Lessons Learned From Four Years of Using Social Media to Support

Transition to Higher Education

John Knight, Rebecca Rochon and Becci Hailey
Bucks New University, High Wycombe, UK
John.Knight@bucks.ac.uk
Rebecca.Rochon@bucks.ac.uk
Becci.Hailey@bucks.ac.uk
Abstract: Social media afford a wealth of opportunities within higher educational contexts. This paper shares lessons
learned from four years of using social networking technologies to support students in their transition into higher
education. For the past four years, the Learning Development Unit at Bucks New University has used a range of social
media tools (Knight and Rochon, 2012; Knight and Rochon, 2013) to supplement and enhance existing pre-sessional faceto-face transition and induction activities for new students. Initially, these involved the use of a bespoke social media
platform created in Ning. More recently, existing technologies have been used, including: Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest and
Tumblr, as part of a wider range of welcome and induction activities. This paper reflects holistically on four iterations of
this programme of social media usage. Drawing on research based on user analysis, questionnaires and interviews in
juxtaposition with current theory, findings are expressed in terms of lessons learnt and recommendations are made on
the basis of experience for others interested in the use of social media for transitional and other educational purposes. An
interest in establishing connections with other students was evident as was accessing practical information and engaging
with subject-related issues and learning. Successful academic engagement was subject to certain conditions relating to
staff presence and activity within the environment. However, connectedness and communication were found to be central
to students engagement with each of the transitional domains of social, practical and academic issues. While the use of a
bespoke social media platform in initial iterations was motivated by reported concerns about protecting student privacy,
the recent use of existing social media tools suggests that students may be less concerned about privacy issues than has
been reported. Finally, students themselves should be actively involved as partners in the use of social media for
transitional and wider learning and teaching purposes. However, simply being good with social media is not enough to
ensure its effective use: while a minimum level of technical and creative know-how is important in students ability to
contribute effectively in projects of this kind, organisational and time management skills are of greater significance.
Keywords: lessons learned, social media, transition, higher education, students as partners

1. Introduction
This brief paper is intended to share key lessons learned from four years of working with social media to
support students in transition into higher education; in this sense it is a a reflective consideration rather than a
formal evaluation of the experience Nevertheless, it is hoped that the lessons it offers will be of use to others
intending to use social media for similar purposes. In 2011, the Learning Development Unit (LDU) at Bucks New
University (Bucks) began to consider the use of social media to supplement pre-sessional academic induction
activities for new students. The LDU already had a successful track record in providing such activities in a faceto-face context but were aware that only limited numbers of students could be reached in this way. Social
media presented a means of providing access to useful transition resources to a much wider range of new
students, including those coming from overseas. It was also felt that the significant role that social media
already plays in students lives (Ellison, Steinfield and Lampe, 2007)would provide them with a familiar means
of engaging with the new and unfamiliar world of higher education.
The pilot platform Startonline, which was established as part of the initial pilot in 2011 using Ning (Ning, 2015)
has now been decommissioned. Instead, what started out as an experimental project has now become an
established part of institutional practice, subsumed into Bucks Welcome, the universitys range of transition
and induction processes, and rebranded as Bucks Welcome Online. This paper summarises key experiences
from this period with a view to highlighting both the potential of social media as a means of supporting
students transition to higher education and drawing attention to potential barriers to the effective use of such
technologies within an educational context.

2. Transition and social capital

An understanding of the needs of students new to higher education depends upon an awareness of their need
to engage with their new institution and address certain key domains as they make the transition into a new
phase of their educations and lives. Tintos (1975; 1993) theory of academic and social integration and Astins

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(1993) theory of involvement are fundamental to this, and share the notion that the more engaged a student
is with their place of study, the more likely they are to complete their course successfully. Such engagement
will, of course, depend upon the students ability to operate successfully within the academic sphere, but
practical issues (accommodation, finance, domestic management, etc.) are also of importance, as well as the
need to develop new social networks and begin to build social capital in their new environments (Lowe and
Cook 2003).
It is clear that new students are most interested in this latter domain, using social media to establish social
contact and interact with other students. Throughout the pilot versions of Startonline and into the most recent
iteration as Bucks Welcome Online, participating students have demonstrated a particular focus on the social
domain, actively seeking potential classmates and others sharing the same accommodation in order to make
contact and begin making friends. In the first pilot of Startonline, interactions related to social contact
accounted for 63% of all discussion board activity (Knight and Rochon2012). Subsequent iterations of the
environment also reflect a preoccupation with this area. The desire to begin to establish new social contacts in
this way can best be summarised by one of the students themselves:
I like how it was set up so that students that were just starting could like get to know people that
could be on their course or who they might be living with things like that... so that you dont feel
too scared or anything when you come in to the Uni thinking Oh no I dont know anyone
(Student participant, 2011)
The use of social media for this purpose is particularly effective because it allows students to build on their
existing uses of the technology for friendship and social network management (Ellison et al. 2007) and
approach the sometimes difficult business of building new relationships and developing new social capital
using tools with they are already confident. Social media thus take on an empowering role in supporting
students engagement with the social aspects of transition (Lawson 2014).

