Faculty: Science and Technology Semester: 2 Academic Year: 2014/2015 Course Code: FOUN 1105 Couse Title: Scientific and Technical Writing Tutor’s Name: Danielle Watson Tutorial Day and Time: Wednesday 12-1pm Coursework Assignment: Credit Assignment 3 (Pair Assignment) – Review of Related Literature Date of Submission: Wednesday 25th March, 2015.

Broad Topic: Science and Social Media
Tutor-Approved Topic: The impact of social media on academic performance of students of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of the West Indies, St Augustine.

Social media has become a growing phenomenon with many varied definitions. Social media generally refers to media used to enable social interaction. Social media has gained wider acceptability and usability and is becoming one of the main communication tools among students especially at tertiary level education (Al-Rahmi and Othman 2013). Further research reveals that the three major advantages of social media in higher education are improved study patterns, enhancing relationship and improving learning motivation.
Social media facilitates the academic experience and helps develop study patterns but caution needs to be exercised with respect to time management (Noel 2015). A new term known as ‘interprofessional education has been introduced where different individuals come together to share knowledge with other peers. This leads to improved studying outcomes as students learn from each other’s experiences (El-Badaway and Hashmen 2015). This allows students to acclimatize to a new learning environment since they have the opportunity to share knowledge with others and conduct projects more efficiently. Wang (2014) states that learning through the use of social media provides pedagogically sound content to suit the needs of the student with personalized material to study from.
Kizzie Noel, a first year student was interviewed. She indicated that her use of other social media for academic purposes included to circulate research, to follow other researchers' activities, citation indexes, blogging and watching videos on YouTube. The Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of the West Indies has a Facebook profile to connect with students in a more personable and informal setting. This means that social media has the possibility of enhancing student contact and is used to improve their participation, particularly where introverted students are involved. Students can function in online group learning, with less or no anxiety of needing to raise questions before peers at school (Al-Rahmi and Othman 2013). Recent work by Rios-Aguilar et al. (2014) states that faculty members create Facebook profiles to connect with their students in a more personable and informal space. This has further led to the use of Facebook groups for various course offerings.
Using online technologies can encourage discussion among students outside the traditional class setting and increase the learning enthusiasm amongst peers. Many social media sites encourage investigative-based and collaborative activities among students. Through collaborative or team learning through the integration of social media, students can establish positive contact, using the goal of working towards particular final results in offline and online modes (Al-Rahmi and Othman 2013). The proliferation of personalized e-learning affords educators the opportunity to reach out and target students with content considered necessary and suitable to the student (Wang 2014). On the contrary El-Badaway and Hashem (2015) indicates that there is no correlation between academic performance and the impact of social media in improving learning motivation of students.
The sources contained imperative information crucial for this review providing in-depth and comprehensive data. The literature reviewed illustrates that social media is a crucial component of the educational experience of tertiary level students.Thus, there is a correlation of social media use in higher education with respect to study patterns, enhancing relationships and improving learning motivation.

References
Al Rahmi, Waleed and Mohd Shaizan Othman. 2013. “The Impact of Social Media use on Academic Performance among university students: A Pilot Study.” Journal of Information Systems Research and Innovation. Accessed March 17th, 2015. http://seminar.utmspace.edu.my/jisri/download/G_FinalPublished/Pub12_SocialMediaAcademicPerformance.pdf
Davis III, Charles H. F., Regina Deil-Amen, Cecilia Rios-Aguilar and Manuel Sacramento González Canché. 2014. “Social Media, Higher Education, and Community Colleges: A Research Synthesis and Implications for the Study of Two-Year Institutions.” Community College Journal of Research and Practice: 1-14.
El-Badaway, Tarek and Yasmin Hashmem. 2015. “The Impact of Social Media on the Academic Development of School Students.” International Journal of Business Administration 6 (1): 46-52. doi:10.5430/ijba.v6n1p46.
Noel, Kizzie (Student, Faculty of Science and Technology, University of the West Indies). 2015. Interview by Marsha Ramkissoon, March 12. St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago.
Wang, Victor C. X. 2014. Handbook of Research on Education and Technology in a Changing Society. United States of America: IGI Global.