Abstract:

The exponential growth of technological innovation has led to new forms of communication, fundamentally transforming our interactions and resources for accessing information. Hence, according to the X Social Perception Survey of Science conducted by FECYT (Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, 2020), the Internet and social media platforms are identified as the second preferred source of scientific information. Moreover, given the evolution of the students’ communication preferences, an increasing number of academic institutions worldwide rely on social media as a communication channel, reinforcing its role for obtaining and disseminating information, along with its potential application as a teaching and research tool.

Within these social media, Twitter (now known as X) stands out as a microblogging platform to facilitate the exchange of information through short text messages (tweets) with a maximum of 280 characters. Given the concision of tweets, the functionality of “Twitter threads" appeared, consisting of a series of interconnected tweets that enables the development of arguments and the expansion of information following a narrative structure. In recent years, several studies, and the pedagogical practice, have identified some challenges among university students regarding their writing skills. For all these reasons, the general objective of this work was to propose the use of Twitter threads as an innovative teaching tool to improve students' competences and abilities in expressing themselves through written communication in concepts related to Food Science.

The project team was composed of 12 university professors and 3 postgraduate students from the Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Faculty of Pharmacy, Complutense University of Madrid (UCM), Spain. The recipients were university students of the Degrees of Pharmacy, Human Nutrition and Dietetics, Food Science and Technology, and the Double Degree of Pharmacy-Human Nutrition and Dietetics at the UCM.

This work has allowed students to design and develop microtexts expanding key concepts taught in the classroom, thereby further consolidating, by themselves, their own knowledge about the topics of the different subjects involved in the project. After revision by the project team of the contents written by the students, the microtexts were transferred as Twitter threads to a Twitter account specifically created for this project (@AlimHilos). Finally, students completed a satisfaction survey regarding their participation in the activity.

Students’ responses to questionnaires showed that the project was able to create an innovative and attractive teaching methodology, which was used by the students to both consolidate their knowledge and learn new concepts autonomously. The methodology also enhanced students' written communication skills, critical thinking, and rigorous criteria for searching bibliographic data and using online information. Furthermore, most of the students rated as very positive the incorporation of innovative teaching activities into university subjects, as well as the potential application of Twitter threads as an academic tool for information dissemination and knowledge learning at university level.

Acknowledgement:
This work is part of the UCM INNOVA DOCENCIA Project: “Aplicación de los hilos de Twitter como recurso de innovación docente en la comunicación escrita sobre ciencia de los alimentos” (Project reference: UCM 101/2023-2024).

Keywords:

Food science, Twitter threads, Written communication, Social media, Teaching innovation.