Analysis of Social Media Influencers and Trends on Online and Mobile Learning

• Published in: International review of research in open and distance learning Vol. 18; no. 1; pp. 208 - 224
• Main Authors: Shen, Chien-wen, Kuo, Chin-Jin, Minh Ly, Pham Thi
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Athabasca Athabasca University Press (AU Press) 01.02.2017; International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning; Athabasca University; Athabasca University Press
• Subjects: Collaboration; Communication; Course Content; Data Analysis; Distance learning; Educational Environment; Educational Quality; Educational Technology; Electronic Learning; Handheld Devices; Informal Education; Learner Engagement; Learning Activities; mobile learning; Online Courses; Online instruction; online learning; Social Media; social media influencers; social media trends; Social networks; Social research; Student Motivation; Students; Teaching Methods; Technology Uses in Education; Telecommunications; Trend Analysis; Trends; Twitter; Undergraduate Students; User behavior
• ISSN: 1492-3831; 1492-3831
• DOI: 10.19173/irrodl.v18i1.2640

Although educational practitioners have adopted social media to their online or mobile communities, little attention has been paid to investigate the social media messages related to online or mobile learning. The purpose of this research is to identify social media influencers and trends by mining Twitter posts related to online learning and mobile learning. We identified the influencers on Twitter by three different measures: the number of tweets posted by each user, the number of mentions by other users for each user, and the number of retweets for each user. We also analyzed the trends of online learning and mobile learning by the following perspectives: the descriptive statistics of the related tweets, the monthly and hourly line charts of the related tweets, the descriptive statistics of the related retweets, the volume trends of the most retweeted tweets, and the top 10 hashtags of the related tweets. The results of this study can provide educational practitioners different ways of understanding and explaining the public opinions toward online learning and mobile learning.