Twitter Chats as an Alternative to Discussion Boards in Graduate Nursing Courses

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Digital Literacy
• Social Media in Healthcare

Background:

• Healthcare relies heavily on technology and social media for communication.
• Nurse educators must cultivate digital literacy in the nursing workforce for safe patient care.
• Twitter (now X) chats offer online nursing students a unique social engagement avenue to build digital literacy.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the utility of Twitter chats as a pedagogical tool in online nursing education.
• To assess the impact of social media integration on student learning and engagement.

Main Methods:

• An 8-week online nursing course incorporated three required discussions as Twitter chats.
• Students received detailed written instructions and a podcast guide for participation.
• Data were collected through self-report measures and analysis of Twitter analytics.

Main Results:

• Integrating social media platforms into coursework yielded significant benefits.
• Twitter chats provided students with novel perspectives on course objectives.
• Student comprehension of class material increased through this social media engagement.

Conclusions:

• Twitter serves as a valuable social media technology for advancing nursing students' education.
• The platform offers both educational and professional development advantages for nursing students.
• Social media integration, like Twitter chats, can positively impact online nursing pedagogy.