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20Copyright © 2023 by Cherkas Global University
Published in the USA
International Journal of Media and Information Literacy Issued since 2005 E-ISSN 2500-106X 2023. 8(1): 228-239
DOI: 10.13187/ijmil.2023.1.228 https://ijmil.cherkasgu.press
Social, Psychological, Professional and Academic Features of the Use of Social Media in the Activities of Higher Education Institutions
Yaroslav Slutskyi a , *, Ellina Panasenko a, Svitlana Kurinna a, Iurii Shcherbiak b
a SHEI "Donbas State Pedagogical University", Ukraine b West Ukrainian National University, Ukraine
Abstract
In addition to being an important part of modern public consciousness, social media are seen as the basis of information and educational activities in higher education institutions. However, social media have not only social and academic, but also psychological impact (which is important for foreign students during the acculturation process). Furthermore, the Article states that certain social media (e.g. LinkedIn) contribute to the formation of professional and academic directions because they provide interaction with the teaching staff of an educational institution. Thus, the issue of the practical application of social media by universities as part of their activities is relevant. This allowed us to formulate the purpose of our study, i.e. the theoretical substantiation of social, psychological, professional and academic features and analysis of the practice of using social media in the activities of universities in Ukraine (V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University) and the US (New York University). The Article outlines the criteria for selecting countries and universities for the study as well as the methods used such as analysis (when studying the practical application and concept of social media content), synthesis (to aggregate the data obtained and interpret the Outcome (Competencies) category) and statistical method (aimed at working with information and digital data). Having analysed the content of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Telegram, YouTube, LinkedIn, TikTok, we concluded that the Content category is represented in the selected universities by materials of an informational, socio-educational and lecture nature. It should be emphasised that professional video content of New York University is more effective due to its thematic diversity. In turn, the Outcome (Competencies) category is determined by the professional development of students, building emotional and psychological resilience when adapting to a new social or social and cultural (for foreign students) environment.
Keywords: social media, educational process, interpersonal interaction, multidisciplinary, content, competencies, video content, social activities, professional and academic media, thematic focus.
1. Introduction
To ensure effective development, education should introduce the features that have a direct impact on society in a given period of time. If innovation is introduced when it is on a downward trend, the qualitative indicators of its academic dissemination will not be promising. The mid-2000s saw the beginning of the widespread use of many social media channels that are having an increasing influence on the societies of states and, naturally, students as representatives of these societies. This influence is primarily due to the number of users who have an account on social media (Global..., 2023)
* Corresponding author
E-mail addresses: yaroslav.slutskiy.mail@gmail.com (Y.S. Slutskyi)
Therefore, it is important to further introduce social media into the educational process, as they both have a direct impact on social and academic activities and contribute to building the psychological resilience of individual students (subject to the proper use of social media by educational institutions). For instance, W. Hamadeh, R. Bahous, R. Diab pointed out that "educators need to find ways for moving learners away from their phones and tablets to engage in the teaching and learning process planned by schools and universities; or better still, use those tools in teaching" (Hamadeh et al., 2020: 133). Thus, there is a relationship between social phenomena (that include social media) and academia, which allows for providing access not only to the information component of educational institutions, but also directly to the learning process, which can now take place via various platforms, and in addition to e-mail, students are now able to receive learning materials (text as well as video/audio) via more "mobile" platforms (messenger applications (WhatsApp, Viber, Telegram, Instagram, WeChat, Snapchat), social media (Facebook, Twitter), video platforms (YouTube, TikTok, Dailymotion).
Since, according to G. Nesterenko and O. Tishkova, "most social media on the Internet are public, and anyone can join them" (Nesterenko, Tyshkova, 2011: 456), one might claim that this gives academia a direct connection to the social space through both students (representatives of the society) and educational content, which often becomes publicly available (Edx, Coursera), allowing certain individuals to become part of the academic community of the educational institution, which was previously inaccessible to them due to various social or financial reasons. Naturally, in most cases, such an interaction between society and academia does not provide the individual with a final opportunity equal to that received by the students, but this is still a big leap for the subsequent development of a socio-academic relationship.
This relationship has, inter alia, a psychological aspect. For instance, foreign students who are in the process of acculturation may be affected by culture shock. This leads to mental health issues, which affects their academic success. In this case, the online format would reduce the number of stress triggers due to a decrease in direct interpersonal contacts.
