#ECON1950: Integrating Twitter and Moodle to Reach Students outside the Classroom

Twitter is useful for academic economists to follow current research and public policy and to engage with their colleagues, students, and the general public. It is also a great place to gather information relevant to undergraduate economics courses. A course specific twitter hashtag embedded in a Learning Management System (LMS) is an easy way to share this supplemental information with students. This article contains a detailed, step-by-step guide to embedding a twitter feed within a LMS. Examples of how twitter can be used to share information to students in a Principles of Macroeconomics course are provided. Student survey results indicate that although most students did not access the shared information on a weekly basis, most thought that the twitter feed helped connect the course material to real-world and stimulated their interest in macroeconomics. Students who accessed the shared information at least monthly felt more strongly (than students who never or rarely accessed the information) that the twitter feed helped connect the course material to real-world examples, was worthwhile, and stimulated their interest in macroeconomics.