Social media strategies for art and design research

Abstract

While there is an acceptance that social media can play an integral part in education, there is often some doubt as to which type of network is best for what role. When 131 students from a visual communication design research programme were offered several social media tools to share and document their progress, interesting patterns emerged. The range of tools, structures and behaviours were initiated by academic staff, and students were free to choose which ones they used and how they engaged. The tools were Moodle, personal blogs, Facebook, Twitter and the twitter aggregate wall Tagboard. While this may at first appear too many options for a group of students, each of these tools played valuable roles and students elected those that were appropriate to their learning style. This paper will reveal how these different tools were used to advantage, and demonstrate how this social media package became an integrated part of the programme.