Abstract

This article-format dissertation focuses on how scholars use social media to support their scholarship. The first article is a scoping literature review that outlines current research. While overviewing an emergent field of literature, the article highlights motivations for using social media use, discusses benefits and drawbacks of this use for scholarship, explains how this discourse has evolved over time, and shares implications of what further topics can be investigated as well as implications for post-secondary institutions and scholars integrating social media use into their professional roles. In article two, I built a classifier and used it to analyze the Twitter data of those who self-identified as post-secondary scholars. The goal of the classifier was to analyze patterns of actual use rather than self-reported use. It was discovered that use is primarily personal, although many scholars use these to represent an aspect of their professional identity. The classifier was then tested on a sub-group of learning technology scholars to identify variance that may exist in the ways in which scholars of a singular field may be using Twitter. The third article was a phenomenological study that investigated the lived experiences of faculty using social media to support their scholarship. Through the study, five themes emerged as scholars discussed their use of Twitter and other social media and those were (a) positive relational impacts and community building, (b) using social media as a tool for open scholarship, (c) identity presentation, (d) the ethics of social media platforms, and (e) drivers for change over time. The study also found that although scholars may appear to be using social media for varied purposes, their Twitter profiles are often seen as primarily or completely a professional platform with which they engage with their communities and expand their definition of scholarship. The conclusion of the dissertation highlights findings across the three articles and provides directions for future research.

Degree

PhD

College and Department

David O. McKay School of Education; Instructional Psychology and Technology

Rights

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