3. Access to content
While students are eager to make connections and interact socially as an end in its own right, they are also
keen to do so in order to access content and information. The use of social media as a means to access
practical information was a key feature of every iteration of the project; student interests ranged from the
prosaic (simple recipes for cheap nutritious meals proved very popular), to the practical (a disabled student
finding out about and planning how best to move around their new environment), to the management of
learning (how to access timetables), among others. A key preoccupation in the recent Bucks Welcome Online
related to learning how to make togas to wear at Welcome Week fancy dress parties. Having students
themselves involved in managing and coordinating social media activities proved to be highly advantageous in
providing for such information needs as they were able to draw upon their own experience and understanding
of the concerns of new students. Content produced by existing students, for example, in the form of guides to
the local town and night life, what students should bring with them to their new accommodation, the
experiences of particular constituencies within the university community (e.g., international students), proved
to be very popular.
In terms of providing information that was correct and accurate, involving key Professional Service Employees
(PSEs) within the environment was an important strategy. This facilitated the dissemination of information
around registration procedures, timetable availability and finance. In Startonline, the most useful strategy for
providing access to such institutional expertise proved to be via an Ask any question thread in the discussions
boards. In Bucks Welcome Online, which used a range of existing social media tools, content was matched to
the medium that seemed to best suit it: Pinterest provided a useful source of pictorial support for toga
making; the hashtag #foodfriday provided for a useful regular recipe link feature. The impact of increased
student fees in the UK has meant that many more under-graduate students now work part-time alongside
their studies and are also work longer hours than previously (Times Higher Education 2013). Unsurprisingly,
finding work proved to be a particular preoccupation among students in more recent iterations of Startonline.
An important strategic issue for generating traffic into university social media initiatives is to provide a source
of information about employment opportunities. Involving the Careers service and internal employment
agency, which specialises in employing students within the university, has proven to be a very effective
approach. As with student-provided content, however, the key to effective content sharing was the presence
of the human and the use of social media communication and connections as a vehicle for delivering content.

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4. Engaging with academics

This latter point also proved to be significant in providing students with opportunities to engage with the
academic domain. Initial approaches in Startonline involved the provision of generic academic skills
development activities via static web pages. These were entirely ignored. Interestingly, where members of
subject-teaching staff were present in the social media environment, students proactively made contact
around aspects of their learning and getting started with their new courses of study: film students wanted to
know what they should be watching and which script writing software to use, dancers were keen to discuss
shoes. The key to success in this was staff members ability and willingness to present themselves and
communicate appropriately within the environment. Thus, a friendly profile picture and a personal and
personable approach to communication were seen to be important enabling factors in generating this kind of
activity around learning. Even staff who were unable fully to participate due to other commitments were able
nevertheless to create opportunities for making students feel welcomed and engaged with their courses via
effective use of their profiles. Recommendations for staff presence in social media initiatives of this kind,
therefore, should involve at a minimum level: a friendly picture and informative but informal profile, a pointer
to useful subject-related content or a pre-arrival learning activity and an indication of when (if at all) they are
likely to be available for contact and communication.

5. Involving staff
Those staff who took an active part in the early iterations of the social media environment were positive about
their experience, seeing it as a valuable first point of contact with new students. Indeed, one spoke of how it
had a positive impact upon the dynamic of their first physical meeting with their new students as they already
knew and recognised a number of the faces in the lecture theatre from their social media interactions.
However, despite the number of staff who expressed initial enthusiasm for the project and who registered,
most did not engage further than creating a simple profile, often with little more than their name and position
and without a photograph. A brief e-mail questionnaire was conducted to explore reasons for nonparticipation and identify strategies for supporting future engagement (Rochon and Knight, 2013); the
following barriers to staff participation were identified:

Lack of time

Lack of guidance on how to participate effectively

Uncertainty of student expectations

Initiative fatigue

Clearly, there is need for proper training and support of staff and opportunities for familiarisation with the
affordances and mores of social media tools and environments if they are to engage effectively with initiatives
of this kind. Birnback and Friedmans (2009) staff engagement project has provided a number of useful
strategies for addressing these issues (see Figure 1, below).

