1. RESEARCH POSTER PRESENTATION DESIGN © 2012 www.PosterPresentations.com The authors examined graduate student, faculty, and administrator adoption, contributions, and interactions within a university social network. For comparison purposes, additional descriptive information was collected about social networking among students in the U.S. (Myers et al., 2012) and among students at the university using the closed social networking service available to all students currently enrolled, faculty, administrators, and alumni. (UOPX, n.d.). The specific participants of interest were from the UOPX graduate program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology and were diverse in gender, age, and geography. Qualitative interviews during several bimonthly face-to-face classes investigated the ways participants from different cohorts in the same program used social networking. ABSTRACT OBJECTIVES While social networks proliferate, insight is lacking about how graduate students, faculty, and administration collaboratively engage such networks. The current study found different patterns of use and decreasing frequency of use from heavy use by students to relatively low use by faculty and administrators in a graduate program in Industrial/Organizational Psychology. METHODS THEMES “To stay in touch with family and friends” “To feel connected to other students” “Use FB most often then PC and a few use LinkedIn” “Only use occasionally for classwork” GRADUATE STUDENTS I found PC very helpful when there was a challenge. Being able to network with others who have had similar challenges and get their suggestions. Of course FB, everybody has FB. I’m from a 3 rd world county…I have family everywhere. If I post something, everybody knows. It’s awesome, really is, I love it. Don’t use PC now, I might go there to find out what it is about. I only use it for email notifications when Dr. C posts. I feel like I am a bit more connected to what is going on in the program. SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDIES FACULTY I never use PC. I rarely use PC it is more focused on student interests. SCHOOL OF ADVANCED STUDIES ADMINISTRATION Rarely use PC or FB but use LI to maintain professional network. Use PC only to check on general atmosphere among students in my programs ATTITUDES TOWARD SOCIAL NETWORKING CONCLUSIONS. REFERENCES University of Phoenix. (n.d.). Apollo social networking guidelines. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, Phoenix Connect Website https://portal.phoenix.edu/social/community/support/tips/blog/ 2012/07/25/phoenixconnect-community-guidelines Hung, H.-T.,& Yuen, S. C.-Y. (2010). Educational use of social networking technology in higher education. Teaching in Higher Education, 15(6), 703-714. Lewis, K., Kaufman, J., Gonzalez, M., Wimmer, A., & Christakis, N. (2008). Tastes, ties, and time: A new social network dataset using Facebook.com. Social Networks, 30, 330-342. Myers, S. B., Endres, M. A., Ruddy, M. E., & Zelikovksy, N. (2012). Psychology graduate training in the era of online social networking. Training and Education in Professional Psychology, 6(1), 28-36. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to Kerry Sugrue, PC Community Strategist, for providing general UOPX systems statistics on the PC SN. Thanks to Lulu Murillo and Sean Topham, UOPX I-O PhD Program Graduate students who conducted the qualitative interviews with students. Thanks to the I-O faculty and students who all responded to the survey. The study was designed to describe and understand the student, faculty and administration profile of adoption for the university sponsored Social Network, attitudes about Social Networking as a component in graduate studies, and content of most interest and greatest use in the university sponsored Social Network. THEMES “To stay in touch with family and friends” “To feel connected and know what other students are saying” “Read about jobs and opportunities” “To get a break from school work” ‘Do not use SN” or “Only use it rarely” GRADUATE STUDENTS Read about people celebrating Master’s or Dissertation. Read why some people are upset. On FB and LinkedIn read about job postings. Keep in touch with old friends on FB. Use LI for possible job contacts and a professional network. I-O GRADUATE STUDENTS See what people are talking about (classes or IO). I have the notices emailed so I know when something interesting comes up. I read the information about research and jobs. I have never posted on PC. I occasionally post congratulations when someone completes their degree or gets a new job. SAS FACULTY Never use PC, Rarely use FB, Occasionally use LI. Visit it once a week, usually on weekends, just to get a feeling for what students are saying. I have a FB account but rarely use it. I do have a network of associates on LI. I regularly monitor LI but only use PC when time permits, usually about once a month. SAS ADMINISTRATION I have posts from sites related to my program emailed. Sometimes I just browse the current postings to see what students are saying. I use LI for my professional networking CONTENT OF MOST INTEREST AND GREATEST USE ABBREVIATIONS ADOPTION PROFILES (CONT.) CONTACT INFORMATION SOCIAL NETWORK SITES USED ADOPTION PROFILES UOPX – University of Phoenix SAS – School of Advanced Studies FB – Facebook LI - LinkedIn OVERALL USE PATTERNS IN 2012 Average percentage use by all School of Advanced Studies students was 44.5 % in contrast to 97.4% for across the U.S. (Lewis et al., 2008) Percentage use by Females was 32%. Percentage use by Males was 31%. Students are the dominant users of PC and SN and use the networks primarily to stay in contact with family and friends. UOPX doctoral graduate students use PC more than students in other degree programs. A higher percentage of UOPX I-O students use PC than other UOPX doctoral students and use it to obtain I-O information. Many students do not use PC at all or only rarely stating that they do not have time for SN. Faculty and Administration have limited use of PC but use LI for professional networking. They also use Google+, YouTube, and Skype which are rarely used by students. SN and PC are appreciated by students but used recreationally. When specific academic content is created (as in the I-O discussion group) students make more academic use of the site this is similar to other graduate programs (Lewis et al., 2008). In an online institution like UOPX, students who are required to write an post many assignments, report limited time to engage in social network tracking and posting and lower SN use. Jeremy Moreland, PhD, Executive Dean, UOPX SAS, Jeremy.Moreland@phoenix.edu Kelley A. Conrad, PhD, Full Time Academic Faculty, UOPX SAS, Kelley.Conrad@phoenix.edu BY DEGREE The highest percentage of student users from the various degree programs was among the doctoral students (46%) with other programs being in the low 30 percentiles. BY ROLE Students were the dominant group of users (71.9%) of the university SN. Followed by alumni (7.8%), with about equal and minor use by non-attending students (5.7%), active faculty (5.4%), and other university staff (5.1%). Jeremy Moreland and Kelley A. Conrad University of Phoenix School of Advanced Studies Social Networking among Students, Faculty, and Administrators in a Graduate I-O Psychology Program I-O – Industrial-Organizational SN – Social Network PC – Phoenix Connect SN Doctoral Associates Masters NonDegree Bachelors BY AGE Surprisingly, older students reported higher adoption than younger students. This was different from U.S. patterns (Hung & Yuen, 2010) likely reflects the demographics of University of Phoenix. < 20 20-29 30-39 40-49 50-59 60+