The Use of Social Media in Higher Education. The Case of Greek Universities

Abstract

Social media has nowadays become an important driver for sharing information, knowledge, and marketing promotion, used by enterprises and universities around the world. After COVID-19 crisis businesses and organizations have accelerated procedures for the implementation of new technologies. This research aims to shed light and to add to the existing literature in regard to the Greek case and the implementation of social media in Higher education. This study investigates Greek Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) students’ actual use of social media for educational purposes. The research questions are the following: What is the higher education students’ use of social networks for educational purposes in the classroom? How can universities integrate social media as an important tool to ameliorate their curriculum and knowledge sharing? A structured questionnaire was sent to a convenient sample of forty-eight students from Greek universities and a focus group with three students from a Greek university was created to support this research. This consists a pilot study research which is part of a broader study and preliminary results illustrate that at the moment there is little or no use of social networks for educational and creative purposes in Greek HEIs, although students believe that media and technology in general can help the education process. Understanding why and how social media can be integrated in the classroom might become a key competitive advantage for universities in the future. When using social networks for educational purposes and also for sharing information and promotion, universities can significantly improve their research opportunities, profit, academic and organizational arrangement.