Teaching with Twitter and Storify 487 A Framework for Teaching with Twitter and Storify Rosemary M. Caron, PhD, MPH Abstract The education of baccalaureate health administration students needs to be adaptable in this age of healthcare reformation and the use of social media can be an educational tool that not only presents a familiar communication environment, but also encourages the learner to adapt this tool to their disci- pline of study. To examine the utility and effectiveness of implementing social media to teach basic epidemiology concepts, the use of Twitter and Storify in the laboratory component of the course is presented. The purpose of this article is to describe three learning exercises that are part of the application course modules developed to increase student knowledge and skills with respect to how epidemiological principles are evident in the community in which the student lives. Specifically, the exercises were designed to: (1) demonstrate how social media is useful to research discipline-specific content; (2) curate relative course material from numerous social media sources; and (3) communicate to one’s broader community the significance of specific epidemiologic-oriented issues that affect our everyday life. At the conclusion of the labs, students reported that they had not previously considered the use of social technology for learning; were likely to include Twitter and Storify as part of their online research tools for future assignments; and were more apt to communicate with peers and the instructor via these mediums. The benefits of this applied learning approach for students and the faculty instructor are discussed. Please address correspondence to: Rosemary M. Caron, PhD, MPH, Professor and Chairper- son, University of New Hampshire, College of Health and Human Services, Department of Health Management and Policy, #319 Hewitt Hall, 4 Library Way, Durham, New Hampshire 03824, Email: [email protected], Phone: (603) 862-3653 488 The Journal of Health Administration Education Summer 2016 Introduction In the report, Who Will Keep the Public Healthy? Educating Public Health Profes- sionals for the 21st Century, the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Science, recommended, that “all undergraduates should have access to education in public health” (IOM, 2003). To respond to this “call to action,” the Association of American Colleges and Universities, the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, and the Council on Colleges of Arts and Sciences have collaborated to promote a national plan titled, The Educated Citizen and Public Health Initiative, which advances the edict that an under- standing of public health issues is a core component of an educated public and is necessary to develop one’s societal responsibility (AAC&U, 2011). The Association for University Programs in Health Administration (AUPHA) has long understood the value of “population/community health” content in the health administration curriculum (AUPHA, 2011). This con- tent area is sufficiently covered by a course in epidemiology, often referred to as the “basic science of public health” (Fos, 2011). The University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) Department of Health Management and Policy (HMP), established in 1975 and housed in the College of Health and Human Services, is AUPHA-certified and offers a Bachelor of Science degree in HMP, in which a course in epidemiology is required. The UNH HMP course, Epidemiology and Community Medicine, surveys the fundamental principles of epidemiology and outlines its importance as an analytic tool for the fields of public health and health management and policy. Specifically, the course examines the history of epidemiology, measures of disease occurrence and association, practical applications of policy, and data sources. In order for the student to be able to utilize epidemiology as a health management tool, special emphasis is placed on understanding and applying descriptive and analytical epidemiologic techniques and appropriate study design selection. Current events reported by the media that reflect the above- mentioned didactic concepts are incorporated throughout the course (Caron & Tutko, 2013). For the laboratory component of the course, the instructor examined the utility and effectiveness of implementing social media, specifi- cally Twitter and Storify, to teach basic epidemiology concepts. This approach was developed following the instructor’s participation in the fifth annual Academic Technology Institute conference for the University System of New Hampshire in which the theme examined was “Open Access: Pedagogy and Scholarship in a Connected Environment.” This conference emphasized the utility of social media (specifically Twitter, Storify, and Blogs) for teaching in diverse disciplines. Teaching with Twitter and Storify 489 The purpose of this paper is to describe three learning exercises that are part of the application course modules developed to increase student knowl- edge and skills with respect to how epidemiological principles are evident in the community in which the student lives. Specifically, the exercises were designed to: (1) demonstrate how social media is useful to research discipline- specific content; (2) curate relative course material from numerous social media sources; and (3) communicate to one’s broader community the significance of specific epidemiologic-oriented issues that affect our everyday life. Epidemiology and Community Medicine Epidemiology and Community Medicine is a course that serves multiple pur- poses at UNH. The course is required for undergraduate HMP majors and those working towards a minor in Public Health. The course is required for nutrition majors in the wellness option and is an elective in the curriculum for medical microbiology majors. The course is also categorized as a Biological Sciences course in the University’s Discovery Program. The UNH Discovery Program is “the core curriculum that provides students a solid foundation for inquisitive problem solving, scientific reasoning, an appreciation of the arts and humanities, research skills, and communication. It is based on a breadth of courses in a variety of disciplines that the faculty collectively believe are es- sential to a liberal education. Courses within the eight disciplinary categories expose students to topics in the arts, humanities, philosophy, social sciences, physical and biological sciences, and technology to prepare them with transfer- able skills for a lifetime of learning and creative endeavors as globally focused, socially responsible citizens in the world in which they live” (UNH, 2015). Furthermore, this course is offered in a traditional face-to-face format in the fall and spring semesters, and online in a compressed version in the summer. The utility and effectiveness of implementing two social media tools, Twitter and Storify, to exemplify epidemiological concepts was tested in the laboratory component of the course. The course meets twice per week for 80-minute sessions and there is one weekly 80-minute laboratory session that is required. Students were encouraged, but not required, to work in pairs. Three unique assignments were assigned throughout the course of the semester and are described in the next section. At the completion of each laboratory assignment for which social media was utilized, students were queried about their perceived value of using social media for coursework purposes. 490 The Journal of Health Administration Education Summer 2016 Twitter Twitter, accessible via twitter.com, is a free information network made up of 140-character messages (including photos, videos and links) from all over the world (Twitter, 2015). The message that gets posted is a “tweet” and may be about any topic (Twitter, 2015). During the first laboratory session, the students were polled as to whether or not they already had a Twitter account. The class was comprised of 65 students, and 2 students did not have a Twitter account so they were assisted in acquiring one. Time was spent during the lab reviewing the functionality of Twitter. Prior to the beginning of the course, the faculty instructor created her own Twitter account (@ProfCaronUNH) and hashtag (#hmp501) specific to the course so students could follow the instructor’s relevant tweets and post their work to this specific location in Twitter. “A hashtag is any word or phrase immediately preceded by the # symbol. When you click on a hashtag, you’ll see other tweets containing the same keyword or topic” (Twitter, 2015). The course hashtag is available for public viewing and the students were informed of this fact. Storify Storify is a social network that allows for the creation of “stories using social media” (Storify, 2015). Storify curates posts in social media sources (e.g., Twit- ter, Facebook, Google+, YouTube, Getty Images, Flickr, Instagram, Google, and Giphy) to allow one to create a story. The creator develops the story or “paper” and then publishes the story which generates a distinct weblink that can then be shared via Twitter, Facebook, email, etc. (Storify, 2015). The “paper” is not made public until the creator shares the published product. Storify is a free social media tool and since the students were not familiar with it before this course, they needed to take a few minutes to develop an account at the begin- ning of the first laboratory session. Time was spent during the lab reviewing the functionality of Storify. Tweeting about Epidemiology This assignment was the first