Therefore, taking into account the conclusions made by researchers such as C. Greenhow, V. Cho, V. Dennen, who suggested that "as the presence of social media grows in the larger culture, it is important for educators, educational researchers ... to better understand the multiple roles and relationships that exist for social media in education, as well as the challenges and opportunities it poses for learning, teaching, school leadership, policy, and research" (Greenhow et al., 2019: 3), the study of the issue of using social media in the educational process can be considered as relevant.
In view of the foregoing, the purpose of the article can be stated as follows: to theoretically substantiate the social, psychological, professional and academic features and analyse the practice of using social media in universities in Ukraine and the US.
2. Materials and methods
To analyse the effectiveness of the practical application of social media in the activities of higher education institutions and their impact on the psychological development of students and educators, we needed to identify the universities to be considered. Note that a study of universities from one country can provide information about the quality of content and the spread of social media practices at the national level. However, we believe that it will be more relevant for the scientific community to compare the level of social media content in the two countries, which, in turn, will allow for even more extensive comparative studies in the future. Ukraine was chosen as the first country for analysis. Considering that social media (especially in a psychological context) have a significant impact on international students, the second country was chosen to be the United States, since it has the largest number of international students according to UNESCO (Global..., 2023).
After choosing countries for comparison, there is a question of choosing the universities to consider. The main criterion for this was chosen to be the number of foreign students in an educational institution (since foreign students are an important category for the purpose of the Article, including in relation to the psychological development of a person). Thus, official statistics (latest available data) on the number of international students were used. A university in Ukraine was selected based on the statistical information of State Enterprise "Ukrainian State Center for International Education" of Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine. For instance, according to the data of the Centre (International., 2023), V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Kharkiv, Ukraine) has the largest number of foreign students. Due to hostilities on the territory of
Ukraine and, in particular, the city of Kharkiv, these statistics cannot be completely accurate (because the information of the Centre is for the academic year 2020-2021). Nevertheless, these are the latest official data, so the Article will use them.
In turn, the US university was selected based on the data of Open Doors Report for the academic year 2021-2022. According to these data, the largest number of foreign students was recorded in New York University (New York City, USA). Therefore, a statistical method was applied to determine the criteria for choosing educational institutions, as well as the popularity of social media in relation to the societies of Ukraine and the United States.
To analyse the practice of using social media in the information and educational process of selected universities, we used data that are publicly available on the official websites of educational institutions V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (https://karazin.ua/en/) and New York University (https://www.nyu.edu/).
The study of the thematic content of the websites of selected educational institutions in social media required the use of methods of analysis and synthesis. For instance, the analysis method was applied when considering the content of each presented social media of a particular university and was important for the Content category. In turn, the synthesis was necessary to combine the significance of the social media used in the development of students' competencies and their psychosocial development, which is a consequence of the Outcome (Competencies) category.
3. Discussion
The effectiveness of the educational systems of various countries is based, inter alia, on their ability to accept societal changes and introduce positive practices into student education. The failure of an educational system to meet this condition increases the likelihood of regressive trends, which will lead to a lag between the systems of the countries or a discrepancy between the current state of education and modern social trends. Recent years saw the emergence and development of various social media, and there is a need for their incorporation into educational systems.
The issue of the spread of social media and their application in the academic process has been studied in many scientific papers. They also discussed the impact of social media on student performance - M. Alamri, M. Almaiah, W. Al-Rahmi (Alamri et al., 2020); S. Rahman, T. Ramakrishnan, L. Ngamassi (Rahman et al., 2019); the role of social media in the educational process - C. Greenhow, S. Galvin, K. Willet (Greenhow et al., 2019); H. Tkacova, R. Kralik, M. Tvrdon, Z. Jenisova (Tkacova et. al., 2022); M. Ha§iloglu, H. Qalhan, M. Ustaoglu (Ha§iloglu et al., 2020); A. Stathopoulou, N.-T. Siamagka, G. Christodoulides (Stathopoulou et al., 2019); strategies for the use of social media in the academic field, including in the context of online learning - C. Greenhow, S. Galvin (Greenhow, Galvin, 2020); the importance of social media for educators - A. Purvis, H. Rodger, S. Beckingham (Purvis et al., 2020).
