Information Sought by Prospective Students from Social Media Electronic Word-of-Mouth during the University Choice Process

Autor/inn/en	Le, Tri D.; Dobele, Angela R.; Robinson, Linda J.
Titel	Information Sought by Prospective Students from Social Media Electronic Word-of-Mouth during the University Choice Process
Quelle	In: Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 41 (2019) 1, S.18-34 (17 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Le, Tri D.)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1360-080X
DOI	10.1080/1360080X.2018.1538595
Schlagwörter	College Choice; Information Seeking; Student Recruitment; Social Media; Reputation; Career Development; Higher Education; Admission Criteria; Teaching Methods; Decision Making; Computer Mediated Communication; Foreign Countries; Educational Quality; Web Sites; Australia + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Studienortwahl; Informationserschließung; Soziale Medien; Berufsentwicklung; Hochschulbildung; Hochschulsystem; Hochschulwesen; Admission; Admission procedures; Zulassungsbedingung; Zulassungsverfahren; Zulassung; Teaching method; Lehrmethode; Unterrichtsmethode; Decision-making; Entscheidungsfindung; Computerkonferenz; Ausland; Quality of education; Bildungsqualität; Web-Design; Australien
Abstract	Universities are increasingly utilising social media for student recruitment, the most highly used channel for prospective students. However, research on information gathering and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)-seeking behaviours on social media is generally absent. This paper explores the information sought by prospective students on social media, by analysing data from actual conversations on Quora, a social media question-and-answer site. Content analysis of 865 questions was conducted to examine the information regarding the factors students seek when selecting a university. The findings report information requirements on five major dimensions, namely reputation, career prospect, learning and leaching, administration and student life. This paper contributes to higher education literature by revealing the university information search factors students most commonly seek on social media, utilising a unique data source derived from actual online questions. Through understanding the eWOM-seeking behaviours of prospective students, universities can more accurately target their social media content. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01