Today we announce our list of the 50 most influential higher education (HE) professionals using social media.
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The final line-up – chosen by a panel of social media experts, including award-winning social media editor for Times Higher Education Chris Parr, Insider Higher Ed journalist and blogger Eric Stoller, and Teacher Training Videos founder Russell Stannard, as well as Jisc’s David Kernohan and Sarah Knight – features an impressive mix of academics alongside vice-chancellors, librarians and IT and support staff.You’re never sure of the sort of response you’ll get in the first year of running a competition or what the appetite will be. I have been astounded not only by the amount of entries we’ve received but also at just how many people working within UK universities are using social networks innovatively.While Twitter tended to be the most popular channel – and certainly something we see here at Jisc – the examples extended across social media, from Facebook study groups and YouTube educational videos to using Pinterest boards for content curation, and newer apps like Periscope.The final 50 features outstanding cases of social media use that others could benefit from, and we will be looking to highlight some of this excellent practice in the weeks to come.All the accounts featured in our final 50 can be found in our #jisc50social Twitter list.Browse the final 50 by surnameABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZBSue BeckinghamSheffield Hallam UniversitySue’s interest is in making the links between online presence and employability; and digital scholarship and personal learning communities. She has delivered talks, workshops and keynotes nationally and internationally, and has influenced many of her peers to use social media to collaborate and communicate between the university and students, academics and alumni, and themselves.She has collaborated with the cross-institutional open course BYOD4L, FOS, the weekly #LTHEchat; the Social Media for Learning Framework and the HEA funded LinkedIn toolkit 'Connected U' project. These have helped staff and students develop digital capabilities, integrate social media into their own practice, increase dissemination of research, and innovate in learning and teaching. She uses SlideShare to share presentations and resources with a Creative Commons licence, blogs at Social Media for Learning and uses Twitter to disseminate useful information, her own practice and that of others.@suebecks#LTHEchatWilliam BuchananEdinburgh Napier UniversityOn Twitter and LinkedIn, William has presented key debating points and differing viewpoints to create interest in cybersecurity and cryptography, and to highlight best practice. His social media content is supported by other published material, such as blog articles, videos and other web pages.William likes to promote great work by SMEs and students, and post articles which highlight their successes, as well as scientists, academics, entrepreneurs, and engineers, to foster debate, engage with a wide audience, and make a contribution to public knowledge and experience.@billatnapierLuke BurnsUniversity of LeedsLuke uses PollEverywhere (@poll on Twitter) for in-lecture voting embedded into his PowerPoint slides, allowing students to tweet answers to questions on the slide directly to his Twitter handle, or by SMS or online posting. These responses are then automatically processed and appear real-time on the lecture slide for all to see, enabling live polling, questioning and discussion. This allows more reticent students to contribute, gives his students a sense of immediate involvement, and debate to continue beyond lectures.He’s a strong advocate of LinkedIn for students, supporting them to make profiles and endorsing connections. He also uses social media for revision instead of printed resources, releasing a ‘revision folder’ of videos, wikis and blogs close to module exams.Finally, Luke encourages his students to engage with Wikipedia and Google Docs for experience of peer writing, and editing and vetting online resources.@LP_BurnsBack to topCLiz CableLeeds Trinity UniversityLiz facilitates using social media savvy students as experts. For example, in October 2014 she invited her second year students into the classroom to guide first years enrolled in Online Research and Content Generation and got them all participating in the global #MAPJAM, which was designed to map the sharing economy in Leeds using social mapping and collaboration tools. Their hashtag #LTMapJam trended.Liz has also facilitated a session whereby her students gave a leading digital agency LinkedIn profile makeovers to improve their online presence, has created a mobile induction game for Leeds Trinity using social media tools such as Vine and Twitter (which students then developed into their own version using augmented reality and social apps), and involved students from various courses to blog and tweet for the launch of CAFOD’s #OneWord campaign as part of their formative assessment.She also runs social media surgeries at Leeds Trinity, partnering students and members of the enterprise centre with charity and voluntary workers needing social media help.