How Twitter is being used by Australian engineering academic units

1. HOW TWITTER IS BEING USED BY AUSTRALIAN
ENGINEERING ACADEMIC UNITS
Stuart Palmer
@s_palm
Faculty of Science, Engineering and Built Environment
Deakin University
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B

2. Social media in engineering
education
Linking students and practising engineers
Engaging large classes in real time
Student ‘journaling’ on work placements
Sending commands to hosted Matlab
Used for student group communications
when LMS proves to be unwieldy
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3. Georgia Tech College of Engineering
4891 Twitter followers
40 YouTube videos
14 subscribers
4115 Facebook followers
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4. Basic Twitter account statistics for
the 8 Australian engineering units
Tweets
Academic
unit
Undirected
U1
161
5
7
173
16
22
306
U2
237
306
140
683
58
189
405
U3
12
1
0
13
0
9
7
U4
219
269
73
561
59
536
695
U5
171
0
0
171
0
6
14
U6
91
106
51
248
19
76
288
U7
62
0
1
63
0
12
28
U8
32
10
49
91
40
114
211
Mentions Following Followers
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Directed
Retweets
Total

5. Monthly total Tweets for 8 AEAUs
Nil
1-10
11-20
21-30
31-40
41-50
51-60
61-70
U8
U7
U6
U5
U4
U3
U2
U1
N D J F MA MJ J A S O N D J F MA MJ J A S O N D J F MA MJ J A S O N D J F MA MJ J
2010
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2011
2012
2013

6. Twitter network visualisation schema
Direction of Tweet
(clockwise edge)
Account 2
(node)
Account 1
(node)
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7. Exemplar Twitter network diagrams
AEAU 1
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8. Exemplar Twitter network diagrams
AEAU 1
AEAU 2
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9. Combined AEAU Twitter network
2
d
3
7
5
w
1-8: AEAUs
w: ‘the world’
a: common to AEAUs 2 and 4
b: common to AEAUs 2, 4 and 5
c: common to AEAUs 2, 4, 6 and 8
d: common to 5 AEAUs and others
a
b
c
6
8
1
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
4

10. Combined AEAU Twitter network
2
3
7
5
6
8
1
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
4

11. Combined AEAU Twitter network
2
@EWB_Australia
3
@EngAustralia
7
5
6
8
1
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
4

12. Combined AEAU Twitter network
@Bechtel
2
@AECOM
@EWB_Australia
3
@EngAustralia
7
5
6
8
1
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
4

13. Combined AEAU Twitter network
@Bechtel
2
@AECOM
@DoctorKarl
@EWB_Australia
3
@EngAustralia
7
5
@adambspencer
6
8
1
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
4

14. Combined AEAU Twitter network
@Bechtel
2
@AECOM
@DoctorKarl
@EWB_Australia
3
@EngAustralia
7
5
@adambspencer
6
8
1
4
@UTAustin
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B

15. Combined AEAU Twitter network
@Bechtel
2
@AECOM
@DoctorKarl
@EWB_Australia
3
@EngAustralia
7
5
@adambspencer
6
8
@s_palm
4
1
@KimTairi
@UTAustin
Deakin University CRICOS Provider Code: 00113B
@HapgoodK

16. Conclusions
Limited uses of social media in engineering
education documented in the literature
Network visualisation is one method for
evaluating the use of social media
For AEAUs, two principal patterns of
Twitter activity where observed…
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17. Conclusions
1. sending mostly undirected Tweets; and
2. a more diverse model with a spread of
Tweet types, and more Tweets overall
The mere numbers don’t really reveal the
content and purpose of the Twitter activity
Twitter is only one social media platform
A useful method for future research
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18. Thank you for your time
ow.ly/qljSi
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