Sreetheran Maruthaveeran* and Siow May Ling
Keywords: Facebook; hashtag; method; learning innovation; Student centered learning (SCL)
Abstract: Seminar on Landscape Architecture Research (LAN3903) is a course offered at the Faculty of Design and Architecture in Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) particularly for the year three Landscape Architecture students. This course was designed to provide the students with an introduction to research methods and to produce an appreciation of the research process. In order to arouse students’ interest in research, #hashtag sharing, as an atypical individual assignment was introduced in this course. This innovative way of teaching enhances the student’s ability to read research papers, discuss about research methods, disseminate research findings, and connecting with audiences outside the context of traditional classroom. About 41 students were invited to pick three research articles that they find important and interesting from reputable journals and then to share a very brief summary or commentary (using not only plain text, but also image or video) via Facebook. By using the same #hashtag (i.e. #LAN3903), students and their peers can respond to the posts and discuss with each other immediately and transparently via the social media platform. Towards the end of the semester, the lecturers received positive feedback from the students e.g. Some students say that now there are more aware of what a journal is and how to find it for their future projects or assingments. Another student shared his view by saying it also save time because by using hashtags we can gather many journal articles from the other classmates on the same issue.
