A meta-analysis of Twitter assisted learning outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic

Abstract

The use of social media such as Twitter has been widely used in education during the COVID-19 pandemic due to their positive learning outcomes. To summarize the effect of Twitter use on educational outcomes, this study included 22 high-quality peer-reviewed journal articles for meta-analysis. It is concluded that the Twitter assisted learning approach can lead to significantly higher learning outcomes than the non-Twitter assisted but the former cannot lead to significantly higher teaching effectiveness than the latter. The use of Twitter can improve learning outcomes in the USA and Sweden rather than Spain. Twitter can significantly improve learning engagement in the USA but not in Greece. Males tend to show significantly higher learning outcomes than females in the Twitter assisted learning context. Whether Twitter is used as a supplementary or an integrated tool can significantly improve learning outcomes. Future research may adopt more interdisciplinary methods and include more literature to summarize the effect of Twitter use on educational outcomes especially during the COVID-19 pandemic.