@lizcable#LTMapJamNathaniel ColemanNathaniel explains his reason to strike through his surname on his UCL profile https://www.ucl.ac.uk/philosophy/people/nathaniel-adam-tobias-coleman-explanationUCLNathaniel has inspired a community of students and staff from UCL and other universities nationally and internationally to critically engage with and speak out on issues of race in higher education. Crucial to the success of this remarkable achievement has been Nathaniel’s creation of UCL’s Dismantling The Master’s House, a repository for the community’s activities. It includes original articles, links to articles published elsewhere, blog posts and photographs and videos of events - including videos that underpin the student movements Nathaniel has been instrumental in organising, such as ‘Why isn’t my professor black?’ and ‘Why is my curriculum white?’His work includes Eugenics@UCL, which seeks to address UCL’s eugenics history, and UCL’s popular weekly #DTMH reading group that Nathaniel and Adam Elliott-Cooper set up for staff and students. Nathaniel’s @UCLDTMH and @natcphd Twitter feeds and the hashtags #dtmh, #blackprofessor, #whitecurriculum, #critphilrace, #galtonlecturetheatre and #uclfacesrace have become important ways for scholars and students of race from around the world to share ideas.@natcphd@UCLDTMH Jasmine Connolly and Nathaniel HobbyBournemouth UniversityA joint entry for Bournemouth University for Nathaniel Hobby, PR and corporate communications manager, and Jasmine Connolly, social media officer.Nathaniel has pioneered the use of various channels at the university, including Pinterest, Vine, and a greater reliance on Twitter, at the same time as closing over 30 exisiting university Facebook accounts to streamline the way it interacts with its audience. Social media use is highly innovative: Last Christmas Nathaniel set up and ran an award-winning campaign, where the lights on its Christmas tree were programmed to respond to Twitter hashtags.Jasmine has been involved in running regular training sessions and making good use of new platforms such as live streaming events through Periscope, Spotify to create playlists for students and using BuzzFeed to engage potential students during clearing to communicate key messages while having fun.@bournemouthuniTony CoughlanThe Open UniversityTony Coughlan has developed a social media presence that collates reputable free e-learning, textbooks and journals for the children and young people's (CYP) sector, which includes roles such as child-minding, nurseries, youth clubs, fostering and adoption, but with low-paid workers and volunteers particularly in mind.Through his blog and Facebook page, Tony acts as digital curator, assessing these resources as an experienced tutor, e-learning author and trustee and director of a children’s charity. The high-quality, free e-learning resources he identifies can be used as an efficient way of educating volunteers for their work with children and families, offering learning opportunities to many who might otherwise be excluded.@tjcoughlanTom CrickCardiff Metropolitan UniversityTom uses social media to showcase his research, change perceptions of computer science, represent the global IT profession, and to influence and effect policy change across education, skills, science policy and the digital economy, using Twitter and blogging to create positive change.Tom used social media, especially Twitter, to help mobilise a national network of teachers, schools, academics and industry representatives to call for computer science curriculum reform in Wales. This social media-led policy work, underpinned by research and broader public engagement and science communication activities, transitioned from a grassroots campaign discussing pedagogy, curriculum, qualifications and professional development, through to Tom being appointed to chair the Welsh Government’s official review of the ICT curriculum in 2013. He gave evidence before the National Assembly for Wales Inquiry on STEM skills, being appointed a special adviser to chair the first recommendation out of the 2015 Curriculum for Wales Review to develop a digital competence framework for all schools in Wales.@DrTomCrickBack to topDEgle DagilyteAnglia Ruskin UniversityWhile at Buckinghamshire New University, Egle set up and edited Bucks Law blog, and taught students blogging in the classroom. Students uploaded blogs via the Blackboard Wikis tool for peer-review and formal assessment, which helped them to develop new digital literacy and writing skills, and referencing sources via hyperlinks, in order to support their statements and avoid bias in writing. It also stands students in good stead as law firms and businesses use blogs to assess communication skills to non-specialist audiences as part of their recruitment.Egle’s various outputs at conferences and in journals will make it easy to replicate the exercise in other institutions and fields; this has already begun at her current institution, Anglia Ruskin University.