Current Perspectives in Social Media Supported E-Learning

Abstract

In recent years, classrooms have rapidly become virtual environments for knowledge and experience exchanging through active usage of digital tools. When access to a learning environment is difficult or even impossible, the digital environment remains the only one possible for online classes in schools and universities. Parts of the preferred toolkits are social media. They have actively penetrated the daily lives of Internet users around the world and have become a necessary tool for communication, organizing and attending events, even training sessions. Our experience as university lecturers shows that all educators must constantly apply modern tools for knowledge exchange and teaching because of the highly changing business environment’s requirements. The authors of this paper are interested in researching the accumulated international experience in e-learning, which integrates social media. In this regard, the aim of the publication is to outline perspectives in social media supported e-learning well-founded on an international research aspect. To achieve this, we developed an online study involving 138 students from 12 different countries. The study used within-subject design. There are observed two dependent variables: the ratings of social media and their benefits in e-learning context reported by the survey participants. The study procedure is based on online questionnaire consisting of four groups: Participants Data, Social Media Usage, Social Media Adoption: E-learning Context and Closing Remarks. As a result of the study, we can share some insights. The most frequently used social media are Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, WhatsApp, and Viber. 68.8% of respondents said they check their social media accounts daily, and 17.4% - hourly. Students suggest e-learning integration of the social media: YouTube (37.2%), Facebook (17.1%), Discord (13.2%), WhatsApp and Viber (4.5% each), LinkedIn and GitHub (3.7% each). According to the younger generation uses them mainly to communicate with family and friends, to follow celebrities and to read news. As a conclusion, we can summarize that the social media cannot be used as main tool for e-learning organization.