Start out by listening

Communicate early

Piggy back on other initiatives

Use appropriate language

Target staff outside the usual suspects

Figure 1: Strategies for engaging staff (adapted from Birnback and Friedman2009)
Of these, the strategy that has proved most successful is to piggy back on other initiatives. In addition to the
strategies mentioned above, having buy-in from senior figures within the institution is also a great help in
encouraging staff involvement. Following a number of years as Startonline in which the use of social media to
support new students was piloted and evaluated, the project has now been integrated into the raft of
transition and induction activities provided by the university under the umbrella of the Bucks Welcome, which
falls within the responsibility of the Director of the Student Experience, a significant managerial post in the
institution. Rebranded as Bucks Welcome Online, social media activities for new students are now part of a
range of well-established events and strategies that are much valued institutionally and well-funded. This
lends a certain institutional heft to requests for staff participation. Nevertheless, converting staff enthusiasm

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for and recognition of the usefulness of social media for transitional purposes into actual engagement remains
a challenge. However, following a successful first run of the new integrated approach in 2014, it is expected
that more emphasis will be placed on encouraging staff involvement in subsequent years.

6. Existing social media tools and privacy

Bucks Welcome Online has been different in that it has made use of existing social media tools, rather than the
Ning-based approach used by Startonline. This has thrown into question those concerns about the difficulty of
managing the overlap between private and public spaces voiced in the literature (e.g., Timm and Duven2008;
Ribchester 2009) that led the project team initially to develop a bespoke approach. Like Minocha (2009), the
project showed little evidence for such anxieties: it is proposed that students are either unconcerned about
such issues or increasingly capable of managing them for themselves. Indeed, it is felt that alternative
platforms that require further log-ins, passwords and profile building are perceived as burdensome and
unnecessary duplicates of existing tools. Clearly, however, without a formal evaluation of student views,
caution is urged. Lefever and Currant (2010), for example, argue convincingly against assumptions about the
homogeneity of the student experience. Instead of affording transitional activity, they suggest, universities
can raise barriers to student engagement if they proceed unmindfully in their use of social media. A key
principle seems to be that students are happy to make use of their existing social media identities within the
institutional context, but do not wish to be forced to do so.

7. Involving students as partners

Social media, then, has considerable potential both to engage across a range of groups, but also to rebalance
power relationships. This is significant in light of the shifting emphasis of the role of the student in higher
education in the UK. The growing interest in the literature in the use of students as partners in learning and
teaching projects, as evidenced by the recent Higher Education Academy report on developing student
engagement through partnership (Healey et al 2014) provides a strong argument for involving students across
all areas of practice, from designing assessment to co-creating the curriculum. Successful partnerships do not
try to avoid power but work with it, and managing social networking through students capitalises both on the
know-how of the students and the potential of the tools themselves (Brett and Cousin, 2011).Over the four
years of the project, student involvement has grown significantly: while the initial pilot was staff-led, a
successful feature was the involvement of students as occasional content providers (for example, providing a
students eye view of the local town and night life). This was subsequently developed into an employment
opportunity for a student content developer/coordinator, placing staff in a more hands off managerial role.
Students first recruited for the position demonstrated impressive talent and know-how relating to social media
use. In terms of managing a social media environment, however, certain skills sets have proven themselves to
be of particular importance. For example, reliability, organisational skills and the ability to deliver are of
greater use than creative and technical flair. It is important to bear in mind that successful facilitation of any
social media environment, while requiring a minimum level of technical expertise and understanding of social
media affordances, is actually rather more dependent on organisational and managerial skills. Furthermore,
involving students in roles such as this represents useful opportunities for development both for the student
and staff involved, but can require a good deal of staff time to provide scaffolding and oversight (OHatnick
and Kope, 2014).

8. Conclusion
Use of social media to assist transition into higher education has a number of lessons that might usefully be
transferred to educational contexts. Perhaps the single most important lesson that has emerged from these
experiences has been the centrality of the social aspect: both as a preoccupation for students, keen to
establish social contact with their peers, but also as the vehicle for learning-related interaction, both between
students and also between students and their teachers and institutions. Effective use and understanding of the
affordances of social media is thus essential if staff and wider institutional use of such environments is to take
advantage of the possibilities they offer for teaching and learning purposes. Involving students themselves in
the creation of content for such projects as well as in their coordination and management offers real
advantages to all concerned, though benefits from ongoing staff management. Engaging staff for such
initiatives in a way that moves beyond initial enthusiasm for their potential into active involvement remains a
challenge; however, an approach that seeks to avoid extra burden on limited staff time by piggy-backing on
existing initiatives, that seeks also to listen to staff concerns and pre-occupations and provides proper support
in the use of perhaps unfamiliar tools and approaches seems more likely to succeed. Finally, while little

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evidence for student reluctance to engage with their educational institutions with their existing social
identities has been found during this project, caution is nevertheless urged and an approach that provides
opportunities for engagement rather than requires it is recommended.

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