The degree of involvement of social media in the educational process can be different depending on the state in question. Although Jessie S. Barrot argued that "with social media's massive popularity, the education sector has followed suit and recognised it as a potential educational tool to meet the learning styles and needs of today's learners" (Barrot, 2021: 646), we cannot fully agree with this conclusion, since there are several features that have a direct impact on the spread of social media in the educational environment:
1. The level of digitalisation of the educational system (the availability of a website of an educational institution or an education department alone is not enough to claim the use of social media in the educational process, since the website of an educational institution provides mostly informational (informational and educational at most) support. However, it is educational support that is necessary to educate students, aimed not only at informing about the activities of the institution, but also at providing content that ensures learning the subject and formation of the necessary competencies);
2. The level of openness (in this case, the degree of state involvement in global educational processes is essential. It is difficult to discuss the use of social media in the case of the ban of Facebook, YouTube, Skype and other online media channels. One can further explore the possibilities and effectiveness of encapsulated social media (which can be observed, for example, in China), but this issue should be the topic of a separate study);
3. Quality and coverage (the use of social media greatly depends on the quality of the Internet connection and mobile Internet coverage of the country, which facilitates the interaction of social media and education both directly in the classroom and at any time during students' free time).
Therefore, we believe that the suggestion of Jessie S. Barrot can be accepted subject to the sufficient implementation of the indicated features.
The use of social media in the educational process can also involve "communication interaction" (Enke, 2019) since communication influence on students is important not only during classes, but also later, this time in the format of, say, video lectures or tutorials. Such activities can involve both teachers and influencers in the student/youth environment who set modern trends and can be involved in the popularisation of a certain educational direction. For instance, this can include engaging such persons in the lectures. In a certain sense, this can be compared to a visiting professor from another university/state. If a teacher is involved, communication using social media can be considered tactical, while involving an influencer is strategic, as it is forward-looking and is done within a broader target framework. At the same time, however, it is worth noting that strategic communication using social media should not look fake, i.e. an influencer should not give a lecture, for example, on quantum mechanics (unless they have an appropriate professional background). It is more practical (to attract the attention of more students) to engage them in multidisciplinary, social, humanities directions.
The reason being that social media provide an opportunity to learn to a wider audience than classroom activities. However, the general audience must also extend to the general audience within itself. This is the reason why we have indicated the importance of using content for a wider audience within the educational process using social media. For instance, Zh. Myna argues that "one of the features of social media is that they cover a wide target audience and facilitate a transition from one-way communication, when information is simply provided, to two-way communication that allows dialogue" (Myna, 2021: 279).
Indeed, using social media in the educational process allows for building a dialogue between a teacher and a student and directly between students, forming teacher-student and studentstudent connections. A feature of this kind of dialogues is not the dialogue per se (classroom activities include discussion of certain issues in a dialogue format) but their remote nature, both in text (forums, comments on lecture videos) and video formats (online classes using video conferencing software such as Skype, Zoom, Webex, Amazon Chime, Google Meet etc.).
The importance of remote academic classes using social media in a psychological context should be emphasised. Given that some students (this is especially relevant for foreign students who are just starting the process of acculturation) have issues with interpersonal interactions (rather than communication), the role of remote interaction with other students and teachers becomes more important to reduce the psychological burden on a person. However, it is worth keeping in mind that social media should assist in providing remote interaction rather than becoming a substitute for direct interpersonal contact without media means. Otherwise, it can aggravate mental health issues rather than help overcome them, thus having a negative impact on the person. Therefore, this type of use of social media should be a temporary measure employed until the socialisation of the student is completed and their psychological resilience is formed.
