Exploration of Social Media Use in Nigerian Higher Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Abstract

This study examines the impact of social media on staff and students in Nigerian higher education during the COVID-19 pandemic. It focuses on the challenges and opportunities that emerged. It adopts a mixed-methods approach, combining qualitative and quantitative data collection techniques. A purposive sampling technique was adopted to select participants from different higher institutions of learning in Nigeria comprising 100 staff and 300 students. The study utilizes descriptive statistics to summarize quantitative data on central tendencies. It employs inferential statistics to examine relationships between social media use, awareness, availability, challenges, perceptions, and support systems. The study reveals a strong positive correlation (r) between student (0.52) and faculty (0.68) perceptions of educational activities (accessing materials, discussions, collaboration, and learning). However, the higher positive correlation of staff members suggests that their awareness translates more significantly into the actual educational use of social media than students. While findings indicate that the pandemic created opportunities for innovative collaboration and discussion, challenges to the effective utilization of social media in education exhibited significantly lower mean effectiveness scores than the overall mean of 4.5. Significant t-tests and correlation p-values provide evidence that the challenges significantly impacted the effectiveness of the teaching and learning approach. Therefore, educational infrastructural upgrades as well as updating institutional policies to reflect the changes in the digital landscape are crucial steps to ensure the effective use of social media in the event of a sudden global lockdown