According to Pearson, Most Professors Use Social Media. But What Does That Mean?

Tony Zanders

According to the Pearson Learning Solutions Social Media in Higher Education Survey, “more than four out of every five professors use social media. And more than half of professors use tools like video, blogs, podcasts, and wikis in their classes.” But as the Chronicle mentions in their commentary on the data, the seemingly pervasive numbers should not paint a picture that faculty have fully embraced social media.

Most professors are still quite hesitant. Jeff Seaman, co-director of the Babson Survey Research Group, noted that “only about 10 percent or 12 percent of survey responses represent “active” uses of social media tools.” Now this is more in line with our experience working with colleges and universities, and also what our student interns experience at their universities as well. Alissa Spangenthal, our student blogger from Fordham University, wrote about her desire for professors to become more sensitive to Generation-Y trends, both as relevant to social media, and outside of that.

As mentioned, our higher ed clients have presented a mixed bag of results in terms of social media adoption as well. We’ve concluded that this comes from a number of factors, including:

• Not enough time in the day
• Concerns about difficulty
• Concerns about responsibility
• Misconceptions about security and exposure
• Lack of convincing of social media’s relevance

However, the most common trend we encounter is the perception that social media is primarily used in personal settings. For instance, when some people think of Facebook, they automatically think of family, friends, personal photos, party invitations, etc.. Likewise, when we tell people about Schools on Facebook, a Facebook application that increases Enrollment Yield and Student Retention, they automatically think about throwing farm animals at someone or mafia drug busts taking place on their iPhone or PC.

A lot of our time is spent dispelling the myth that Facebook can be used to increase student retention. And moreover, that it has widespread business use both inside and outside of higher education. Just recently, I wrote an article for some of the staff members at one of our client institutions discussing the safety and legitimacy of the Facebook platform as it applies to our application, Schools on Facebook. Read more about it here.

All in all, the data released by Pearson, Babson, et al sheds light on one fact – that social media is here to stay as the de facto method of cost-effective marketing and communication. Getting higher ed faculty and staff to embrace social media in their strategies and lesson plans is a process – a process expedited only by the frequency of which conversations are had to increase awareness, and the number of early adopters willing to burden the objections of those of us who still live in the 20th century.