Moreover, the use of social media is a key requirement for the professional development of a modern educator, who, without IT competence, will be unable to effectively teach or, importantly, conduct their research in today's globalised world. Let us turn to the findings of researchers as T. Aldahdouh, P. Nokelainen, V. Korhonen, who argue that "technology should serve academics in their professional development and growth in three key regards: teaching, learning, and research" (Aldahdouh et al., 2020: 15). Therefore, we must consider the social and psychological nature of social media for teaching, learning and research separately for teachers and students. The relationship data are given in Table 1 and Table 2:
Table 1. Social nature of social media
Perspective Teachers Students
Teaching Ability to expand teaching activities in a remote format, including to educational institutions of other countries; establishing social interaction N/A
Learning Formation of IT competence for the possibility of professional Possibility of academic interaction in the student-teacher and student-student
development in modern society formats remotely, which is relevant in the process of socialisation, when there are no established conditions for interpersonal interaction
Research Development of international social and academic contacts for research
Table 2. Psychological nature of social media
Perspective Teachers Students
Teaching Reducing the psychological burden as there is no need to keep the audience focused N/A
Learning Gaining knowledge and experience through social media with different types of students, including foreign students who represent other sociocultural groups and, therefore, other psychological types Building psychological resilience in case of problems with face-to-face interpersonal interactions
Research Opportunity to conduct research on the impact of social media on the psychological component of students and teachers
Ultimately, it should be noted that the Research perspective is common for both teachers and students, while the Teaching and Learning perspectives are determined by individual characteristics. In addition, the Teaching perspective is marked as N/A since the student status does not provide for teaching activities.
The generalisations given in Table 1 and Table 2 point to the importance of social media as a means of additional and/or online interactions between teachers and students, which is also confirmed by the findings of J. Guckian, M. Utukuri, A. Asif, according to which social media "can aid communication between learners and educators" (Guckian et al., 2021: 1236). However, these findings do not answer the question of the value of social media in an educational context, i.e. Does their use contribute to the increase of students' knowledge? The statements provided do not address this issue.
It should be noted that one of the pre-requisites for an effective educational process is the interest of both the teacher in providing students with new knowledge, and students in obtaining specialised thematic information. If this interest arises when using social media, we can talk about their relevance in academia. For example, T. Vandeyar (Vandeyar, 2020) argues that the online context of social media offers the teacher and students a social, academic and psychological environment convenient for both synchronous and asynchronous learning. This is one of the positive qualities of social media — their acceptance by both sides of the educational process, not because it is required by the academic environment, but because of the experience of using these media in the social space and, therefore, the experience of interaction within such media and the opportunity to use this to combine the social experience and academic process.
Social media use categories such as Content and Outcome (Competencies) should be considered separately. The outcome of using social media in the academic process depends on the content offered to students and should be determined by the following features:
1. Multidisciplinarity (regardless of the type of content (video, audio, text, etc.), multidisciplinary aspects should be included to ensure the diversity of academic information and showcase that the subject being studied by students does not exist in isolation. In this case, the use of social media will showcase the relationships between their field and others using hyperlinks, videos, etc.);
2. Brief and informative nature (since the educational process, when using social media, should be somewhat different from the usual academic one (including due to the inability of the teacher to fully supervise all students due to the lack of face-to-face contact with them): the information provided during synchronous classes should be brief (to hold attention) and informative (which will ensure that the students gain sufficient knowledge on a certain topic, regardless of the brevity of the lecture). Brief and informative nature is also applicable to the video content, which especially requires the lecture material to be brief without losing the necessary level of informational component. Moreover, the brevity of the material allows it to be posted on social media platforms — from Facebook to YouTube).
Ultimately, if the content follows the above features during creation and subsequent placement on social media, there will be pre-requisites for the successful formation of the next category — Outcome (Competencies) — which is determined by the extent to which the students developed the competencies that they need for both professional development in their field knowledge and operating in society. Therefore, quality content increases students' interest in it (we can infer causal relationships between the quality of content in social media and students' academic interest in it - Figure 1). The study of these relationships in social media was conducted by H. Cho, J. Cannon, W. Li (Cho et al., 2022).
Content IVIultidiscipl inarity Content creation
ca tego ry Brief and informative nature Content placement
Development of competencies that students need for professional develop ment
Development of competencies that
students need to operate in society
Outcome (competencies) catego ry
Fig. 1. Causal relationships between the Content and Outcome (Competencies) categories
The Outcome (Competencies) category also needs to be considered in a psychological context. Students who have mental health issues (foreign students who are in the process of acculturation, as has already been mentioned; introverted students) can be passive during the face-to-face academic process due to their psychological issues and experiences.
