Social media as an e-learning tool for understanding the challenges of COVID-19 for students

This paper contributes to understanding opportunities to use social media to identify the priorities and challenges of students from different countries in digital and face-to-face learning and networking during the COVID-19 pandemic and in the new reality after this crisis. The COVID-19 crisis resulted in intensive new e-learning and hybrid learning applications in higher education. When there is a shift from a teacher-controlled class environment to a more learner-controlled social media, the role of the educator becomes more of a facilitator. The purpose of the research is to reveal learning preferences and networking challenges that students do not usually share in a class environment. This paper contributes to developing social media activities facilitated by instructors and combined with international learner-driven knowledge sharing in global crisis situations. To study the challenges of COVID-19 for students in online learning and physical interaction, netnography approach combined with educators’ interventions to study students’ preferences in the Facebook group Challenges in Online Learning – COVID-19 was applied. Research outcomes reveal that the most popular Facebook polls for students were questions about group work and exam arrangements during the pandemic and work from anywhere future prospects, cross-border mobility regulations during the COVID-19 pandemic and reasons why some students do not participate in web conferences using their computer cameras. Students shared the view that flexible online work from anywhere solutions will be, for many organisations, one of the trends that will remain after the COVID-19 crisis. The Facebook group enabled international knowledge sharing, where students and educators could share their views on many issues that will also influence the rapidly changing online learning and networking environment after the COVID-19 crisis. Applying social media in international knowledge sharing involving instructors and students from different countries can contribute to learning about the diversity of views in crisis situations and enhance international entrepreneurial collaboration.