Expanding Teaching Impact An educator’s influence has traditionally been constrained by the physical boundaries of the classroom, with their teaching reach confined to the number of students present. However, the digital era is radically altering this landscape. With the digitisation of knowledge and the proliferation of social media, educators can extend their teaching to a global audience, transcending geographical and institutional limitations. This expansion not only enhances the educator’s visibility and influence but also elevates the university’s international profile. The benefits of becoming a “global educator” are multifaceted. Beyond boosting personal and institutional visibility, sharing teaching content online allows educators to reach larger and more diverse audiences, offer valuable community service, and support the UN Sustainable Development Goals by expanding access to education. It also creates opportunities for industry collaboration and potential funding. Furthermore, within the social media space, educators engage with wider audiences which amplifies their professional reputation, strengthening their value within both academic and public spheres— a factor that is particularly important in an age where AI is increasingly encroaching on roles traditionally reserved for human educators. By doing so, human educators can expand their impact and take on broader, more strategic teaching and mentoring roles that AI cannot fully replicate. Historically, the term global educator has been associated with fostering cross-cultural understanding and global citizenship, with Paulo Freire often cited as a classic example (Da Trindade, Robertson, & Torres, 2024). In my work, however, the phrase is recast to describe educators who share their teaching to worldwide audiences via social media. Grounded in the same values of equity and global citizenship, this redefinition shifts the emphasis from shaping perceptions within a classroom to delivering teaching across borders. By treating the classroom as a boundary-less digital space, such educators use online platforms to reach anyone willing to learn. Thus, “global” in this context reflects reach, and “educator” affirms purpose, collectively describing teaching that extends beyond institutional walls through digital andragogy. Measuring Teaching Effectiveness Central to teaching is the ongoing measurement of its effectiveness and impact, but howmight teaching be measured? While this is not a new question, it is one that still requires investigation (Zou et.al, 2022). The word “measured”—deliberately chosen over “evaluated”—may unsettle some readers, as it suggests that effective teaching can be reduced to a numeric value. This framing could be seen as unusual in a context where teaching effectiveness is widely understood to involve a multifaceted skillset and a rich, reflective narrative about how educators enact their craft in specific settings (Behari-Leak & McKenna, 2017). While acknowledging the depth and breadth of evaluating teaching, I show there is a quantitative approach to measuring teaching within the domain of social media. Specifically, my project proposes that social media analytics (SMA) can be incorporated into the broader toolkit for evaluating and measuring teaching effectiveness, particularly for educators who use or aim to use digital andragogical methods. Just as research outputs are assessed using quantitative metrics to determine impact, my work introduces the concept of a Social Media Index (SMI) for educators. My aim is to empower educators with a digital avenue to uplift their teaching stature and to establish a universal pathway toward formal recognition of their impact. 98 A Journey of Innovation
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