Jeya Amantha Kumar, Paula Alexandra Silva, Sharifah Osman and Brandford Bervell
Selfie is a popular self-expression platform to visually communicate and represent individual thoughts, beliefs, and creativity. However, not much has been investigated about…
Abstract
Purpose
Selfie is a popular self-expression platform to visually communicate and represent individual thoughts, beliefs, and creativity. However, not much has been investigated about selifie's pedagogical impact when used as an educational tool. Therefore, the authors seek to explore students' perceptions, emotions, and behaviour of using selfies for a classroom activity.
Design/methodology/approach
A triangulated qualitative approach using thematic, sentiment, and selfie visual analysis was used to investigate selfie perception, behaviour and creativity on 203 undergraduates. Sentiment analyses (SAs) were conducted using Azure Machine Learning and International Business Machines (IBM) Tone Analyzer (TA) to validate the thematic analysis outcomes, whilst the visual analysis reflected cues of behaviour and creativity portrayed.
Findings
Respondents indicated positive experiences and reflected selfies as an engaging, effortless, and practical activity that improves classroom dynamics. Emotions such as joy with analytical and confident tones were observed in their responses, further validating these outcomes. Subsequently, the visual cue analysis indicated overall positive emotions reflecting openness towards the experience, yet also reflected gender-based clique tendency with modest use of popular selfie gestures such as the “peace sign” and “chin shelf”. Furthermore, respondents also preferred to mainly manipulate text colours, frames, and colour blocks as a form of creative output.
Originality/value
The study's findings contribute to the limited studies of using selfies for teaching and learning by offering insights using thematic analysis, SA and visual cue analysis to reflect perception, emotions, and behaviour.
Peer review
The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-11-2021-0608/
Details
Keywords
Beatrice Asante Somuah, Moses Segbenya, Vera Arhin and Samuel Yaw Ampofo
Face-to-face tutorial sessions remain an integral part of the delivery mode of distance education in Ghana. It is sometimes used as the sole mode of delivery of educational…
Abstract
Purpose
Face-to-face tutorial sessions remain an integral part of the delivery mode of distance education in Ghana. It is sometimes used as the sole mode of delivery of educational content in some distance education institutions. This study, therefore, investigated the interconnectedness of elements of face-to-face tutorials among distance education students.
Design/methodology/approach
The study adopted the positivist approach and used descriptive research as a design. Simple random and stratified sampling techniques were used, and a sample of 1,491 students was drawn from a population of 44,001 across all regions of Ghana. Data were collected with a self-administered questionnaire and analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics.
Findings
The study found that collaborative learning, counselling, self-directed learning, motivation and critical thinking had strong interrelationships as elements of face-to-face tutorials.
Research limitations/implications
This quantitative study was limited to the views of students on the elements of face-to-face tutorials. It was envisaged, however, that the views of the tutors and administrators who conducted the face-to-face tutorials could have enriched the findings of the study. In addition, adopting a mixed design approach where both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from the participants could have given an in-depth and enriched perspective of the current study.
Practical implications
Management of distance education institutions need to focus on these important elements and their inter-relationships as they might lead to improved academic and social progress among students. In addition, institutions must also organise orientations and seminars for course facilitators and new students on the need to develop commitments towards the elements of face-to-face tutorials as requirement so as to succeed on their course of study.
Originality/value
This is a novel approach that will help improve the understanding of students on the importance of the activities they engage in during face-to-face tutorials. It would also help managers of institutions using face-to-face tutorials to focus on these important elements that might lead to improved academic work among students.