@EgleDagilyteJon DronUniversities of Athabasca and BrightonJon blogs about educational technology and has contributed extensively to the development and growth of Brighton’s own social media site, community@brighton. Jon has created new courses on social gaming, social media and the social and ethical aspects of information technologies. Each of these makes innovative use of social media and focuses on student development of artifacts that demonstrate learning outcomes.Jon has been involved in the production of four massive online open courses (MOOCs), and guest lectures extensively. His recent work has been in the construction of an institution-wide social media system based on the Elgg framework. Jon has led both the pedagogical and the technical development of this environment; his team has contributed over 50 plugins back to the Elgg community.@jondronLee DunnUniversity of GlasgowLee has been a driving force behind the Glasgow University Student Teacher Network (GUSTN), a student-led initiative first established in 2013. It now reaches out across the education community from early years through to higher education, using Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, which have has been fully integrated into taught sessions across the school.Lee recently established a blended learning course at undergraduate level to expose students to an eclectic mix of exciting ideas within education: students and staff engaged through blogging and participating in discussion using hashtags, for example #MEduc14.@leeandrewdunn@GUEducationRhodri ap DyfrigAberystwyth UniversityRhodri created an online project Hanes y We Gymraeg (History of the Welsh Language Web) which crowdsourced key events, images, videos and personal accounts of important stages in the development of the Welsh language online. Using a blog, Twitter and a Tiki Toki timeline which people could add to, he both raised the profile of the language online and created a web archive for understanding Welsh cultural development.He has also been part of establishing the successful Hacio'r Iaith (Hacking the Language) ‘unconferences’, where people using the Welsh language online are able to meet, learn and make new connections. The first two Hacio'r Iaith events have now spun off into a multi-author blog, where people can continue to share information all year, as well as smaller events during the National Eisteddfod. Discussion has continued on Twitter since the first event using #haciaith.@nwdlsBack to topGCaitlin GoulapCardiff UniversityCaitlin is the main administrator and curator of Cardiff University Medical School’s official Facebook page Cardiff C21 and runs a small social media team to support and edit what is now one of the most influential platforms of communication within the school. The page is used as an adjunct tool in medical education, and is estimated to reach over 70% of the School’s 1,400 medical students. Innovative content, thought provoking articles and other posts keep the content relevant and interesting to students. The team ran some research and disovered that:42% of students studied topics further due to posts on the page;26% applied for jobs and opportunities advertised on the page;47% attended an academic event advertised on the page;24% of responders joined a club of society due to work of the page;62% of respondents reported feeling either more or much more satisfied with the medical course as a result of using the page.Cardiff C21 Facebook pageBack to topHLisa HarrisUniversity of SouthamptonAn early advocate of all kinds of social media, Lisa now runs a curriculum innovation module living and working on the web, which is entirely constructed and assessed through social media. The success has seen social features of the module were recently incorporated into a marketing BSc programme in Singapore, a new business studies programme, and are being worked towards a proposed online web science MSc. Lisa supports these programmes with workshops on building a professional digital profile and the role of social media in education.She runs the Digichamps programme, where students advocate for professional social media use across the whole university. Lisa also runs social media workshops for early career researchers.@lisaharrisSarah HoneychurchUniversity of GlasgowSarah and two of her colleagues trialled virtual peer assisted learning (VPAL) using Facebook groups, which she wrote up on her blog. Following great success in these, they set up groups across the College of Science and Engineering.VPAL helps students to develop effective communication skills; non-native speakers are able to process and understand conversations and take time to respond; while quieter or less confident students can watch and learn without feeling pressure to join in. The students have also collaborated well, sharing resources with each other and forming virtual study groups at exam periods.This model has already been replicated by academics at the University of Strathclyde, and other institutions such as Sheffield Hallam and the University of Glasgow’s own College of Arts are starting to adopt it.