A Flipped Learning Approach Using Social Media in Health Informatics Education
Author(s)
Ali H. Alharbi
Affiliation(s)
Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Qassim University, Qassim, Saudi Arabia.
Department of Health Informatics, College of Public Health and Health Informatics, Qassim University, Qassim, Saudi Arabia.
ABSTRACT
Social media have become an important aspect of people’s everyday life. Despite the popularity of social media networks and applications, only few educators utilize them to improve teaching and learning. A flipped learning is an innovative approach that changes the traditional way of delivering lectures in the classroom by inverting the instructional cycle so that students can gain knowledge before the class. This paper presents a flipped learning approach for teaching using social media. Students were exposed to the lecture content before the class in a collaborative and interactive learning environment using a well-known social media application. The course instructor served as a facilitator rather than a dominator for the instructional process. The proposed approach was applied to teach an undergraduate introductory course on health informatics, a dynamic and emerging academic discipline. In this paper, a focus group research technique was utilized to evaluate the educational effectiveness of this approach. The results of the evaluation revealed that students were comfortable and satisfied that this approach helped them understand the course concepts in an interactive and collaborative learning environment. The results of the study also identified some educational benefits as well as limitations and drawbacks of using social media as a flipped learning approach. These results can provide an educational framework to improve the implementation of flipped learning approaches using social media.
Social media have become an important aspect of people’s everyday life. Despite the popularity of social media networks and applications, only few educators utilize them to improve teaching and learning. A flipped learning is an innovative approach that changes the traditional way of delivering lectures in the classroom by inverting the instructional cycle so that students can gain knowledge before the class. This paper presents a flipped learning approach for teaching using social media. Students were exposed to the lecture content before the class in a collaborative and interactive learning environment using a well-known social media application. The course instructor served as a facilitator rather than a dominator for the instructional process. The proposed approach was applied to teach an undergraduate introductory course on health informatics, a dynamic and emerging academic discipline. In this paper, a focus group research technique was utilized to evaluate the educational effectiveness of this approach. The results of the evaluation revealed that students were comfortable and satisfied that this approach helped them understand the course concepts in an interactive and collaborative learning environment. The results of the study also identified some educational benefits as well as limitations and drawbacks of using social media as a flipped learning approach. These results can provide an educational framework to improve the implementation of flipped learning approaches using social media.
Cite this paper
Alharbi, A. (2015) A Flipped Learning Approach Using Social Media in Health Informatics Education. Creative Education, 6, 1466-1475. doi: 10.4236/ce.2015.613147.
Alharbi, A. (2015) A Flipped Learning Approach Using Social Media in Health Informatics Education. Creative Education, 6, 1466-1475. doi: 10.4236/ce.2015.613147.
References
[1] Amresh, A., Carberry, A. R., & Femiani, J. (2013). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Flipped Classrooms for Teaching CS1. Paper Presented at the Frontiers in Education Conference, Oklahoma City, 23-26 October 2013, 733-735.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/fie.2013.6684923 [2] Bahner, D. P., Adkins, E., Patel, N., Donley, C., Nagel, R., & Kman, N. E. (2012). How We Use Social Media to Supplement a Novel Curriculum in Medical Education. Medical Teacher, 34, 439-444.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2012.668245 [3] Brady, K. P., Holcomb, L. B., & Smith, B. V. (2010). The Use of Alternative Social Networking Sites in Higher Educational Settings: A Case Study of the E-Learning Benefits of Ning in Education. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9, 151-170. [4] Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and beyond: From Production to Produsage (Vol. 45). Peter Lang. [5] Bryer, T. A., & Zavattaro, S. M. (2011). Social Media and Public Administration: Theoretical Dimensions and Introduction to the Symposium. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 33, 325-340.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/ATP1084-1806330301 [6] Cheston, C. C., Flickinger, T. E., & Chisolm, M. S. (2013). Social Media Use in Medical Education: A Systematic Review. Academic Medicine, 88, 893-901.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0b013e31828ffc23 [7] Flipped Learning Network (2014). The Four Pillars of FLIP™.
