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Social media is currently being used to effectively engage and communicate with students in universities across the globe. As Beidelman (2015, p.1) acknowledges, “Social media is a tool that teachers can use to make their classroom more engaging, relevant and culturally diverse”. This action research project is entitled “Increasing student engagement and community via the integration of social media technologies to enhance/inform blended learning at University”, and was funded by a University Exploratory and Enhancement Learning and Teaching Grant. This paper focuses on the first phase of a two-phase project. The overall purpose of the project was to explore whether a blended learning approach, that combines the University’s existing Learning Management System (LMS) with social media applications, strengthens the quality of teaching, and therefore enhances the level of student learning, engagement and community. The first research phase constituted an online survey, distribut ed to 647 students within six University disciplines and investigates university students’ perspectives and attitudes in relation to the use of social media as a pedagogical tool. Respondents reported varying views on the issue. The overarching positive themes were: communication, connection and engagement. Neutral themes included: the win/lose situation and social media being a supplement to teaching. Negative themes comprised: distraction, poor use of time and face-to-face being a more appropriate form of learning. A small proportion of respondents reported having no opinion on the matter and one student raised the need for students to increase their social media usage in the higher education setting.

Student’s Perspectives Concerning the Use of Social Media as Communication and Educational Tools in a Tertiary Environment