The purpose of this research article is to investigate the perceptions of EFL students during the Covid-19 pandemic on implementing e-learning at university-level education in the EFL context of Afghanistan. The covid-19 pandemic has globally led the universities towards a paradigm-shift. As well as the instant development of ICT has restructured the content and the context of education particularly teaching and learning EFL. To determine the barriers and opportunities of implementing e-learning in EFL education, a qualitative method with semi-structured interview are applied to perceive the perceptions of EFL students. The study purposefully selected EFL students (N= 21 male and female) from Afghanistan universities as respondents. The data from the semi-structured interview is analyzed thematically. Results show that EFL students perceive e-learning approach as a better alternative to traditional face-to-face classrooms. Despite being regarded as an interactive method for EFL education, the lack of regular electricity connection, low internet bandwidth, high costs of ICT tools, lack of infrastructures, and lack of ICT knowledge of the teachers and students are perceived to be the barriers to implementing e-learning in Afghanistan higher education. In brief, the study contributes to establishing an in-depth understanding of the e-learning implementation and EFL instructions in Afghanistan higher education during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The study is aimed to lead the global educational transformation in Afghanistan to prepare higher education institutions for the post-pandemic of Covid-19. Today, the purpose of education has changed. Everything is just a click away; One can google the right answer. Therefore, there is an urgent need for redefining the national educational objectives and set new goals that are aligned with the new norms. The 21st-century learners are involved in an education that cooperates with their head, hearth, and hands. Thus, students should learn how to love, to be kind, and of course, to believe that the world is a joint home of all the creatures. To prepare learners with this global module of education, the study applied a qualitative approach using critical document analysis to establish an authentic understanding of the on-going paradigm-shift and provide practical potentials for Education 5.0 transformation. As a result, there are three categories of skills, namely learning skills, literacy skills, and life skills which help educational institutions to evolve towards the education 0.5. This article contributes to the post-pandemic educational settings in Afghanistan.

The use of social media has increased in schools and universities due to the new norms of teaching and learning during the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this educational paradigm shift requires further surveys to explore the potentials and restrictions, particularly in the context of Afghanistan. Therefore, a quantitative method and descriptive survey design are adopted to examine the effect of using social media (Facebook, WhatsApp, and Telegram) on the academic performance (Mean Scores of GPA) of Afghanistan faculty members who are pursuing their postgraduate studies at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM). The participants are (N=103 male and female) who are randomly selected. The data is collected through a structured survey google form. Frequency and percentage statistical analysis, Independent-Samples T-test, and Independent-Measures ANOVA are performed as data analysis techniques. The results show a large number of WhatsApp users in terms of frequency and percentage among faculty members of Afghanistan who are using social media. The findings also examine that there is no significant difference between the mean scores of GPA in the academic performance of faculty members using different types of social media. In conclusion, the study contributes to establishing an in-depth understanding of the effect of using social media on the academic performance among faculty members based on the new policies of e-learning implementation by the Ministry of Higher Education during the Covid-19 pandemic.

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The article is aimed to study the correlation between the time spent on Facebook and GPA scores of post-graduate students of Afghanistan. Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, and many other social networks are used broadly by scholars inside and outside the campuses. However, these social platforms are a mean for communication and have paved the way for interactive educational practices, but still there are concerns on the relationships of these social applications on students’ educational developments. Reviewing the literature, the study identified that there are few articles on the impact of social media on teaching and learning in Afghanistan which are conducted in different context as well as applied different methods and observations. Therefore, this article intended to use a quantitative approach and descriptive survey to evaluate the GPA scores of the students and the time spent on Facebook in order to evaluate their relationships. The data is analysed performing Repeated Measure ANOVA and Pearson Correlation. The results show that there is no significant difference in the mean score of GPAs between three semester of post-graduates. It also highlights that there is no correlation between the time spent on Facebook and the GPA scores of students. To conclude, the study contributes to enrich the ongoing e-learning strategies of the higher education by underlining the potentials and restrictions of the use of social medias on students’ educational developments.