http://www.ssfudes.com/veille/leveilleur/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FLIP_handout_FNL_Web.pdf [8] Galway, L. P., Corbett, K. K., Takaro, T. K., Tairyan, K., & Frank, E. (2014). A Novel Integration of Online and Flipped Classroom Instructional Models in Public Health Higher Education. BMC Medical Education, 14, 181.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-14-181 [9] Guy, R. (2012). The Use of Social Media for Academic Practice: A Review of Literature. Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice, 1, 7. [10] Jones, R. (2009). Social Media Marketing 101, Part 1. Search Engine Watch, 16. [11] Kolb, S. M. (2012). Grounded Theory and the Constant Comparative Method: Valid Research Strategies for Educators. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 3, 83-86. [12] Lee, M. J., & McLoughlin, C. (2010). Beyond Distance and Time Constraints: Applying Social Networking Tools and Web 2.0 Approaches to Distance Learning. In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging Technologies in Distance Education (Chap. 4, pp. 61-87). Edmonton: Athabasca University Press. [13] Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., & Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social Media & Mobile Internet Use among Teens and Young Adults. Millennials. Pew Internet & American Life Project. [14] Liu, Y. (2010). Social Media Tools as a Learning Resource. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 3, 101-114. [15] Mantas, J., Ammenwerth, E., Demiris, G., Hasman, A., Haux, R., Hersh, W. et al. (2010). Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics (1st Revision). Methods of Information in Medicine, 49, 105-120.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3414/ME5119 [16] McLaughlin, J. E., Roth, M. T., Glatt, D. M., Gharkholonarehe, N., Davidson, C. A., Griffin, L. M. et al. (2014). The Flipped Classroom: A Course Redesign to Foster Learning and Engagement in a Health Professions School. Academic Medicine, 89, 236-243.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000086 [17] Murray, P. J., Paton, C., Hansen, M., Elkin, P. L., & Fernandez-Luque, L. (2011). Towards a Research Agenda for Social Media in Healthcare and Academia. Paper presented at the Workshop at MIE2011, 23th International Conference of the European Federation for Medical Informatics, Oslo, 28-31 August 2011. [18] Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Dickinson, W. B., Leech, N. L., & Zoran, A. G. (2009). A Qualitative Framework for Collecting and Analyzing Data in Focus Group Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8, 1-21. [19] Paton, C., Bamidis, P., Eysenbach, G., Hansen, M., & Cabrer, M. (2011). Experience in the Use of Social Media in Medical and Health Education. Contribution of the IMIA Social Media Working Group. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 6, 21. [20] Poellhuber, B., Anderson, T., & Roy, N. (2011). Distance Students’ Readiness for Social Media and Collaboration. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 12, 102-125. [21] Stone, B. B. (2012). Flip Your Classroom to Increase Active Learning and Student Engagement. Paper Presented at the Proceedings from 28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning, Madison. [22] Strayer, J. F. (2012). How Learning in an Inverted Classroom Influences Cooperation, Innovation and Task Orientation. Learning Environments Research, 15, 171-193.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9108-4 [23] Veletsianos, G., & Navarrete, C. (2012). Online Social Networks as Formal Learning Environments: Learner Experiences and Activities. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13, 144-166. [24] WhatsApp Inc. (2015). About WhatsApp.
https://www.whatsapp.com/about/ [25] Williams, A., & Katz, L. (2001). The Use of Focus Group Methodology in Education: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations. International Electronic Journal for Leadership in Learning, 5. [26] Xu, C. (2013). Classroom Flipping as the Basis of a Teaching Model for the Course Mobile Application Development. World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education, 11, 537-540.
[1] Amresh, A., Carberry, A. R., & Femiani, J. (2013). Evaluating the Effectiveness of Flipped Classrooms for Teaching CS1. Paper Presented at the Frontiers in Education Conference, Oklahoma City, 23-26 October 2013, 733-735.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/fie.2013.6684923 [2] Bahner, D. P., Adkins, E., Patel, N., Donley, C., Nagel, R., & Kman, N. E. (2012). How We Use Social Media to Supplement a Novel Curriculum in Medical Education. Medical Teacher, 34, 439-444.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3109/0142159X.2012.668245 [3] Brady, K. P., Holcomb, L. B., & Smith, B. V. (2010). The Use of Alternative Social Networking Sites in Higher Educational Settings: A Case Study of the E-Learning Benefits of Ning in Education. Journal of Interactive Online Learning, 9, 151-170. [4] Bruns, A. (2008). Blogs, Wikipedia, Second Life, and beyond: From Production to Produsage (Vol. 45). Peter Lang. [5] Bryer, T. A., & Zavattaro, S. M. (2011). Social Media and Public Administration: Theoretical Dimensions and Introduction to the Symposium. Administrative Theory & Praxis, 33, 325-340.
