Publications

Working Paper

Recent interest in the role of social media in entrepreneurship education in the Gulf region highlights the need for systematic research about its use to promote learning by motivating and engaging students.

In exploring this topic, the authors focus on social status as students compete for attention and positive evaluations of others in the class. Such status effects could be particularly high in a class using social media as relevant in-formation to foster status dynamics can be observed online – anytime, anyplace and by anyone in the class.

To study how social media might affect perceptions of learning outcomes, the authors designed and implemented a randomized controlled study with two samples of students from two undergraduate classes at a university in the United Arab Emirates.

The results demonstrate that peers observing their posts and the use of performance grades reduced perceived learning and satisfaction with the use of social media in the classroom.

Their results also suggest an underlying cognitive mechanism: In the condition where peers observed their posts, subjects seemed to reduce reflection, which in turn negatively affected perceived learning and satisfaction with the use of social media in the classroom.

The authors close with a discussion of the theoretical contribution of this research, practical implications for instructors who plan to use social media learning environments, and limitations and directions for future research.