Abstract:

Nowadays, social media is permanently present in the lives of many people, younger ones in particular. It is primarily used for communication and amusement, but many aspects of everyday lives are heavily influenced by social networks as well. Education (in all its stages) is not an exception. A number of educational procedures and approaches is rapidly changing, in order to incorporate more learning activities that are based on or located in social networking universe.

There are some relevant findings in academic research of the benefits of using social networking media in higher education, which primarily state that the usage of social networks as a basis for online activities in higher education enhances teamwork and cooperative learning, as well encourages students to be more motivated, critical, creative, innovative and research oriented. This can be very helpful in the context of achieving academic competence.

This paper presents experiences in teaching a graduate (master) level Information Technology and Society (ITS) course in University of Rijeka, Faculty of Informatics and Digital Technologies, over the last three years. The course was held partially online during the first year, but in this last year it was held fully online. The evolution from partially to fully online environment will be shown. Also, the course uses an evolving and comprehensive teaching methodology that combines various types of activities: research assignments, online discussions, critical reviews and practical projects. Also, the course uses chosen set of social networks as a basis for online learning.

The course and its teaching methodology aim at students' in-depth learning and gaining theoretical and practical knowledge in the field of information and communication technology (ICT) in general, as well as critical thinking skills. Another goal is to develop skills needed to do the market research and analysis, develop an idea for an ICT-based product, write a business plan for an ICT startup and successfully navigate today’s society and market. The teaching methodology and course contents are presented in detail, as well as assessment results for the last three years and student evaluations of the course. Also, some challenges and lessons learned are discussed.

The belief is that through this kind of course curriculum students will become familiar with various topics in the broader field of information and communication technology and its influence on the society. Also, it will be easier for them to develop a set of academic research competences, research the market trends and pave the path for future trends in ICT.

The main contributions of this paper are: a) detailed course experience report, b) comprehensive teaching methodology, c) students’ assessment and evaluation report, and d) discussion of challenges and lessons learned.

Keywords:

Higher education, ICT education, Social Networks, Social Media, e-learning, Online course, Case study.