Blogpost written by Hümeyra Kisa and Hilal Yesilirmak
Key Points:
- TikTok transforms online learning by boosting participation with entertaining features and personalized recommendations.
- Virtual rewards in Tiktok-based learning supercharge student engagement but also spark anxiety if challenges become overwhelming.
- Interactive tools like bullet-screen not only ease that anxiety, they actively pull students into active learning.
In this digital age, many videos are shared on social media platforms. But as you might think, there are not only dance trends on Tiktok, educational videos are also taking over the application! The educational videos are usually short, emphasizing important points, interactive and very easy to understand. Are these educational videos really useful for learning? The recent study by Wang and colleagues (2023) says „yes“! It shows how Tiktok’s features, such as intelligent recommendations, playfulness and virtual rewards, can change students‘ learning experiences. Could short videos be the next big step in education? Let’s take a look at the findings.
How Does TikTok Support Learning?
TikTok is a platform with a strong user base that provides interaction in all areas and contains entertaining content. This feature is also very prominent in the field of education. In the study by Wang and colleagues (2023) surveyed 502 undergraduate students in China about their experiences with features like intelligent recommendations, playfulness and virtual rewards in TikTok videos and investigated the impact of TikTok on students‘ learning engagement. According to the research with intelligent recommendation systems, interactive features and short, creative content, TikTok attracts the attention of students and thus increases their participation. Here are some tools on how TikTok supports in education:
- Intelligent Recommendations: As is widely recognized, social media platforms operate using algorithms that prioritize content similar to what users engage with most frequently. This principle applies to TikTok as well. TikTok offers personalized lessons and content to users. Thus, students‘ interest is attracted more and the time spent on the platform increases in this context.
- Short and Fun Contents: Today’s students now prefer short educational videos instead of watching lecture videos, such as reading dozens of pages of books or watching lessons for hours. Who wouldn’t prefer to watch a 60-second lesson video with fun content!
- Virtual Rewards: TikTok offers students reward opportunities such as badges, points, digital tokens, as long as they are successful! For example, when you watch and complete a lesson video, you can earn badges or points. These rewards make students put more effort into the learning process and they approach it with positive emotions. In addition, the recognition of achievements through rewards and the feeling of achievement helps them to put in more effort.
- Interactive Tools (Bullet-Screen): For students, social interaction is a method of reducing anxiety. For this purpose, instructors can plan live lessons on a topic that students are interested in, and use bullet-screened films to improve communication.
Do These Tools Have a Negative Impact?
Attention! While tik tok improves learning with these tools, it can also cause negative effects. For example, Wang et al. (2023) found that virtual rewards have a negative moderator effect on the relationship between interaction and anxiety. This means that if a task that achieves a reward is too difficult and exceeds the student’s skills, this situation will not provide motivation to the student, it will only cause stress and anxiety. As the student thinks that he does not deserve this award. And, accordingly, increased anxiety can reduce the students‘ desire to interact.
What Can Be Done?
To make TikTok-based learning more effective, the following can be done:
- Increase motivation and sweet ambition by offering rewards in accordance with the students‘ knowledge levels, not stress.
- Observe students‘ stress levels and avoid challenging tasks.
- Prepare short and entertaining content that students can easily focus on.
- Ensure student participation with tools such as bullet-screen and increase social interaction.
Big Picture
Now over to you: Based on the results of this research, would you incorporate TikTok into your own learning or teaching?
TikTok’s short video format makes learning accessible and engaging by using creative and interactive features. These tools enhance communication between students and teachers, creating a fun and personalized learning environment with great potential to boost student engagement. However, if not managed properly, they can increase anxiety, so careful planning is essential to balance technology use and minimize stress. With the right strategies, TikTok can foster a creative and interactive educational experience.
Do you think TikTok and similar platforms will improve education or create more risks?
References:
Wang, C., Liu, Y., Zhou, X., & Zhang, Q. (2023). Exploring effects of intelligent recommendation, interactivity, and playfulness on learning engagement: An application of TikTok considering the mediation of anxiety and moderation of virtual reward. Computers in Human Behavior, 145, 107951. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2023.107951