Social Networking and Community Building

Social Networking Online Community Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan activity, students will search for online communities that pertain to UX research. They will join/follow four different communities using the social media platform of their choice. Students will be required to find two resources that they will share to the class padlet, and will then compose a blog post to reflect on the communities they have joined and what they discovered answering the required prompts (listed below).

The purpose of this activity is for students to discover online communities in the UX research community that may present valuable resources and connections that students may be able to use for future research projects and professional development.

Section 1: Social Media Research

To begin this activity, students will first need to seek out and find online communities in the UX research field. They will have creative control on where they find these connections. The only requirements is that students must join/follow 4 online communities and it must deal with UX research in some way. Students should also consider using communities that offer resources that can be shared/accessed by their classmates (required in section 2). Whatever platform students use, make sure they use a student/professional account that is separate from their personal account!

Social media site suggestions to find UX research communities:

      • Twitter - *students should already have a professional Twitter account from previous assignments and will be required to use it for section 4 of this assignment.
      • Facebook
      • LinkedIn
      • Other - make sure all content and materials are shareable.

Section 2: Padlet

Students should be a member/follower of 4 communities before beginning this section.

In this section, students will signup for Padlet and then access the class Padlet resource board. Students will be required to share 2 resources they found within their online communities. Make sure they follow the instructions before posting to the Padlet board.

The purpose of the class Padlet is to collect resources that everyone discovered from within their online communities that they find to valuable and useful enough to share with their colleagues. Padlet will allow all students the easy ability to checkout and review the shared resources for later use.

Video tutorial: Nine ways to Post to Padlet


  1. Go to Padlet and sign up using your student Gmail account.
  2. Next students will go to the class Padlet board Social Networking Online Community Resources.
  3. Students will need to post and share 2 different resources that they discovered within their online communities (this does not mean share the URL of the group/community as students will do that in the next section). Students again will have creative control on what they share. It could be a website, video, images, or even a file upload. They need to make sure that the resources they post are accessible by other students and pertain to UX research. If their resource is not shareable, they can create and post a screencast that demonstrates and explains the resource.
  4. Students will give a brief summary of the resource they are posting so others will understand what it is.
  5. Before posting the resource, students need to make sure they are logged in so their name will be attached to their posts. Students that are not logged in and post anonymously will not receive credit.
  6. View and comment on others posts.

Section 3: Blog

In this section, students will compose a blog post that reflects on the 4 online UX research communities they joined for this lesson plan. Students blog posts should answer the following:

  • Describe and explain each of the communities they joined, what platform they are on (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) and share the group/follower URL. Students may post screenshots of the group if the URL is not accessible to everyone, but should include enough information on how students may find the online community.
  • Explain how these communities are connected to UX research.
  • Do these communities have a lot of current activity/participation?
  • Do you recommend the class joins the communities?
  • Did anything surprise you about these communities?

Section 4: Twitter

There is two parts to this section:

1. Students will share the URL to their blog post using their Twitter account. In the post, students will write a short description of their blog post. They will also use the hashtag #uxresearch101.

2. Students will then search for the #uxresearch101 hashtag to locate their classmates posts. Students are required to read and comment on 3 students blog posts. Students are also encouraged to join the online communities shared by their classmates.