Students' Experience in Using Twitter for Online Learning: Social-Affective and Cognitive Perspectives

The current study investigated whether SNS such as Twitter can be an assisting tool to compensate the limitations of online learning from social-affective and cognitive perspectives. Such limitations include low level of motivation to participate, feeling of isolation, rare exchanges of ideas and feedback from peers or instructors. This paper reports findings from a research study on the use of Twitter in online learning in Higher Education. Survey and subsequent interviews were conducted to examine students' perceptions about the cognitive and social-affective aspects of their participation in Twitter activities. Some of the challenges and potentials in integrating Twitter into online course are also addressed. It can be concluded that Twitter contributes not only to building close relationships among peers and instructors but also to opening a communication channel that can extend cognitive potentials.