Once I arrived at BSMS in September 2015, I set up the BSMSanatomy Twitter account because I had experienced how we had successfully used it at Southampton to support medical students during their anatomy learning. What was it used for I hear you ask! I must admit when I first started to use Twitter with the Southampton students I wasn’t sure what the value of it would be but having discussed the idea with the anatomy course leader for the neuroanatomy/head and neck anatomy module, a module that students found difficult historically, we thought it would offer students learning support and a contemporary way of engaging with the subject. It seemed to work – I discovered that students liked the ease of communication with lecturers that Twitter offered, the learning opportunities it offered via other people sharing tips/resources and the feeling of support it provided by creating a virtual community for students to network and connect with their colleagues. I have been trying to continue this success and evolve how Twitter can be used at BSMS.

How I am using Twitter? I have set up hashtags for each of the modules which contain anatomy content for example, #m202anatomy. This will contain all of the tweets regarding the anatomy for 202. Can you guess the other hashtag that is live right now (Sept.2016)?……Yes it’s #m102anatomy. If you have a Twitter account, try entering these hashtags into the search tab in Twitter and you will see the tweets that pop up or you can simply click on the links at the end of this blog. I must admit that the majority of the tweets are made by me (@bsmsanatomy) but occasionally a student will tweet something! Tweets might be: sharing a photo or a drawing of something that the author found to be a useful learning tool, a mini-quiz set by me using the Twitter polling tool (which allows you to set up a poll, replicating an MCQ for students to answer via voting for their selected answer) or sending general information or messages. For inclusivity I have also set up widgets (display windows) in the anatomy area of student central which streams the hashtag feed allowing all students to view it regardless of whether they have a Twitter account or not.

I found last academic year that BSMS students didn’t seem to get involved with Twitter hashtags as much as the Southampton students. Perhaps this was because students didn’t know or trust me (being a new member of staff), perhaps they were not Twitter users or perhaps they are simply supported enough – BSMS are quite content it would seem according to the NSS! Nonetheless, I am continuing to use the Twitter hashtags this new academic year because I do believe that our students are nervous about using social media in an academic/professional light and by encouraging to engage with academic social media platforms we can educate students to use social media professionally, a skill which I feel is valuable for networking within a community of practice in today’s society.

Please feedback any thoughts, ideas or questions – this is an evolving endeavour!

https://twitter.com/hashtag/m202anatomy?f=tweets&vertical=default&src=hash

https://twitter.com/search?f=tweets&vertical=default&q=%23m102anatomy&src=typd