@NomadWarMachineDavid HopkinsUniversity of WarwickDavid has an interest in the application and implication of technology and tools, and how they can affect the learning environment and changing student profile. His work includes research and engagement in the use of social and informal learning, and investigations into the role that learning technology and learning technologists can and should take in aiding institutional strategy.He has written and self-published three books including the popular The Really Useful #EdTechBook, which investigates leading practitioners and their experiences of educational technology so that others can benefit from their instructions.@hopkinsdavidPaul HopkinsUniversity of HullPaul uses social media with his teacher education students, whom he invites to follow @hullpgce and @hullprimarypgce. During the course, he uses these to keep students informed of a range of educational issues, ideas and articles, alongside extra learning materials.He runs Twitter feeds for all of his courses and general teacher educations programmes, uses a blog tool to assess an MA course, and writes an educational blog through his work with educational consultancy, Me, Myself and I.@hopkinsmmiBack to topJMatt JohnstonCoventry UniversityAfter working on the open photography classes Phonar and Picbod at Coventry University, Matt decided to tackle the problem of dispersed learners needing to come together by establishing Photo Book Club. He offered to post a box of books to whatever group could get together locally, on the condition they then posted it on to the next group when finished. The Photo Book Club is now a global network of community and academic groups whose onsite experiences are enabled and augmented by its network.@mjohnstonmediaJennifer JonesUniversity of the West of Scotland (UWS)Jen’s work seeks to uncover knowledge and enlighten people about how social media can affect them; but she also seeks to understand how it can improve lives. She does this in a rigorous and thoughtful way through her work in academia, blogs regularly and voluteers her time, for example assisting Gmac, a charity with a diversity focus, to use social media to gain a wider stage.@jennifermjonesKip JonesBournemouth UniversityKip’s blog, ‘KIPWORLD’, covers a wide range of topics from advice on writing a PhD thesis to insight into his creative process. He regularly uses his blog, Facebook and Twitter to share his research and others.Kip also contributes to the LSE Impact blog, LSE Review of Books, Discovery Society, Sociological Imagination, Creative Quarter, The Creativity Post and the Bournemouth University Research Blog.@kip_jonesSteven JonesUniversity of ManchesterSteven Jones runs a personal blog about higher education, contributes to numerous other blogs and runs his own popular Twitter feed to promote relevant scholarly reading, journalistic contribution and policy debate. He uses social media to make developments in HE research, policy and practice accessible to a wider, non-specialist audience.Steven also uses social media as part of his PGCert in higher education for staff, attracting international interest and a following including many schoolteachers and academics in other disciplines.@StevenJones_MCRBack to topKMeena KotechaLSE - London School of Economics and Political ScienceMeena uses Facebook study groups to address mathematics and statistics anxiety in non-specialist university students, which can be one of the major barriers to engaging with these subjects.Recent study groups for students include statistics and management. These groups host additional material, videos and apps relating to their course material, and discussions on practical applications of mathematical and statistical concepts/theories. She also encourage students to engage in teamwork on Facebook and share their queries. Any of her students can set up a group, and this becomes an extension of the teaching room for students to interact in.@lseMeena61Back to topLNatalie LaffertyUniversity of DundeeNatalie’s main interests are personalising learning and supporting social learning, and involving students as co-producers of learning. She is involved in national projects relating to technology-enhanced learning in the health care professions and co-runs the popular #ukmeded Twitter chats. Natalie tweets regularly about e-learning, education and related topics and also links her own blog to tumblr, diigo, citeulike, Scoop.it and SlideShare.Natalie is also doing much behind the scenes. She has worked on breaking down the barriers for learners in the NHS being able to access Web 2.0 tools for social or elearning, being a key member of the technology group working. Her paper was further developed as the basis of a SlideShare presentation, Barriers to TEL. She also arranges hackdays.