**7. Post covid situation research results**

The research was conducted in the Republic of Croatia, at the institution Algebra University College in the year 2021, on the convenient sample of 38 teachers in scientific-teaching and associate positions as it will be shown, not published by now.

After the forced and unexpected mandatory online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, it was necessary to reinvestigate the perception of teachers about social networks and whether and to what extent teachers use social networks for higher

education. The goal was to examine how teachers evaluate the role and importance of social media as a communication channel for the needs of higher education during that period, and which circumstances they perceived as facilitating and which as aggravating.

Teachers were once again offered adapted constructs from the research conducted in 2019. The structure of the sample according to age was as follows: 0% of teachers were younger than 20 years of age, and 7.9% were 2130 years of age, The largest share is teachers aged 3140, 31.6% of them, teachers aged 4150, whose share was 44.7%, teachers aged 5160, whose share was 10.5%, and 5.3% teachers above 61 years of age. The total ratio of participating teachers by gender was 71.1% of the male population and only 28.9% of the female population. The male gender was more represented among teachers.

As the factor that teachers believe made it easier for them to use social media for higher education purposes during mandatory online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, they singled out their self-confidence when using social media for higher education purposes, followed immediately by teacher training on the use of social media.

The questionnaire developed for the teachers was shared via a link to the online Google questionnaire form. The questionnaire contained questions related to demographic data (age, gender), statements about the existence of factors that facilitate the use of social media for higher education purposes during mandatory online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, for which they could choose pre-offered answers of five degrees on a Likert scale of agreement, with one indicating that they do not agree at all, and five indicating that they agree, and finally, they could indicate which social media features they now consider advantages and which disadvantages.

The analysis was quantitative, and the results are presented descriptively below. From the results in **Table 6**, it can be noticed that the most significant factors that facilitated the use of social media for higher education while performing mandatory online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to teachers were teachers' (own) self-confidence when using social media for higher education purposes, their training on the use of social media, fellow teachers who use social media for higher education purposes as well as the availability of professional (technical) support. It was of less importance to students' education on the use of social media, institutionlevel social media usage policy, students' expectations that teachers will use social media for higher education purposes (which happened by itself due to circumstances), or ease of use.

The teachers also singled out the characteristics of social media that have affected the reduction of stress during mandatory online classes during the Covid-19 pandemic, as shown in **Table 7**. They highlighted easier and faster access to information, when and where it is needed, as the most important characteristic of social media usage for higher education purposes during the COVID-19 pandemic, followed by sharing ideas and experiences, fast feedback reactions, and a low level of complexity of use. Under the given circumstances, stress reduction was least influenced by the characteristics of strengthening ties with the wider local community, and also with people around the world/international community, marketing and recruitment of new students, as well as the possibility of making new acquaintances.

During the Covid pandemic, it was most difficult for teachers to deal with the neglection of direct communication (face-to-face), while characteristics of social media that have the most affected the increase in teaching stress during mandatory online classes during the **COVID**-19 pandemic were a decrease in social skills and


**Table 6.**

*Factors that facilitate the use of social media for higher education while performing mandatory online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, N = 38.*

privacy issues (lack of privacy … ). The speed of the program is incomparably lower than the speed of desktop programs, The content means nothing itself, it is just electronic "waste," the possibility to increase the gap between generations or social media becoming a type of second-hand web, that is, a medium for people with a low level of digital skills increased their stress during classes held online during the Covid pandemic at least. More details are shown in **Table 8** that follows.
