The Innovative use of social media for teaching and learning: A case study at the University of Johannesburg

Abstract

Covid 19 forced lecturers and students to accept that inspirational and beneficial teaching and learning does not necessarily rest within the four walls of a lecture hall. When higher education institutions had to transition rapidly from face-to-face to online education, social media platforms became a powerful catalyst for effective teaching and learning. Undoubtedly social media platforms have influenced our lives in an unprecedented manner. It has also altered the teaching and learning landscape by taking on an innovative role in online education. This investigation explored students' experiences of learning module content via TikTok. TikTok was adopted as a teaching tool because it is considered an appealing social media platform for Gen Z users, with its central attraction being short video content. This investigation primarily relied on Bandura’s social learning theory as the theoretical lens applied to the data as it points to the importance of an individual’s self-regulation and the external situation in terms of learning. It also offers an alternative view of social learning by seeing it as situated in communities of practice. Through a qualitative inquiry, teacher education students' reflections on being taught using TikTok were gathered. Evidence from the survey administered to 80 students strongly suggests that TikTok offered an efficient, fun, and exciting way of gaining unlimited access to learning content. It also enhances retention and creativity, making it a suitable 21st-century teaching strategy that promotes self-directed learning. It is a perfectly suited social media platform for a generation that prefers to consume content via rich video formats that act as confidence boosters. Hence making it an innovative teaching tool that encourages a new form of social learning.