2024 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Bridging the Gap: The Impact of Social Media on Modern Engineering Education—A Systematic Literature Review

Presented at Educational Research and Methods Division (ERM) Technical Session 1

People can share information, ideas, and opinions on various topics through social media, an interactive platform that facilitates communication. In education, it has been demonstrated that social media increases student participation, engagement, and learning. As such, it is becoming more widely acknowledged and accepted in engineering education. This theory paper analyzes the various research studies done in the field by summarizing the research topics, elements of social media used, and analysis techniques, among other things. The goal is to propose implications for researchers and practitioners for the effective use of social media platforms in engineering education. The primary research question is "What are the themes, practice, and research implications emerging from the research on the use of social media in engineering education?”
To answer this research question, a systematic literature review (SLR) was conducted. The SLR consists of three parts: identification, screening, and synthesis. In the identification phase search terms were used to retrieve articles from several databases including Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science, Wiley Online Library, ERIC, IEEE Xplore Library, and Google Scholar. To find articles from these databases for this literature search, the search terms Facebook + Engineering, Instagram + Engineering, and Twitter + Engineering were used. A total of 1821 articles were retrieved. They were then screened by abstract and full texts, cutting it down to 16 articles that made it to the final review and synthesis phase. The screening was done throughout these phases using the 5 exclusion criteria (EC). EC1: articles published before 2017, EC2: articles not focused on engineering, EC3: articles in languages other than English, EC4: articles with a focus other than Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and EC5: work-in-progress articles. The synthesis of these articles revealed four themes, Active Learning and Engagement Through Social Media, Social Media Information Literacy, Social Media as an Online Education Tool, and Improving Education with Social Media Analysis. The paper discusses findings regarding each theme and the implications these findings have for practice and research.

Authors

Ms. Arianna Gabriella Tobias University of Oklahoma [biography]

Arianna Tobias is a sophomore Computer Science major at the University of Oklahoma, where she is deeply engaged in undergraduate research. With a strong passion for advancing her field, Arianna focuses on projects that combine her technical skills with real-world applications. Her academic pursuits and commitment to her studies make her an emerging academic in the realm of computer science and engineering education.
Dr. Javeed Kittur http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6132-7304 University of Oklahoma [biography]

Dr. Kittur is an Assistant Professor in the Gallogly College of Engineering at The University of Oklahoma. He completed his Ph.D. in Engineering Education Systems and Design program from Arizona State University, 2022. He received a bachelor’s degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering and a Master’s in Power Systems from India in 2011 and 2014, respectively. He has worked with Tata Consultancy Services as an Assistant Systems Engineer from 2011–2012 in India. He has worked as an Assistant Professor (2014–2018) in the department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, KLE Technological University, India. He is a certified IUCEE International Engineering Educator. He was awarded the ’Ing.Paed.IGIP’ title at ICTIEE, 2018. He is serving as an Associate Editor of the Journal of Engineering Education Transformations (JEET).

He is interested in conducting engineering education research, and his interests include student retention in online and in-person engineering courses/programs, data mining and learning analytics in engineering education, broadening student participation in engineering, faculty preparedness in cognitive, affective, and psychomotor domains of learning, and faculty experiences in teaching online courses. He has published papers at several engineering education research conferences and journals. Particularly, his work is published in the International Conference on Transformations in Engineering Education (ICTIEE), American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE), Computer Applications in Engineering Education (CAEE), International Journal of Engineering Education (IJEE), Journal of Engineering Education Transformations (JEET), and IEEE Transactions on Education. He is also serving as a reviewer for a number of conferences and journals focused on engineering education research.
Mr. Khondhaker Al Momin http://orcid.org/0000-0002-4548-9837 University of Oklahoma [biography]

Khondhaker Al Momin is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Civil Engineering at Daffodil International University in Dhaka, Bangladesh. He holds a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) and Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in Civil Engineering from Bangladesh University of Engineering & Technology (BUET). He is pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Transportation Engineering at the University of Oklahoma (OU) in Norman, USA. Alongside his academic pursuits, he also serves as a Graduate Research Assistant at OU. His research interests encompass diverse areas such as Traffic Incident Analysis & Prevention, Traffic Flow Theory, Autonomous Connected Electric, Shared (ACES) vehicles, Big Data Analytics, Network Science, Natural Hazards, Machine Learning, and System Optimization.
Dr. Tahrima Rouf http://orcid.org/0000-0001-7973-9008 University of Oklahoma [biography]

Dr. Tahrima Rouf is a visiting assistant professor at the Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering (SBME) at the University of Oklahoma (OU). She received her bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering from the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology and her doctoral degree from Purdue University. Previously, she served as an instructor at the department of chemical processing technology at Ahsanullah Institute of Technical and Vocational Education and Training (AITVET), Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her academic training and research experience have provided her with an excellent background in multiple interdisciplinary fields, including nanotechnology, materials science, chemical engineering, microbiology, and biochemistry. Her independent research program’s main goal is to harness the capabilities of nanomaterials for biomedical applications to produce safer and more effective sensing technology and drug delivery. She gained expertise in the controlled synthesis and biochemical characterization of complex protein nanocomposites. In her teaching, she has been dedicated to engaging students in an interactive learning environment, and she is strongly committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. As a visiting assistant professor at the University of Oklahoma, Dr. Rouf has received NIH funded grant and she continues to build on her previous training in biopolymers and nanoparticles by moving into a biological system that will allow her to address additional questions regarding the utilization of nanomaterials in cancer diagnosis and drug delivery. Through her teaching, research, and outreach activities Dr. Rouf’s is interested in making long-term impacts in cutting-edge research and engineering education.
Dr. Arif Mohaimin Sadri http://orcid.org/0000-0001-5571-6741 University of Oklahoma [biography]

Dr. Arif Sadri is an Assistant Professor in the School of Civil Engineering & Environmental Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. Previously, he was an Assistant Professor in the Moss School of Construction, Infrastructure & Sustainability at the Florida International University. He was a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology and an Adjunct Professor in the Civil Engineering Dept. at the Valparaiso University. Dr. Sadri received his doctoral training from the Lyles School of Civil Engineering at Purdue University with a solid background in Civil Engineering (Transportation), Network Science, and Social Science. Dr. Sadri’s research focuses on how transportation systems critically depend on social and other physical systems in the context of natural and man-made hazards. Dr. Sadri develops data-driven and network-based solutions to enhance bottom-up resilience in complex, interdependent systems. Dr. Sadri specializes in resilience engineering, evacuation modeling, shared mobility, social influence modeling, machine learning, agent based modeling, and network modeling. Dr. Sadri’s research is funded by National Science Foundation, United States Department of Transportation, Oklahoma Department of Transportation, Florida Department of Transportation and United States Agency for International Development.

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