@nlaffertyKate LindsayUniversity of OxfordAs head of technology-enhanced learning at the University of Oxford’s IT services, Kate Lindsay has been a social media advocate and experimenter since 2008, when she first became involved in Jisc-funded social media crowdsourcing project, The Great War Archive, which managed to collect 6,500 digitised items from the public in just 12 weeks. Personally she has piloted a number of similar activities, including using Twitter to crowdsource OER on World War II’s Battle of Arras.Kate has been an important driver in social media at an institutional level, spearheading a dedicated social media advisory service for staff and students. With Liz McCarthy she was also a co-founder of the Engage blog and open learning course 23 Things for Research.@KTDigitalBack to topMTeresa MacKinnonUniversity of WarwickTeresa uses social media to take a strong collaborative approach to much of her work in language education in HE. For example, she has organised and led a campaign of Twitter chats for the University Council for Modern Languages (UCML) using the hashtag #languagepolicyUK to highlight languages on the political agenda in the run up to the election. Teresa manages @UCML on Twitter and its Facebook group and runs two personal blogs; an aggregator site and a professional blog.She was co-founder of the virtual exchange project #Clavier which was described as part of a European study into telecollaboration, and has since grown successfully, supporting physical mobility and skills acquisition for language learners. She also mentors for the #globalclassroom network and is an active member of several special interest groups including Association for Learning Technology’s open education steering information group.@WarwickLanguageLiz McCarthyUniversity of OxfordLiz McCarthy, web and digital media manager for Bodleian Libraries, has helped refocus and shape Bodleian Libraries public engagement through digital communications, setting up the @bodleianlibs Twitter account and supporting the creation of a broad presence for University of Oxford libraries on social media. She has embraced some important creative firsts for the university, from hosting hackathons to securing funding for Oxford’s first Wikimedian in residence.Liz has also been instrumental in providing training and support for social media’s use in the wider university. She was a co-founder of Engage and the open learning programme 23 Things for Research with Kate Lindsay.@mccarthy_lizStephen McCleanUlster UniversityStephen uses Twitter to engage with the bioscience education community and introduced a YouTube ’clone’ site YouTestTube.com (closed site for students), for bioscience students at Ulster University. Students in small groups of three or four make a reflective video documentary about one of the experiments they conduct; this is then uploaded to the site and shared with everyone on the module. In other activities student embed video from sites such as YouTube that are relevant to the topic of study.The site has its own social networking platform where students create a profile and then ’make friends’ with other members of the module, after which they may view, rate and comment on their colleagues’ videos. To date, over 400 videos are hosted on the site and there are in excess of 1,200 student accounts registered. Some of the student-generated videos function as reusable learning objects to provide new students with a preview of the practical they will conduct.@PlanetChemistry Moira McLoughlin and Wendy SinclairUniversity of SalfordMoira McLoughlin, senior lecturer and student experience lead, and Wendy Sinclair, lecturer and children’s nurse, for Salford’s School of Nursing and Midwifery, are two of the faces behind the award-winning @nursingSUni. Together they were instrumental in setting up the Twitter account. This partnership account takes a unique approach, getting different nurse lecturers and undergraduates to curate the content every week, in order to communicate better with nursing students and address their questions ourside of meetings and support learning. Further this channel encourages evidence and knowledge exchange across nursing communities on social media, for example @WeNurses. A student blog and Facebook pages for all fields of nursing practice now compliment this account.Personally their social media presence is impressive too. Moira shares good practice both from @nursingSUni and other professional accounts from her personal handle, @Levylass and can be found blogging at mmcloughlinblog.Wendy has an active Twitter account @wlasinclair, has set up module hashtags to support teaching that are embedded in the VLE, and worked with a radiography colleague to run an event about how social media can be used in programmes bound by professional regulatory bodies. She has also used blogging to campaign for better hospital visiting hours, which has prompted major discussion and debate online.