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Networked Narratives in Facebook: A Case Study of Students Supporting and Inspiring One Another

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Book cover Student Support Services

Part of the book series: University Development and Administration ((UDAA))

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Abstract

This chapter describes the Humans of QUT project, a staff-facilitated and student-led Facebook page that regularly publishes biographical stories of local characters from an Australian university. It presents the project as a case study of a networked narrative approach to supporting student engagement with the university community and describes the outcomes of the project for student volunteer leaders, support staff, interviewees, and users of the webpage. The theoretical construct of networked narratives is used as a basis for considering the depth of stakeholder relatedness and the breadth of networked connections. The case study suggests that student leaders valued the sharing of student insights, while analysis of the Humans of QUT Facebook data indicates that user engagement is 5000% higher than average Higher Education Facebook pages. The results indicate that effective student support services can emerge when students are encouraged to support one another using the tools with which they are most familiar.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Graduate Research Education and Development, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Murray Lane

  2. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Ramisa Raya, Anthea Castellano, Rachel Ward & Elise Lawrence

  3. School of Design, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Nick Kelly

  4. Student Success Group, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Louise Hooper & Corinne Loane

Authors
  1. Murray Lane
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  2. Ramisa Raya
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  3. Nick Kelly
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  4. Anthea Castellano
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  5. Rachel Ward
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  6. Elise Lawrence
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  7. Louise Hooper
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  8. Corinne Loane
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Murray Lane .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Henk Huijser

  2. University of Southern Queensland Learning, Teaching & Quality, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Megan Kek

  3. University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Fernando F. Padró

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© 2021 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

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Lane, M. et al. (2021). Networked Narratives in Facebook: A Case Study of Students Supporting and Inspiring One Another. In: Huijser, H., Kek, M., Padró, F.F. (eds) Student Support Services. University Development and Administration. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3364-4_25-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-3364-4_25-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore

  • Print ISBN: 978-981-13-3364-4

  • Online ISBN: 978-981-13-3364-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference EducationReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Education

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