Analysis of Neier's (2015) Research on Students' Perceptions and Experiences of Social Media in Higher Education

This research paper analyzes Neier's (2015) research on students' perceptions and experiences of social media in higher education. The paper focuses on the perspective of students about the implementation of social media applications for online-learning in universities and institutions. The researchers have used both quantitative and qualitative data for their research, which is best to establish their research goal. The goal of this research article is to analyze the perspective of students regarding the implementation of social media tools for e-learning methods. The researchers have found out that, tutees are keen about the use of social networking tools in the education system as this decreases the hard work of collecting information and focus on exactly those topics, which they want to learn about. On the other hand, it helps them connect with teachers and professors in a better way.

Running Head: RESEARCH ARTICLE ANALYSIS OF NEIER’S (2015) RESEARCH
RESEARCH ARTICLE ANALYSIS OF NEIER’S (2015) RESEARCH
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Abstract
Analyzing a research paper means critically reviewing all the purpose and the topic of research,
methodology and the findings of the research. The judgmental readers of the research paper will
analyze the nature of research the author has proposed to analyze the research questions and how
he is solving them. Here the analysis of the 2015 research paper about “Students’ perceptions
and experiences of social media in higher education” given, which is based on analyzing the
perspective of students about the implementation of social media applications for online-learning
in universities and institutions. This research has opened a new field for further research as it has
focused on the perception of the students. As students cover the major part in the list of users of
e-learning methods, their perspective has been ignored ever since. The researchers have shown
how important is the popularity of such systems among students is important for it to sustain.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Rationale for the research Question.................................................................................................4
 Does the author, in the initial portion of the article, provide as overview of the problem to
be addressed in the study?...........................................................................................................4
 Did the authors present evidence of knowledge of the topic of research through references
to and descriptions of relevant and current research?..................................................................4
 Did the author address the major current theoretical perspectives on the problem at hand?5
 How did the author make the case for the importance of the research question?.................5
 Does the author’s rationale form a coherent argument for the research problem through
the use of sound logic and relevant citations?.............................................................................6
 Does the author end the introduction with a concise and focused summary and statement
of the problem or research hypothesis?.......................................................................................6
 Does the Introduction overall make sense logically and empirically?.................................6
Methods and design of the study.....................................................................................................7
Results and findings of the study.....................................................................................................8
Conclusions drawn based on the research findings.........................................................................8
References......................................................................................................................................10

3RESEARCH ARTICLE ANALYSIS OF NEIER’S (2015) RESEARCH
Introduction
Any judgmental critic of a research paper will expect analytical and logical reasoning
from the writer to establish the research and provide proper description of methodology,
designing, observation and analysis of the information and results. The writer must utilize all
these to conclude his research topic and establish a fact. The introduction and literature review
part of the paper contains logical analysis focusing the purpose of the research and justifies the
reasoning to fill in the gap of logic (Mathews, 2014). On the other hand, it also reasons the
methodology adopted by the researcher to perform the research analysis. Next step of a research
paper is the methodology of research, where the author designs and explains the method of data
collection and analysis method adopted by the researcher. After this comes the result of the
analysis. In this part of the research paper, the author has to provide enough reasoning to support
the methodology he has designed and used to conclude the results also, how the result is
supporting the purpose of the research. Last section of a research paper is the conclusion and
discussion, which is mostly dependent on the research and the publication of the paper.
However, in this section, author discusses the consequences and findings in the specific field of
study.
The critical review is done on the research article by S. Neier, L.T. Zayer termed as
“Students’ perceptions and experiences of social media in higher education” in 2015. The paper
describes the implementation of social media applications in educational institutes and the
perception of tutees about this process. Implementation of online-learning and e-teaching
methodologies has been gaining popularity in different countries (Neier & Zayer, 2015). The
process is easy and a superfast way to communicate with every student and provides a better
platform for them to focus on exactly what they want to study and how. However, some also do