@nursingSUniClaudia MegeleMiddlesex UniversityClaudia created two communities of interest on Twitter, @MHChat and @SWSCMedia, to challenge the social stigma of mental health, raise awareness and empower others through knowledge sharing and peer support. @MHChat is one of the most popular and fastest growing global mental health communities. Claudia also created the ENABLE model and was the first social work lecturer to introduce the concept of e-professionalism in social work and social care in the UK.Claudia used @SWSCmedia to incorporate research in teaching and students’ learning. The ENABLE model has since been implemented successfully in many key academic and local government projects.@MHChat@SWSCMediaSonal MinochaBournemouth UniversitySonal’s social media strategy - a subset of Bournemouth University’s wider global impact generation strategy - aims to bring relevant data and information on global higher education to Bournemouth University and beyond. With her team she shapes a number of Twitter accounts to generate a positive impact in research and to drive global thinking in education, using the hashtag #globalthinking. Twitter accounts include:@PVCBU, Sonal’s professional account, connects with her audiences@GlobalBU, which disseminates content and engages the wider HE community, employers and NGOs@EduInfographics, which shares visual dissemination in key areas@TweetaGraphix, which assembles and curates visual data content on a chosen theme @PVCBULiz MossopUniversity of NottinghamLiz established #Vetfinals as a revision club for vet students, where an expert tweets a clinical case for students to ‘solve’. She has set up a Nottingham Vets Flickr account, to accrue and store images for veterinary practice with approprate consent for open access, with a private group available for more sensitive images.Liz also uses Scoop.it for vet student resrouces, collating and compiling sites and resources to make them easier to revise from; this idea has been taken up by others in her field.@mosspossBack to topNChrissi NerantziManchester Metropolitan UniversityWorking within FLEX, a practice-based continuing professional development scheme with social media portfolios and open badges, Chrissi has developed two new open courses: flexible, distance and online learning; and bring your own devices for learning - integrating social media throughout. Some of the participants have even gone on to create their own open courses using social media.The weekly learning and teaching in higher education chat (#LTHEchat) on Twitter is a cross-institutional collaboration between Chrissi, Sue Beckingham (Sheffield Hallam University), Peter Reed (Laureate Education) and Dr David Walker (Sussex University). Guest hosts and academics from the UK and further afield discuss learning and teaching topics as defined by the community.@ChrissiNerantziBack to topONicola OsborneThe University of EdinburghNicola shaped the student-facing digital footprint campaign, launched last year with the aim of inducting students into safe, productive and appropriate use of social media in their personal and professional lives. This project included a research component directed at understanding more of students’ digital media ecology and practices. Nicola blogs about important events and meetings on all things digital from education and academe, as well as a wide range of social and cultural stories.@suchprettyeyesBack to topPNick PearceDurham UniversityNick blogs as the ‘digital scholar’ and uses Twitter to interact with students, fellow teachers and researchers interested in social media. He integrates social media into his teaching, including the use of his YouTube playlists and own Pinterest pinboards.He has set up a Facebook page and blog for the Durham University Foundation Centre and initiated the Durham University Weibo account.@drnickpearceSara PerryUniversity of YorkSara uses various social media to facilitate learning, including Google Hangouts to host lectures on heritage research and Twitter to field questions, which are then shared via a TAGS visualisation. She uses Pinterest for a curation module, encouraging students to find, collect and select ideas for museum exhibitions collaboratively. This same module also gets students to blog in the first person and ’speak’ on behalf of items in an exhibition. Another module looks at creating iPhone apps using an application and programming tool, LiveCode, to get non-coding students creating social apps that support archaeology sites’ information needs. To get over large class sizes, Sara also uses Google Groups to deliver MA lessons, in order to engage each student in lively debate.Sara is one of the founders of HeritageJam, a hack sprint community event for archaeologists, which recruits and disseminates the group’s work via Twitter and YouTube.