Abstract:
Can social media be used as a public pedagogy for education, health and wellness? How does a social-media-based program originally focused on weight loss, become a community of practice where members report transformative learning and practice? This mixed-methods case study investigated what a successful social media-based community looks like from the perspectives of members, and identifies factors that members report as central to their sustained engagement and transformative learning.
Social support is a major contributing factor as to whether a person will persevere with personal goals. It has been suggested that social media (Facebook or blogs) can facilitate positive, ongoing interactions among people with common interests. What are the necessary conditions to ensure that online communities offer safe, respectful space for engagement of vulnerable populations, providing for interconnection among members who have shared goals. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated social isolation and escalated the urgency of calls to understand how social-media may provide a means to support different populations.
While research suggest that factors such as ease of use, flexibility of access, cost effectiveness, and live interactions, help foster positive experiences online, little is known about what influences people to sustain their involvement in social media communities. This study sought to identify factors that impacted engagement of members in a 13-week health and wellness initiative offered through a private Facebook group. The group was chosen due its significant growth from January 2019 (722 members) to January 2023 (28,061 members), based on personal recommendations alone (an increase of over 3,800%).
Using a Communities of Practice (CoP) framework that respects the creation of knowledge as both individual and social, created through interactions with objects, people, and experiences (Wenger et al., 2002) we conducted a mixed method in depth case study of the initiative across two 13-week programs (fall, 2022; winter 2023). Data were generated through an online survey at the end of each of the sessions (fall ’22 n=5632, winter ’23 n=5721; N=11,353; 22%) and 55 online focus groups with a total of 236 members participating. Survey data enabled us to identify factors that members perceive as enabling/restricting engagement with the group, learning outcomes they derived from participation, and strengths and challenges of the initiative in supporting their goals. Focus group transcripts were subject to thematic content analysis and NVivo was used to organize the coded data. We determined relationships among codes and identified and defined overarching themes supported by exemplar quotations.
Findings contribute unique insights, from members’ perspectives, about how current and future developers of social media-based initiatives could build communities that optimize support for members and encourage sustained active engagement and transformative learning. Findings have applications for practitioners more broadly across disciplines of education, health professions, and social services through informing the design and implementation of initiatives to isolated, vulnerable, and other geographically dispersed groups.
Social support is a major contributing factor as to whether a person will persevere with personal goals. It has been suggested that social media (Facebook or blogs) can facilitate positive, ongoing interactions among people with common interests. What are the necessary conditions to ensure that online communities offer safe, respectful space for engagement of vulnerable populations, providing for interconnection among members who have shared goals. The Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated social isolation and escalated the urgency of calls to understand how social-media may provide a means to support different populations.
While research suggest that factors such as ease of use, flexibility of access, cost effectiveness, and live interactions, help foster positive experiences online, little is known about what influences people to sustain their involvement in social media communities. This study sought to identify factors that impacted engagement of members in a 13-week health and wellness initiative offered through a private Facebook group. The group was chosen due its significant growth from January 2019 (722 members) to January 2023 (28,061 members), based on personal recommendations alone (an increase of over 3,800%).
Using a Communities of Practice (CoP) framework that respects the creation of knowledge as both individual and social, created through interactions with objects, people, and experiences (Wenger et al., 2002) we conducted a mixed method in depth case study of the initiative across two 13-week programs (fall, 2022; winter 2023). Data were generated through an online survey at the end of each of the sessions (fall ’22 n=5632, winter ’23 n=5721; N=11,353; 22%) and 55 online focus groups with a total of 236 members participating. Survey data enabled us to identify factors that members perceive as enabling/restricting engagement with the group, learning outcomes they derived from participation, and strengths and challenges of the initiative in supporting their goals. Focus group transcripts were subject to thematic content analysis and NVivo was used to organize the coded data. We determined relationships among codes and identified and defined overarching themes supported by exemplar quotations.
Findings contribute unique insights, from members’ perspectives, about how current and future developers of social media-based initiatives could build communities that optimize support for members and encourage sustained active engagement and transformative learning. Findings have applications for practitioners more broadly across disciplines of education, health professions, and social services through informing the design and implementation of initiatives to isolated, vulnerable, and other geographically dispersed groups.