12 of them had Yik Yak and out of those 12 students 7 of them had checked it that day.
.
5.0: References
Outside of University lectures how many hours do you spend per day studying on weekends?
15.0
3.112
How many hours do you spend per day on average using social media on weekdays?
15.0
3.491
How many hours do you spend per day on average using social media on weekends?
16.0
• • • • •
4.060 •
Griffiths, April 2000. Does Internet and Computer "Addiction" Exist? Some Case Study Evidence. Cyberpsychology & Behaviour. Jacobsen & Forste, 2011. The Wired Generation: Academic and Social Outcomes of Electronic Media Use Among University Students. Cyberpsychology, Behaviour and Social Networking, 14(5).(p.275-279) O’Keeffe, Pearson & Media, C. o. C. a., 2011. Clinical Report- The Impact of Social Media on Children, Adolescents, and Families. Official Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics.(p.888) R. Junco, G. H. &. E. L., 2010. The Effect of Twitter on College Student Engagement and Grades. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning.(p.2) Statista, 2015. Statista The Statistics Portal: Number of Monthly active Facebook users Worldwide as of 3rd quarter 2015 (in millions). [Online] Available at: http://www.statista.com/statistics/264810/number-of-monthly-active-facebook-users-worldwide/ [Accessed 4 12 2015]. Wise, Skues & Williams, 2011. Facebook in higher education promotes social but not academic engagement. Ascilite Changing Demands, Changing Directions. (p.1332,1333,1335,1337,1339)