Abstract:

Postgraduate students potentially experience a range of challenges (both academic and non-academic) whilst studying in the UK. This study seeks investigate the effectiveness of social media app Whatsapp in helping enhance the postgraduate student experience, focusing on four key areas: social benefits, psychological benefits, academic benefits, pedagogic effectiveness. Through a qualitative approach, feedback was gathered regarding the lived experiences of twelve management postgraduate students at a UK university during the course of 2018. The feedback of the students in the study indicated that whilst Whatsapp does provide several positive benefits and opportunities for postgraduate management students e.g. a more interactive and accessible learning context as well quality and speed of feedback; the use of Whatsapp as a learning tool does raise some important questions regarding issues of in-class tension, communication barriers (both staff and student) and privacy.

Keywords:

Higher education, student engagement, Whatsapp.