Using social media for assessment purposes: Practices and future directions

Area of Science:

• Educational Technology
• Digital Learning Environments
• Social Media in Education

Background:

• Social media use in education is increasing for learning, teaching, and assessment.
• Despite evidence of educational benefits, social media's role in assessment remains under-explored.
• This study addresses the gap in understanding social media's application in educational assessment.

Purpose of the Study:

• To systematically review and explore the use of social media in educational assessment.
• To identify dominant social media platforms utilized for assessment.
• To describe key challenges and issues associated with social media in assessment.

Main Methods:

• A systematic literature review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.
• Searches were performed across three databases, yielding 167 initial articles.
• 17 relevant articles were selected after applying exclusion criteria.

Main Results:

• Facebook and Twitter are the most frequently reported social media platforms for assessment.
• Assessment practices are predominantly limited to task discussion, progress monitoring, feedback, and peer/self-assessment.
• Key challenges include trustworthiness, platform limitations, technical support, time commitment, and social-academic integration.

Conclusions:

• The current use of social media in educational assessment is narrow in scope and practice.
• Significant challenges related to reliability, platform functionality, and user engagement need to be addressed.
• Further theoretical development is required to fully understand and leverage social media for assessment.