“A day in the life of a Psychology student”: Building community and engagement through student-generated social media video content.

Activity: Academic Talks or PresentationsConference PresentationResearch

Description

Objectives:
The paper will present outcomes from a project involving student generated video content (SGVC). Undergraduate psychology students created vlogs and social media videos about their experience at university with the aim of providing diverse role models to future students and building community and identity with current students.

Design:
The study utilised a mixed methods approach drawing on both quantitative and qualitative approaches.

Methods:
A sample of Psychology undergraduate students (n=7) representing different year groups, and diverse social and cultural backgrounds captured mobile-phone video footage about their lives and experiences at university over a period of 6 weeks. Students edited this footage into engaging vlogs and short social media videos, that were then shown to a group of fellow students at a showcase event. Feedback data was then collected via an online survey (n = 14), and a focus group (n = 4) by students who attended the showcase event. Semi-structured interviews (n = 5) were also conducted with the student vloggers who created the video content.


Results:
Analysis of data showed that benefits of the SGVC included improved connection between existing students, increasing engagement and offering inclusive and diverse role models for peers and prospective students via authentic student personas. The videos portrayed a range of student characteristics and allowed for marginalised voices and diverse learning and teaching experiences in HE to be represented.

Conclusions:
Involving students in creating social media content about their experiences can be a powerful and engaging resource for current and future university students and should be used more widely by institutions seeking to represent diverse and marginalised experiences.
Period14 Sept 2022
Event titlePsychology of Education Section Annual Conference 2022
Event typeConference
LocationOxford, United KingdomShow on map
Degree of RecognitionNational