College faculty have evolved their use of social media for professional, personal and instructional use, with a decrease in concerns around the value and amount of time spent using social media, according to a new report from the Babson Survey Research Group and Pearson.
The annual survey of nearly 4,000 teaching faculty from all disciplines in higher education, representing U.S. higher education professors, examined both the personal and professional impacts of social media.
Key findings of the survey include:
*64.4 percent of faculty use social media for their personal lives; 33.8 percent use it for teaching
*41 percent for those under age 35 compared to 30 percent for those over age 55 reported using social media in their teaching
*Faculty in the Humanities and Arts, Professions and Applied Sciences, and the Social Sciences use social media at higher rates than those in Natural Sciences, Mathematics and Computer Science
*Blogs and wikis are preferred for teaching, while Facebook or LinkedIn are used more for social and professional connections
*88 percent of faculty, regardless of discipline, reported using online video in the classroom
The complete report and infographic for the 2012 study, “How Today’s Higher Education Faculty Use Social Media,” are available as a free download at www.pearsonlearningsolutions.com/social-media-survey. The report is also available in multiple eBook formats.
