Document Type
Article
Abstract
TikTok has rapidly become a mainstream social media platform, particularly popular among younger populations. However, young people's perceptions of TikTok's use as a teaching–learning tool remain largely unexplored. To address this literature gap, this study involved an educational intervention in which TikTok was integrated into sport management classes at a Spanish university through active learning methodologies. Specifically, it sought to assess changes in students’ perceptions before and after the intervention across three key dimensions: TikTok’s usefulness as a teaching tool, its contribution to professional development, and its potential for industry engagement. To assess students' perceptions of TikTok, a pre-test and post-test were conducted with 48 students (71% male, 29% female) enrolled in the course. Quantitative findings revealed statistically significant positive changes across all three dimensions, suggesting that the intervention positively impacted students’ perceptions of TikTok’s educational, professional, and industry-related value. These findings were reinforced by qualitative data collected through open-ended responses, in which students highlighted TikTok as a creative, motivating, and professionally relevant learning tool. The results of this study offer both theoretical and practical insights that may be valuable to educators and educational institutions considering the strategic integration of social media such as TikTok into higher education.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
Publication Info
Published in Innovative Higher Education, Volume 51, 2025, pages 91-120.
Rights
This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/.
APA Citation
López-Carril, S., Carpenter, J. P., Watanabe, N. M., & Ribeiro, T. (2025). TikTok in higher education: A learning tool to connect with industry and develop students” digital skills. Innovative Higher Education, 51, 91–120.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10755-025-09853-6