In this case, academic activities that involve social media can make a difference and allow them to open up in online interactions with teachers and other students. Let us turn to the conclusion made by C. Giannikas that "E-learning tools provide higher education with powerful mechanisms to alter the passivity that students may sometimes feel with in-person learning at a physical campus" (Giannikas, 2020: 4) . We believe that such a change from passivity is inherent in students who have mental barriers.
4. Results
The Content and Outcome categories should be considered from the practical perspective, which can showcase the effectiveness of the social media used in information and educational processes. For this, we have chosen two universities from Ukraine and the US for comparison, namely V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University & New York University.
To begin with, both universities have informative official websites (New York., 2023; V.N. Karazin..., 2023) that provide a complete picture of the academic process, university life and international activities. Both websites have embedded photos and videos, which drives engagement, including among potential applicants.
One can argue that the official websites of universities (which are also an important part of social media as they are aimed at disseminating information among various social groups and aggregate links to other social media channels) are sufficient for their targeted performance.
When considering the social media used by universities, it seems that V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is present in Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, TikTok; while New York University is present in Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube. Thus, it can be argued that both Ukrainian and American universities generally use the same social media channels to present informational and educational content. The difference lies in social media channels such as Telegram, TikTok (in Ukraine) & Twitter, LinkedIn (in the USA).
This is primarily due to their popularity in a particular country, since the information provided by universities is posted mainly on those media platforms that will ensure the greatest audience coverage. According to Similarweb statistics for February 2023, the popularity of distinctive social media is as follows (Table 3) (Most., 2023a; Most, 2023b):
Table 3. The popularity of distinctive social media (in Ukraine and in the USA)
Media name Ukraine (media ranking) US (media ranking)
Telegram 25 50+
TikTok 20 34
Twitter 32 6
LinkedIn 50+ 15
Analysis of the above Table reveals the reason for a certain difference in social media channels.
Having clarified the issue of differences, let us take a closer look at the content provided by universities on their respective media platforms. To do this, we have analysed all the social media used by each educational institution in terms of content and outcomes that this content contributes to (including in the context of the psychological aspect).
Let us start the analysis with V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, which is present on the following social media: Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, YouTube, TikTok.
1. Facebook (Facebook. V.N. Karazin., 2023)
The information component is represented by the content aimed at highlighting past events, announcing upcoming events (including academic conferences), as well as events related to international cooperation. The latter is especially important when evaluating the completeness of the content available for foreign students, who are an important social group in the academic process when studying psychological aspects. The data provided on Facebook allows potential applicants (including foreigners) to obtain information about the social, cultural, educational and scientific activities of the university. However, given the status of the educational institution as a national leader in terms of the number of foreign students, more content is needed that is aimed specifically at this group, including content presented not only in Ukrainian, but also in English.
2. Instagram (Instagram. Karazin., 2023)
The content of the page of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in this social media platform mainly includes information and entertainment materials aimed at attracting potential new students to various faculties of the educational institution. However, the academic direction is also represented by posts about guest lectures by researchers from the US. Thus, the content posted on this university's Instagram suggests a slightly different focus, in contrast to their Facebook page, which is more focused on the informational component.
3. Telegram (Telegram. Karazin., 2023)
The channel of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in this social media platform duplicates some information from Facebook, but also focuses on social and political issues that are not directly related to university life but aimed at informing about certain events and opportunities for students to take part in webinars, conferences, etc. It can be ultimately noted that the university's Telegram channel has certain characteristics in common with their content on Facebook, but with a clearly different direction, which is represented by providing a different kind of information related to the social and political activities of the university and related events.
4. YouTube (YouTube. Karazin., 2023)
With regard to this social media platform, the content of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is represented by materials characterised by a video component which, therefore, are more effective for distribution on YouTube, a video platform. The thematic basis of the presented content is video reports on events or materials aimed at attracting new students to various faculties of the university. However, the content of the university on this social media platform has certain differences from the content we considered earlier, as there are lecture materials available here. Naturally, this media content does not include current lectures — for this, restricted-access educational platforms are used (e.g. Moodle) — yet their YouTube channel offers videos of a directly educational nature that can be used outside the academic process. Their downside is that they are not in English, but nowadays this is easily corrected with subtitles.
