Should Universities Monitor what Students Post on Social Media?

This is a very controversial issue in our today’s era especially for the young scholars. Why should a lecturer want to know what a student writes or posts on his or her private face book account or student-run face book groups? John Rowe, academic registrar of Australia’s Curtin University, carried out a study and he involved students and teachers whereby he showed all of them various social media posts, with varying degree of offensiveness, and then he asked them to rank these posts from less serious to serious one. His main aim was to decide whether institutions should intervene between what students post on social media.

UNEXPECTED RESULTS

Rowe told University World News. “Based on some actual student behavior issues with which I had dealt at Curtin (student comments on teaching staff), I thought it was possible academics might be particularly sensitive to criticism (more so than other staff). “However, I found that in general, teaching staff were really no more sensitive than non-teaching staff. The only issue on which teaching staff displayed a noticeably higher level of sensitivity than non-teaching staff was in relation to racist comments about other students or staff.

It is surprising that non-teaching staff (that is, administrative staff) were more inclined to think it was appropriate to intrude into student personal spaces – private Face book sites, student-run Face book groups etc – via active monitoring and so on than teaching staff.

Rowe said for earlier generations, criticizing teachers and ridiculing their mannerisms or appearance was commonplace. But the comments were spoken, not written, or passed between students via handwritten notes in class or scratched into wooden desktops or the back of toilet doors. The likelihood of the subject of the comment actually seeing it was small and even if it were seen or brought to that person’s attention, the chances of linking the comment to a particular student were slim. Also, schools or universities would often immediately remove the offending comments, so they had limited distribution and life.

Foul language no problem

Added Rowe: “There was a high degree of commonality between students and staff on what constitutes the no-go zone of ‘unacceptable’ comment on social media. Students are not particularly concerned about use of foul language, but they seem very clear in their views on what is ‘OK’ and what is ‘unacceptable’. “Racist, sexist or homophobic comments are in this latter category. Students also see threats of violence and admissions of cheating as unacceptable. Their views are very similar to those of staff on these matters.”

In students’ opinion, while they recognized that certain types of comments posted on student-run forums might warrant intervention and action by a university – particularly threats of violence, racist and sexist comments, and admissions of cheating or offers to cheat on academic work – they also believed these sites were private spaces and not the domain of universities. They felt uncomfortable about universities entering these spaces and actively monitoring them for what institutions might perceive as ‘inappropriate comments’: this was regarded as an invasion of privacy. Yet with particularly offensive or inappropriate posts, both staff and students were in agreement: the answer was clearly ‘yes’. However, while both groups felt it was warranted for universities to take action with these types of posts, there was also a view that responsibility for taking action could equally be left with the police or with service providers.

Take-home message

Rowe said the main message for universities was that they shouldn’t take too seriously what students say on personal sites – private Face book or student-run Face book sites. “A lot of what is said on personal sites (non-university sites) is deliberately and knowingly provocative and aimed at an audience. My key finding is that it would be inadvisable for universities to actively monitor these sorts of sites for negative comments. “Institutions can react if a complaint is made (and in some cases, should react), but they should not actively seek out these types of comments to suppress or react to them. Many students would feel very uncomfortable if they knew universities were actively monitoring such sites. Of course, comments on ‘official’ university sites are another matter.”

When asked if he thought there were likely to be any obvious changes to these issues over the next few years, he said: “I don’t think so. I think the key findings will still apply – although of course it will be very interesting to test this! “In three years’ time, social media will be even more pervasive and, in my opinion, being used a lot more by universities in a mainstream way to communicate with students and even deliver learning experiences. “However, I still think students will want to have a clear separation between ‘their’ spaces and ‘university’ spaces, and will use each set of social media accordingly. “On that basis, I think my findings regarding ‘staying out of their space e.t.c’ will still be valid and I think a lot of the other findings will probably still remain applicable as well.”

Source: University World News.