Mind The Gap: A constructivist Grounded Theory Exploring the Role of Social Media in Augmenting the Professional Learning Journey of Generation Z Undergraduate Student Diagnostic Radiographers

Generation Z (Gen Z) have been born into a fully technological age. They are expert users of social media (SoMe) in their day to day lives yet little has been explored around the use of this same technology during the course of diagnostic radiography undergraduate studies to assist with and augment professional learning activities.
The main aim of this qualitative study was to research the gap identified in the literature by investigating the experience of Gen Z diagnostic radiography students’ use of SoMe to augment their professional learning journey.
The study used constructivist grounded theory, which led to a co-created substantive theory. Semi-structured interviews (10) were conducted to gather information about their experiences of the use of SoMe to augment their professional learning.
Data analysis identified that there is a gap in confidence levels between the students’ use of SoMe for personal and professional purposes. Personal usage confidence is high, whilst professional usage confidence is low and the intervening gap needs to be addressed if benefits of using SoMe to augment learning during the course of studies are to be realised.
Having heard the participant voices that confidence is low when using SoMe for professional learning, when all other indicators of SoMe usage would point to a high level of expertise, there is scope in the future design of curricula to address this gap and seek out new and innovative ways to address it. In order to support professional learning using social media, we must not forget or fail to utilise the high level of competence that has already been developed within our fully digital native Gen Z students.