Social Media in Higher Education Research and Practical Insights

*Tihana Babić*

### **Abstract**

Social media enable students to learn in a way that is adapted to them; they started a virtual life on social media when they were growing up and do not know a world where computers, mobile phones, and social media do not exist. However, as numerous research showed before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not them who are hesitating, but teachers and higher education institutions. The results of research conducted in 2019 and presented in this chapter showed that a positive impact on the teachers' use of social media for higher education purposes could have higher education institutions through the implementation of education for both teachers and students on the use of social media. The results of research conducted in 2021 showed that teachers consider 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. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic and especially since, social media's impact on society has caused changes that necessitate a shift in the educational worldview from one that is rooted in the past to one that is forward-looking and progressive.

**Keywords:** social media, higher education, college teachers, students, COVID-19 pandemic

### **1. Introduction**

Social media enable the creation and sharing of information, ideas, and interests through virtual communities and networks whose purpose is to turn communication into an interactive dialog. The students studying today are members of the generation that started a virtual life on social media when they were growing up and do not know a world where computers, mobile phones, and social media do not exist. Before the unexpected COVID-19 pandemic, numerous studies indicated a digital gap between students and their educational institutions, in the sense that students are willing to use them, and faculty employees are not, as well as that they are more inclined to think about disadvantages instead of advantages.

In this chapter, some lessons that the crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us, types of social media, and the possible purposes of using social media for the needs of higher education will be presented.

In the research part, two studies will be presented, before and after the Covid pandemic, on a sample of higher education teachers. The first research will show the significance of the constructs that influence teachers' use of social media in the higher education process and the advantages and disadvantages of social media according to teachers' opinions. The second research will present factors that facilitated the use of social media for the purposes of higher education while performing mandatory online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic, characteristics of social media that have affected the reduction of teachers'stress during mandatory online classes during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as characteristics of social media that have affected the increase in teaching stress during mandatory online classes during the COVID–19 pandemic.
