Follow Me: Using Social Media to Encourage Student Engagement at a Regional Law School

Abstract

Social media is increasingly becoming an integral part of people's lives. Traditionally, social media usage has been viewed as a form of entertainment. It is clear though that social media is being utilised in many divergent settings, including within universities. We know, anecdotally, that university students are using social media in an informal setting in parallel with their units of study. The question this paper explores is whether this usage could be successfully transferred to a more formal setting. To investigate the attitudes law students have towards using social media within their teaching setting, the authors distributed a survey to academic staff and students at the University of New England. This article provides a general overview of the student survey responses. For the purposes of this article, we isolate our analysis to the attitudes of law students towards using social media within their legal study units. The authors conclude that, given the current university environment, it is prudent to trial using social media platforms to incite student interest.