@ArchaeologistSPBack to topRPaul ReillyUniversity of LeicesterPaul has integrated social media into his activism and protest in the information age module at the University of Leicester, creating #actandprotest on Twitter and Storify to direct students towards relevant news items, blogs, and research papers at appropriate points during the course.He uses videos on YouTube to show how non-government organisations (NGOs) and social movements define themselves in this class, and provides summaries of lectures on the social media site Screenr, which are accessible via a link on the relevant Blackboard site. He created the Screencasts in Media Studies wordpress site in order to share resources such as screencasts, flowcharts and infographics to support colleagues to create their own resources.@PaulJReillyKate ReynoldsBath Spa UniversityThe hashtag #becreativebeateacher is part of Kate’s work to build a new ‘brand’ for teacher education through the vehicle of Bath Spa Institute for Education, improving marketing, increasing student teacher recruitment and generating debate.Her work has acted as a catalyst for many changes, including the development of new websites such as The Network for Learning, which provides continuous professional development for teachers, and the brand is now expanding into sub-brands such as #becreativeeducate to support postgraduate and undergraduate work.@BathSpaEdDeanVivien RolfeUWE Bristol - University of the West of EnglandVivien uses social media to promote the discovery of open educational resources (OERs) on the internet. She uses her Twitter feed and her blog to engage on the subject, and has also established three WordPress blogs to act as OER repositories to curate and share materials on a range of life science subject areas (laboratory skills – VAL, sickle cell anaemia – SCOOTER and general life science resources – Biology Courses). OER were all produced by academic staff, students and industry collaborators, and the projects still receive on-going contributions to this day, solely through being discoverable on the internet. Impressively, they have reached over one million users.@VivienRolfeBack to topSRoger ScullyCardiff UniversityRoger regularly comments on Welsh politics on Twitter, sharing his expertise in politics in an engaging way that appeals to students and the public alike.His popular and witty Twitter feed provides a sound basis for promoting his well-regarded blog, Elections in Wales.@roger_scullyDominic ShellardDe Montford UniversityDominic Shellard, vice-chancellor of De Montfort University has embraced social media to transform the way he communicates and engages with students, staff and the wider public.He is available routinely to answer queries from his 20,000 students and 2,000 staff via this platform and aims to follow back every student who follows him. He offers encouragement to anxious students during exam periods or clearing, and solutions to students who may be unhappy with some aspect of their course or student experience, as well as pro-actively supporting student sport clubs and societies. He also regularly embraces YouTube to offer top tips to freshers, share personal experiences and introduce new university ventures, such as #DMUglobal, a programme to encourage and facilitate travel for undergraduates to enhance their employability.@DMUVCAndrew SmithThe Open UniversityThe Cisco Technology-based network engineering modules at the Open University (OU) reach one of the largest student populations within this community in Europe. Andrew uses Twitter to support relationships with such a large body of students and many non-OU followers , as well as linking with Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn and also offering RSS via Moodle, allowing students and other external participants to access information through their platform of choice. Tweets in sync with the study calendar reinforce, remind and prepare particpants, and pose questions, share insight and resources. Other massive online open courses (MOOCs), such as @OUCyberSec and @OULinux, are now starting to follow Andrew’s example.@OUCiscoGuiseppe SollazzoSt George's, University of LondonGuiseppe was responsibe for launching the departmental Twitter handle @sgulit, which is now a trusted means to disseminate service information, for example, about outages and new launches, and provides on-the-spot support or trigger support ticket creation. He uses social media to share his work on open data as well as St George’s University of London’s (SGUL’S) mobile portal, a collaboration with Oxford’s MollyProject.@puntofissoBack to topTAmanda TaylorUCLAN - University of Central LancashireAmanda set up and manages the highly successful social work book group on Twitter, which has the primary aim of encouraging students to read more broadly and to develop critical thinking skills for academic success. Her Twitter book group membership shifted from being a local community of learners to a national and now global group of learners and practitioners who regularly engage through the hashtag #swbk. Medical academics, among others, have started to adopt this approach for learning and professional development.