Changing Attitudes Towards Using Social Media as Professional Development Tool in LTEC and Beyond

The Learning Design and Technology (LTEC) program at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa focuses on integrating and evaluating educational technology in various learning environments. With the increased application of online technologies, social media can be utilized as a professional tool to connect, network, and collaborate with peers, colleagues, and other professionals, especially within the professional world of learning design and development. Currently, the LTEC Department has yet to provide instruction and guidance for LTEC graduate students on why and how to use social media effectively for professional purposes.

Social Media Professional Development (https://ellepanda.wixsite.com/social-media-at-ltec) is an online module designed to address the importance and relevant application of social media within learning design-related fields. The purpose of this learning assessment is to evaluate the impact of the online module on the interest and willingness of LTEC graduate students to use social media as a professional development tool within and beyond the LTEC Department. The project was designed using Krathwohl’s Affective Domain Taxonomy and the Keller’s ARCS Model and tested through asynchronous retrospective surveys and one-on-one interviews. Results show a change in interest and willingness to utilize social media to connect, network, and collaborate with individuals within the LTEC department and professionals in learning design-related fields. Recommendations for further research include widening the target audience to include cross-departmental buy-in and observe Krathwohl’s higher order taxonomy levels through behavior change. This session will discuss the educational objectives, instructional strategies, design implementation, and the instructional models, results, implications of the learning assessment.