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not prefer this process because implementation of social media tools like “Facebook” or
“Twitter” can hamper the overall purpose of increasing the teaching quality of the institution
(Neier & Zayer, 2015). As per the researchers of this paper, until now all the researches
regarding the implementation of social media tools for e learning focused on the benefits of these
in pedagogical tools from the perspective of teachers and professors. However, this paper
focuses on the perspective of the students about the implementation of social media tools in
teaching methodology. It is important to make sure that the students have firm knowledge about
the tool or are well trained before the tool is been implemented in the education system. This will
be helpful for the students as well as the teachers too.
Rationale for the research Question
 Does the author, in the initial portion of the article, provide as overview of the
problem to be addressed in the study?
The author has briefly described the problems, which will be addressed in the later parts
of the article. The author clearly mentioned the perspective of the students regarding the
implementation of e-learning methods in educational institutes. For a system to work properly it
is important to understand the perspective of different users of the system. Like teachers and
professors, students are the major ones who will be using the system. The research of this article
also comprises the survey to the level of knowledge students have about different social
networks and tools.

5RESEARCH ARTICLE ANALYSIS OF NEIER’S (2015) RESEARCH
 Did the authors present evidence of knowledge of the topic of research
through references to and descriptions of relevant and current research?
The researchers of this paper has used references of different research articles, which
portrays the current trends of research regarding the implementation of e-learning methodology
and the benefits of those. The researchers have provided enough evidences to support the area of
research they are going to cover. The researchers have taken in account the perspective of the
students as they are cover the major part of the user list of any social media tool for e-learning
methods. The researchers have also provided enough references to support the gap in research
they have chosen to work on.
 Did the author address the major current theoretical perspectives on the
problem at hand?
The author has shown importance of implementing social media tools in the educational
institutes have a huge reaction from the students like teachers and professors. The students cover
a major portion in the list of users however; their perspective about e-learning and its benefits
have never been credited for researches interconnected to the implementation of social network
tools in teaching-learning field. On the other hand, the level of knowledge students do have
regarding different social media tools like microblogging, pinning sites and video contents and
sharing websites is another major aspect of this paper. The researchers have provided enough
reasoning to support their topic of research. Being a primary user of the e-learning process a
student must have enough knowledge to incorporate with e-learning methodology and avail the
full advantage of the system.

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 How did the author make the case for the importance of the research
question?
The students are the primary user of the e-learning techniques implemented by any
university. Their perspective regarding the implementation of social media tools is quite
important for the success of the new system. In case, the students do not feel easy with the
existing e-learning methodology then the system will crash and the university has to think
otherwise. This is why, the perspective of the students play a vital role in implementing social
media tools for e-learning methodology. The researchers have explained this fact very aptly in
the research article.
 Does the author’s rationale form a coherent argument for the research
problem through the use of sound logic and relevant citations?
The researcher has provided logical reasoning for choosing such a topic for research.
They have used references of different research articles to prove that earlier researches only
focused on the perception of the teachers and professors and theoretical analysis of the success of
different e-learning methods. However, no analysis has been done on the perception of the
students, as they are the major users of such system. In case an e-learning method fails to gain
popularity among students then the system can crash. This is why, analysis of the perspective of
the students when social media tools are regarded as major tools for e-learning.
 Does the author end the introduction with a concise and focused summary
and statement of the problem or research hypothesis?
The researcher has provided a brief analysis on the research statement and methodology
implemented to work on it. The researcher have focused on the analysis of the perspective of