The available IT course has thematic sections such as Introduction to Machine Learning, Python, IoT and BigData, each represented by a separate video lecture. This video content obviously has a professional focus and represents the social nature of social media, namely in terms of expanding educational activities remotely (since it facilitates learning lecture material outside the campus of an educational institution); teachers themselves also increase their computer competence as they gain experience in delivering lectures in this format.
It should be noted that this kind of media content is posted on YouTube channel of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in a basically display format, which does not suggest an integrated approach to providing general access to educational videos to those who are not directly related to the university or conduct a targeted search for such content. It is also obvious that student-teacher interactions can take place on restricted-access educational platforms, in contrast to student-student interactions, which simply need video content for the students to discuss later.
The thematic focus of this series of video lectures is directly related to the Outcome (Competencies) category, namely, in the direction of developing the competencies that students need for professional development since the lecture videos have, as was mentioned earlier, a clearly defined professional focus.
Thus, certain types of content on the YouTube channel of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University can be defined as educational, however, we believe that (in order to increase opportunities for students, including foreign ones, to get to know the format of teaching certain subjects) the list of video lectures available should be expanded not only quantitatively, but also subject-wise.
5. TikTok (TikTok. Karazin., 2023)
This social media platform does not lend itself to lecture content and scientific materials. Therefore, the university's TikTok page features short videos about the life of students in an educational institution and messages from the administration. Thus, this content can be defined as infotainment.
Ultimately, the content of V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University in the presented social media is directly related to the media direction and provides academic, educational and socio-educational information. Although lecture videos are also available, they lack thematic variety.
Having analysed the practice of using social media in V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University, we now need to compare it with the practice of a university from a different academic environment. For this purpose, we chose New York University. Consider the content of the social media this university is present on, namely Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube.
1. Instagram (Instagram. New York., 2023)
The content presented by the New York University page in this social platform is infotainment aimed both at attracting new students to the educational institution and at covering social and sports events that take place in New York and in which students of this university take part. This facilitates learning about the social activities of the university, which is important (as we found out earlier) for foreign students as it can provide an understanding of the social and cultural context of the city and country where they need to live during their studies. Ultimately, we can infer that the Instagram content of the universities being considered has basically the same direction thematically.
2. Twitter (Twitter. New York., 2023)
Although this social media platform features content that duplicates some posts on Instagram, it has a slightly different general thematic nature, including a more official presentation of the activities of the university (messages from the administration; events that have a direct impact on the status of an educational institution as socially oriented institution).
As V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University is not present on this social media platform, we can make a comparison with Telegram based on the posted content, which is also aimed, to some extent, at presenting information about the university using different essential materials compared to other social media.
3. Facebook (Facebook. New York., 2023)
Although most of the content of this social media is information that can be found on Twitter, it is the university's Facebook page that offers informational materials that are of direct interest to foreign students. Let us consider the NYU Takes Action: A Bystander Intervention Training Series project aimed at overcoming "Anti-Asian, Anti-Black and Anti-LGBTQ harassment". In our opinion, such a project may have social and psychological rather than just social aspect since it
both provides an understanding of a certain issue in the public consciousness and emphasises the importance of psychological resilience to the identified issue. Thus, comparing the pages of the social media platform such as Facebook in V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University & New York University, one might note that social media deals with the issues that foreign students may face in society. In other words, the content of these educational institutions on Facebook targets (in socio-professional and socio-psychological aspects) foreign students more.
4. LinkedIn (Linkedln. New York., 2023)
The content posted by New York University on this platform has a professional focus, which is evidenced by posting job openings, information about university graduates hired by the educational institution, as well as materials that cover important social events and infrastructural changes directly related to the university. Thus, LinkedIn brings New York University employees together in a single digital space, making this social media platform "professional and academic".
The information provided may also be relevant for students if they are interested in learning more about the university (where they study) in a less entertaining and more professional way.
It should be noted that, for example, V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University does not allow (publicly) or uniting the teaching staff professionally on LinkedIn.