http://dx.doi.org/10.2753/ATP1084-1806330301 [6] Cheston, C. C., Flickinger, T. E., & Chisolm, M. S. (2013). Social Media Use in Medical Education: A Systematic Review. Academic Medicine, 88, 893-901.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0b013e31828ffc23 [7] Flipped Learning Network (2014). The Four Pillars of FLIP™.
http://www.ssfudes.com/veille/leveilleur/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/FLIP_handout_FNL_Web.pdf [8] Galway, L. P., Corbett, K. K., Takaro, T. K., Tairyan, K., & Frank, E. (2014). A Novel Integration of Online and Flipped Classroom Instructional Models in Public Health Higher Education. BMC Medical Education, 14, 181.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1472-6920-14-181 [9] Guy, R. (2012). The Use of Social Media for Academic Practice: A Review of Literature. Kentucky Journal of Higher Education Policy and Practice, 1, 7. [10] Jones, R. (2009). Social Media Marketing 101, Part 1. Search Engine Watch, 16. [11] Kolb, S. M. (2012). Grounded Theory and the Constant Comparative Method: Valid Research Strategies for Educators. Journal of Emerging Trends in Educational Research and Policy Studies, 3, 83-86. [12] Lee, M. J., & McLoughlin, C. (2010). Beyond Distance and Time Constraints: Applying Social Networking Tools and Web 2.0 Approaches to Distance Learning. In G. Veletsianos (Ed.), Emerging Technologies in Distance Education (Chap. 4, pp. 61-87). Edmonton: Athabasca University Press. [13] Lenhart, A., Purcell, K., Smith, A., & Zickuhr, K. (2010). Social Media & Mobile Internet Use among Teens and Young Adults. Millennials. Pew Internet & American Life Project. [14] Liu, Y. (2010). Social Media Tools as a Learning Resource. Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange, 3, 101-114. [15] Mantas, J., Ammenwerth, E., Demiris, G., Hasman, A., Haux, R., Hersh, W. et al. (2010). Recommendations of the International Medical Informatics Association (IMIA) on Education in Biomedical and Health Informatics (1st Revision). Methods of Information in Medicine, 49, 105-120.
http://dx.doi.org/10.3414/ME5119 [16] McLaughlin, J. E., Roth, M. T., Glatt, D. M., Gharkholonarehe, N., Davidson, C. A., Griffin, L. M. et al. (2014). The Flipped Classroom: A Course Redesign to Foster Learning and Engagement in a Health Professions School. Academic Medicine, 89, 236-243.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000000086 [17] Murray, P. J., Paton, C., Hansen, M., Elkin, P. L., & Fernandez-Luque, L. (2011). Towards a Research Agenda for Social Media in Healthcare and Academia. Paper presented at the Workshop at MIE2011, 23th International Conference of the European Federation for Medical Informatics, Oslo, 28-31 August 2011. [18] Onwuegbuzie, A. J., Dickinson, W. B., Leech, N. L., & Zoran, A. G. (2009). A Qualitative Framework for Collecting and Analyzing Data in Focus Group Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 8, 1-21. [19] Paton, C., Bamidis, P., Eysenbach, G., Hansen, M., & Cabrer, M. (2011). Experience in the Use of Social Media in Medical and Health Education. Contribution of the IMIA Social Media Working Group. Yearbook of Medical Informatics, 6, 21. [20] Poellhuber, B., Anderson, T., & Roy, N. (2011). Distance Students’ Readiness for Social Media and Collaboration. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 12, 102-125. [21] Stone, B. B. (2012). Flip Your Classroom to Increase Active Learning and Student Engagement. Paper Presented at the Proceedings from 28th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning, Madison. [22] Strayer, J. F. (2012). How Learning in an Inverted Classroom Influences Cooperation, Innovation and Task Orientation. Learning Environments Research, 15, 171-193.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10984-012-9108-4 [23] Veletsianos, G., & Navarrete, C. (2012). Online Social Networks as Formal Learning Environments: Learner Experiences and Activities. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 13, 144-166. [24] WhatsApp Inc. (2015). About WhatsApp.
https://www.whatsapp.com/about/ [25] Williams, A., & Katz, L. (2001). The Use of Focus Group Methodology in Education: Some Theoretical and Practical Considerations. International Electronic Journal for Leadership in Learning, 5. [26] Xu, C. (2013). Classroom Flipping as the Basis of a Teaching Model for the Course Mobile Application Development. World Transactions on Engineering and Technology Education, 11, 537-540.