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students for implementing social network tools in pedagogy process of any university. In
addition to this, the researchers have discussed the two steps of data collection and analysis of it
to conclude the research.
 Does the Introduction overall make sense logically and empirically?
The introduction of this research paper is overall logical and focused on the problem
discussed in the later part. The researchers have discussed the current trends of research in this
field and sorted the research gap by focusing on the necessity of analyzing the perspective of the
students for implementing social networking tools for online-learning and teaching methodology.
The researchers have also briefly discussed the methodology they are going to implement to
perform the research.
Methods and design of the study
The researchers have used both quantitative and qualitative data for their research, which
is best to establish their research goal. The goal of this research article is to analyze the
perspective of students regarding the implementation of social media tools for e-learning
methods. To analyze this the researchers used both thorough interview method for selective
students and survey for every student of a university. The researchers have scrutinized students
of different streams and departments based on their usage of different social media tools. This
has helped them understand the utility of social media tools in different subjects better. In the
survey paper, they have used different points for students to understand the utility better. For
example, the researchers have used points based on their attendance in the classroom, their
educational year, and gender of the student, race or ethnicity and the total household income of
the family from where the student belongs (Neier & Zayer, 2015). The researchers have
indicated that results of such survey brings out something unique. They found that students who

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belong to low household income background, likes to use social media tools more than others as
these tools help them to cope up with the overall expenses.
The researchers have conducted thorough interview on different students to understand
their perspective. The researchers in this case have found that in most cases, the perspective of
the trainers and teachers have echoed in the voices of the students. After collecting information
from both the processes, the researchers have analyzed the data collected in the survey (Neier &
Zayer, 2015). The researchers have found out that, tutees are keen about the use of social
networking tools in the education system as this decreases the hard work of collecting
information and focus on exactly those topics, which they want to learn about. On the other
hand, it helps them connect with teachers and professors in a better way.
Results and findings of the study
In case of survey done on different students, it is clear that, implementation of social
networking tools in the education method is quite popular among students. It will be a good idea
to attach a video content from YouTube with a lecture of study material will make the overall
learning method. The researchers have analyzed the popularity of possible different social media
tools individually. Analyzing the results of survey and interview results, it is clear that video
content and sharing websites are quite popular among students and the popularity decreases for
blogging and microblogging websites (Neier & Zayer, 2015).
However, the researchers have done survey and interview on students of a single
university, which indicates that the choices are quite limited for them. It is the choice of the
university administration to implement a typical set of social media tools like Facebook for
communication and Twitter for microblogging and YouTube for video contents. While there are

9RESEARCH ARTICLE ANALYSIS OF NEIER’S (2015) RESEARCH
many choices for these with their own unique features helpful for education purpose. The
researchers have found major popularity for video contents as these make e-learning and
problem solving easy for every student. Video contents are best way of sharing teaching
materials with students.
Conclusions drawn based on the research findings
The conclusion part of this article plays a major role in identifying the limitations of this
research and indicating future researches on this field. The authors of this research has identified
three major limitations besides the success of the research. As per the research students have a
good knowledge about the implementation of social media tools in education. Like vide contents
of the YouTube, Pinterest, Facebook, and Twitter for blogging, microblogging and
communicating and LinkedIn as professional websites are best to incorporate with education
system for betterment and effective e-learning methodology (Neier & Zayer, 2015). Students are
aware of such technologies however, they are also very careful regarding e-learning and
incorporating social media tools in the learning process as there is a tendency of being attached
to an extensive level with such social media tools, which can hamper the overall teaching and
learning methodology.
The researchers have indicated three major short comes of this research. The first one is
they have conducted the survey and thorough interview on the students of same university (Neier
& Zayer, 2015). This has a major effect on the overall research. Every university or institution
have a set of social media tools used for their system and this will affect the perspective of the
students studying there. For a neutral research, it is best to conduct a survey on different students
of different university and institutions, as the choice of social media tool of an individual
institute does not affect the overall analysis (Neier & Zayer, 2015) . The researchers have not

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considered the traits, lifestyle and the overall usage of social media by the student in their
consideration. All these points have major impact on the perspective of the students. One who is
not using a social media regularly will not be able to use such tools in a regular basis
comfortably. In most of the cases the perspective of the teachers or trainers are reflected in the
perspective of the students. This is why further research and thorough analysis is important in
this field.

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References
Mathews, S. (2014) Analyzing Research Articles: A Guide for Readers and Writers.
Neier, S., & Zayer, L. T. (2015). Students’ perceptions and experiences of social media in higher
education. Journal of Marketing Education, 37(3), 133-143.