Andy Adcroft, Surrey Business School
I’m using TikTok to help students better understand three things. First, what they are studying. Second, the people who are teaching them. Third, the place where they are learning. If this experiment in the use of social media is successful then there will be both academic and social benefits for students and the Business School (and University).
What they are studying. The TikTok content is primarily built around my final year International Business Strategy module taken by over 600 students from across the University – every final year undergraduate in Surrey Business School (SBS) and the School of Hospitality and Tourism Management (SHTM) takes the module along with engineers, linguists, computer scientists and others. The content has a few forms such as short teaser videos for upcoming lectures, end of week summary videos about the main points of learning and short definition videos on key issues in strategy. Alongside this are videos (done and planned) around, for example, study plans, revision techniques, transitioning from study to work (and vice versa).
Who is teaching them. Mainly based around me but also introducing other academics and more based on non-academic interests than academic work. The big theme is cycling which makes for interesting videos and also has benefits around health, fitness and wellbeing. These will also cover music, sport and events over the course of the semester.
Where they are learning. General and, hopefully, fun and informative stuff about the university and SBS. Videos on, for example, the work of the SBS Advisory Board, extra-curricular activities, links with societies and so on.
So far, engagement has been good – more than 7500 views of videos and most videos get between 350 and 550 views. For more details have a look at: https://www.tiktok.com/@strategy_and_cycling?lang=en