Using social media tools for theses and dissertations

Date

2017-09-10

Author

Duman, Murat
Can, Gülfidan

Metadata

Show full item record

Item Usage Stats

262
views

0
downloads

There is an increasing variety of social media tools that can be used by graduate students for their research. However, their use is still limited in academia. Moreover, the available literature largely focused on graduate students’ use of these tools for general purposes instead of academic purposes. Therefore, this study explored why and how graduate students use social media tools for their thesis and dissertation research and the reasons for not using them. Interviews were conducted with 17 participants (9 women, 8 men) purposefully selected from 14 different programs within three institutes. An interview protocol with fifteen open-ended questions was used after being examined for content validity and pilot testing. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data. The results showed that graduate students use social media tools mostly for communication, collaboration, multimedia, and information retrieval and management for their research. They reported that these tools enable them to easily communicate and collaborate with other academicians, share and receive up-to-date information, and increase their efficiency. They were reluctant to use these tools because they may cause distractions and information overload. Moreover, they prefer not to use these tools because of privacy and safety concerns, the restrictions of the tools by the government, and the tools’ complexity of use. The participants desired to have a guideline or a seminar to be introduced to these tools that may help them with their thesis and dissertation research.

Subject Keywords

Social media, Graduate students, Thesis, Dissertation

URI

https://hdl.handle.net/11511/84031
https://dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/journal-file/9072

Conference Name

4th International Conference on Social Sciences and Education Research (2017)

Collections

Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology, Conference / Seminar

Suggestions

OpenMETU
Core

Graduate students’ use of social media tools for thesis/dissertation research Duman, Murat; Can, Gülfidan; Yıldırım, İbrahim Soner; Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology (2015) In this sequential mixed methods study, factors affecting graduate students’ use of social media tools for thesis/dissertation research purposes were explored. First, in the quantitative part of the study, a survey was administered to 507 graduate students in the Middle East Technical University to describe their use of social media tools for thesis/dissertation research purposes. The results of the survey indicated that the graduate students highly utilized academic social networks, wikis, collaborative wr...
Factors Influencing the Sustainability of Online Text-Based Peer-Mentorship among Graduate Students Can, Gülfidan; Uzun, Yıldız; Nalça, Ceylan; Böğürcü, Ceylin (2018-10-10) The purpose of this study is to explore the factors influencing the sustainability of online text-based peer mentorship among graduate students. In this Participatory Action Research, a three-week online peer mentorship program was implemented with 13 graduate students and one faculty member using text-based chat applications. Data sources were reflection reports, reflection forms, focus group interviews, and chat session records. Data were collected again after a period of six months in order to establish ...
Utilization of social networking websites in education: a case of facebook Tınmaz, Hasan; Çağıltay, Kürşat; Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology (2011) The aim of this study is to seek fundamental uses and gratifications of a social networking website, Facebook as a case, and the possible advantages and the challenges of utilization of Facebook for instructional activities. The research study encompassed four main steps; the analysis of uses & gratifications of Facebook, the analysis of Facebook utilization possibilities for instruction, the interviewing for two preceding steps, and the realization and analysis of a course on Facebook. In the study both qu...
Using Social Networking Sites for Teaching and Learning: Students' Involvement in and Acceptance of Facebook (R) as a Course Management System Albayrak, Duygu; Yıldırım, Zahide (2015-04-01) This study investigates students' involvement in Facebook (R) as a course management system (CMS), Facebook acceptance, and the relationships between the two. The study used Facebook as a CMS in two freshman courses and employed mixed method as part of an action-research approach. Forty-two students participated in the study, and 12 of those students were selected for face-to-face interviews through maximum variation sampling. Quantitative data were collected through questionnaires and course Facebook page ...
Construction of an educational technology engagement model for social learning platforms Bulut, İbrahim Hakkı; Delialioğlu, Ömer; Department of Computer Education and Instructional Technology (2019) The purpose of this study is to propose a technology model, called Educational Technology Engagement Model (ETEM), towards the student adoption of a social learning platform -Edmodo-. The study offers a guideline, which requires a theoretical understanding of underlying motivational processes for technology adoption, to demonstrate how a model can be designed and developed for a particular technology using a process-based approach. This study aims to provide a comprehensive model to address the limitations ...

Citation Formats

M. Duman and G. Can, “Using social media tools for theses and dissertations,” presented at the 4th International Conference on Social Sciences and Education Research (2017), Ankara, Türkiye, 2017, Accessed: 00, 2021. [Online]. Available: https://hdl.handle.net/11511/84031.