@AMLTaylor66Back to topWDavid WalkerUniversity of SussexDavid's influence and pro-active use of social media in education and research extends beyond his own Twitter presence in a number of ways. His approach to engaging others, and utilising social media to disseminate best educational practice, is central to his work at head of technology enhanced learning (TEL) at the University of Sussex, where he has led the development of the Sussex TEL team, associated Twitter presence and their blog. These have quickly become go to places for TEL news and developments, such as the Take 5 series of online bitesize courses, focused on the effective use of social media in education, research and scholarship.As well as Sussex, David is an associate lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University and runs online webinars and workshops to engage colleagues from over 40 universities on social media in education. Until last year, he ran the eAssessment Scotland conference - the UK's largest e-assessment conference, organised and mostly conducted via social media and other online participative technologies. He is also one of the founding editors of the open access online Journal of Perspectives in Applied Academic Practice.@drdjwalkerPhil WardUniversity of KentPhil’s blog, Research Fundermentals, provides a mix of commentary, humour and practical help for all those engaging with the research policy landscape, from academics to support professionals. In turn, this has led to Phil establishing a successful and popular Twitter feed, which allows him to explore the debates raised on his blog, discussing them in real time.@frootleDavid WebsterUniversity of GloucestershireDavid seeks to engage the wider public with the work of his undergraduates in Religion, Philosophy and Ethics through a broad range of social media activity. The course has a blog, a Facebook group and a video blog – which works alongside David’s own Twitter feed and the departmental Twitter feed for religion, philosophy and ethics at the University of Gloucestershire. The video blog is particularly successful and David often uploads short video interviews with established academics and doctoral students; in many cases, these accept subsequent invitations to join his class via Skype for Q&A sessions.@davidwebsterSteve WheelerPlymouth UniversitySteve uses social media in his practice within the teacher ed course. He encourages students to blog, then promotes their posts through his Twitter feeds. He has a worldwide impact and engages readers in debate when invited to speak. Steve's blog has formed the basis of a book investigating e-learning.@timbuckteeth Matt Williams and Pete BurnapCardiff UniversityA team effort from Matt and Pete, directors of the Social Data Science Lab at Cardiff University. Together they have led several projects that established Cardiff Online Social Media Observatory (COSMOS), a disruptive technology that democratises access and analysis services for social media data.The platform is free to use for academic, public and third sector users and has been downloaded over 600 times by organisations such as NATO, the Cabinet Office and the Department of International Development. It’s an efficient way for non-technical users to conduct research on social media data, allowing analysis to be done much more quickly and at no cost. They are working towards making COSMOS a modular platform, which will allow users to replicate and add to their work.@socdatalabGary WoodUniversity of SheffieldGary has used Twitter to solve a common barrier in teaching to large groups, whereby students avoid classroom activities and are unwilling to answer questions. Gary creates hashtags for his modules and uses Twitter to display group ideas on a wall, record class discussions via aggregated tweets on Storify, and then analyses this with his groups using Hawksey’s analysis tools.He advocates and facilitates virtual hand-raising and sharing of resources, and encourages his students to develop a sense of community and professional online profiles through social media. He has shared his experiences at both internal and external conferences and workshops, through a case study of good practice which is to appear later this year (Price, in press) and by creating resources to support colleagues embedding Twitter in their own practice.@GC_WoodJonathan WorthNewcastle UniversityJonathan has launched and run several well-regarded open photography classes which incorporate various social media platforms, such as #picbod and #phonar. To further develop these initial online classes, Johnathan devised Phonar Nation, an open, free, worldwide online photography class, using open and social media such as Instagram, Flickr, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter to build on face-to-face sessions in cities around the country.@Jonathan_Worth