#EUROmicroMOOC: using Twitter to share trends in Microbiology worldwide

I López-Goñi (1) , J Giner-Lamia (2) , A Álvarez-Ordoñez (3) , Alfonso Benitez-Páez (4) , D. Claessen (5) , M Cortesao (6) , M De toro (7) , D García-Ruano (8) , E T Granato (9) , A. T. Kovács (10) , J L Romalde (11) , T G Sana (12) , M Sánchez-Angulo (13) , F J Sangari (14) , W K Smits (15) , T Sturm (16) , J. L Thomassin (17) , K N G Valdehuesa (18) , M Zapotoczna (19)

1 UNAV - Universidad de Navarra [Pamplona]
2 UPM - Universidad Politécnica de Madrid
3 Universidad de León [León]
4 IATA-CSIC - Instituto de Agroquímica y Tecnología de Alimentos - Institute of Agrochemistry and Food Technology [Valencia]
5 Universiteit Leiden = Leiden University
6 DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt [Köln]
7 Fundacion Rioja Salud
8 Universidad de Salamanca
9 University of Oxford
10 DTU - Danmarks Tekniske Universitet = Technical University of Denmark
11 USC - Universidade de Santiago de Compostela [Spain]
12 Stanford University
13 UMH - Universidad Miguel Hernández [Elche]
14 Universidad de Cantabria [Santander]
15 LUMC - Leiden University Medical Center
16 Cabrillo College
17 Biochimie des Interactions Macromoléculaires / Biochemistry of Macromolecular Interactions
18 Myongji University
19 PAN - Polska Akademia Nauk = Polish Academy of Sciences = Académie polonaise des sciences

Twitter is one of the most popular social media networks that, in recent years, has been increasingly used by researchers as a platform to share science and discuss ongoing work. Despite its popularity, Twitter is not commonly used as a medium to teach science. Here, we summarize the results of #EUROmicroMOOC: the first worldwide Microbiology Massive Open Online Course taught in English using Twitter. Content analytics indicated that more than 3 million users saw posts with the hashtag #EUROmicroMOOC, which resulted in over 42 million Twitter impressions worldwide. These analyses demonstrate that free Microbiology MOOCs shared on Twitter are valuable educational tools that reach broad audiences throughout the world. We also describe our experience teaching an entire Microbiology course using Twitter and provide recommendations when using social media to communicate science to a broad audience.

Mots clés: social networks; Twitter; science communication; open access; MOOC

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Microbiologie et Parasitologie

I López-Goñi, J Giner-Lamia, A Álvarez-Ordoñez, Alfonso Benitez-Páez, D. Claessen, et al.. #EUROmicroMOOC: using Twitter to share trends in Microbiology worldwide. FEMS Microbiology Letters, 2019, 366 (11), pp.fnz141. ⟨10.1093/femsle/fnz141⟩. ⟨pasteur-02566990⟩