5. YouTube (YouTube. New York., 2023)
New York University's materials featured on YouTube have a social and academic focus. For instance, a large amount of content consists of various interviews, discussions about student life and speeches by graduates of various years. However, unlike the V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University's channel on this platform, the US university features a larger variety of openly available lectures and, importantly (and was emphasised by us earlier), this content is thematically diverse, which allows students to form the necessary professional competencies. Thematically, the video content is represented by literary (Open Ed: Cyrus Patell, American Literature) as well as the behavioural (Open Ed: Bauer, Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences) and sociological (Open Ed: Harvey Molotch, Intro to Sociology) sciences. Ultimately, it should be noted that the videos posted by New York University on YouTube have a more effective component compared to what has been observed in V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University due to the quantitative indicators of the available professional lecture materials; because in another aspect — social and academic — the content can generally be characterised similarly, which does not allow us to single out any specific university.
5. Conclusion
Thus, having analysed the practice of using social media in V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University & New York University, we can conclude that there are causal relationships between the Content and Outcome (Competencies) categories, given the importance (as we indicated earlier) of the psychological outcome, which is primarily important for foreign students.
The study of the practice of using social media by V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University allowed for characterising the categories of Content and Outcome:
Content category: The available content of the university in the considered social media is thematically aligned with the media platforms themselves, which is logical, including because it would be inappropriate to post, for example, lecture material on the platforms such as Facebook or TikTok (placing emphasis in the Content category on being "brief and informative"). In general, it should be noted that the materials posted by V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University provide enough information about the scientific, pedagogical, educational and social activities of the educational institution and its representatives, both among teachers and students. YouTube features lecture content of a professional nature, but only in the form of a series of lectures on one topic (IT), which raises the question of the need to post lecture video content on other topics.
Outcome (Competencies) category: The content posted by the university, including texts, graphics (photos) and video, is aimed at achieving relevant outcomes. Firstly, lecture videos contribute to the development of students' professional qualities by allowing them to remotely gain knowledge in a specific thematic area (as auxiliary materials to listening to lectures in the classroom directly), so we pointed out the need to expand the thematic variety of the lectures. Secondly, the purpose of a large amount of content is to develop competencies that are important for social interaction in society (for example, these can be announcements of ongoing events that allow students to interact socially. This is especially relevant for foreign students who may experience certain problems in a new sociocultural space). Thirdly, let us determine the psychological outcome, which is especially important for foreign students. For instance, in the case of interpersonal
issues (caused by culture shock, mental health, etc.), it is necessary to ensure psychological resilience, which requires, inter alia, regular practice of communication with representatives of the host country. Therefore, learning (with the help of social media) the social and cultural aspects can contribute to obtaining information that can be used in interpersonal interactions.
As for New York University, having considered the practical use of social media by this educational institution, we can conclude that there are causal relationships between the Content and Outcome (Competencies) categories
Content category: Information materials featured on the social media pages of New York University are characterised by the need to provide information about student life, university events (including social events directly in New York). However, certain content (primarily on Facebook) has the social and psychological focus that can be applied to foreign students (namely, regarding the issues of interpersonal interaction in a new country). We must also point out the importance of LinkedIn, a social media platform that allows building primarily professional and academic, rather than social, connections. The YouTube content is very important (in the multidisciplinarity of social media channels used by New York University) in providing access to lectures on various topics, suggesting that New York University has a wide variety of professional materials on their YouTube channel.
Outcome (Competencies) category: The outcomes of New York University's social media can be divided into three directions. Firstly, the availability of social media for professional interactions (LinkedIn) allows students to see the teaching staff as a body, which requires (possibly only psychologically) professional development of the student body. Secondly, the professional development of students should be primarily understood not as the desire of several individuals to unite their efforts to achieve a certain goal, but as the formation of competencies to achieve it. Naturally, the lack of drive to achieve results (by forming competencies) will not contribute to the formation of the Outcome category. However, psychological drive alone without practical implementation (the formation and development of competencies) is unlikely to bring the desired outcomes. Here we come to the conclusion about the importance of professional video content on YouTube, which ensured professional development as a necessary condition for the Outcome category. Thirdly, social and psychological content (primarily on Facebook) ensures the formation of competencies aimed at understanding social interactions (for foreign students, in the host country) among students.
This comparative study is not comprehensive in addressing the issue of social media use. Further scientific research may be aimed at studying the practice of using social media to teach certain subjects; conducting comparative studies with a large number of countries; identifying the significance of other social media for social, psychological, professional and academic directions.
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