Figure 1: A model illustrating the use of social media analytics to evidence teaching impact tracked over time to monitor trends. The data derived from user interaction on social media collectively provide a method for assessing an educator’s impact (blocks 5 and 6) and offer valuable insights for reflective practice and content improvement (block 7). Normalisation and Comparison of Impact To ascertain an educator’s impact on social media, it is necessary to evaluate performance across different platforms. On YouTube, for example, where impact is predominantly video based, a video impact score is required to normalise an educator’s effectiveness. Normalisation is important because some educational topics may attract large audiences simply due to trending interest, while other niche topics may have smaller audiences despite significant educator contribution. A critical approach is therefore needed to measure an educator’s impact on social media. To address this, I have developed the YouTube Video Impact Score (YVIS), hosted on www. socialmediaindex.net. This tool allows educators to normalise engagement metrics and compare video performance across uploads, creating a fair basis for comparison regardless of audience size or topic popularity. By adjusting for these factors, the approach enables a more balanced assessment of teaching impact. Steps to a Universal Social Media Impact (SMI) Score for educators While evaluating individual videos provides useful insights, assessing cumulative teaching output is critical for a balanced understanding of teaching impact. Accordingly, part of my work involves designing a metric that measures an educator’s total influence across selected social media platforms. My approach proposes that educators can quantify their digital teaching impact through various platform-specific social media scores, which can be integrated into a universal SMI score. The SMI is still under development, as it must harmonise different platforms and delivery modes—both video and audio podcasts—to enable fair 100 A Journey of Innovation
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