Social Media Use by Dental Hygiene Educators

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Digital Health
• Social Media in Education

Background:

• Social media offers potential benefits for healthcare education.
• Understanding educators' current usage is crucial for effective integration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess dental hygiene educators' familiarity with social media platforms.
• To examine the implementation and use of social media in dental hygiene education.
• To explore educators' perceptions of social media's role in learning environments.

Main Methods:

• A 25-item electronic questionnaire was distributed to 379 dental hygiene program directors in the US and Canada.
• The survey collected demographic data, usage patterns (personal, professional, educational) of 12 social media sites, and Likert scale-based beliefs.
• Descriptive statistics were employed to analyze the 120 responses.

Main Results:

• Facebook (78.3%) was most popular for personal use, LinkedIn (57.5%) for professional, and YouTube (68.3%) for educational purposes.
• A significant majority agreed that online technologies enhance learning environments (84.1%) and invite student participation (77.5%).
• Over 64% believed social media is an effective method for content delivery.

Conclusions:

• Dental hygiene educators actively use social media personally but less so for classroom engagement.
• There is a recognized potential for social media to improve dental hygiene education delivery and student interaction.
• Further strategies may be needed to increase the pedagogical integration of social media in dental hygiene programs.