Efficacy of Social Networking Sites for Sustainable Education in the Era of COVID-19: A Systematic Review

Abstract

The sudden advent of the COVID-19 pandemic and the associated containment measures require educational institutions of all sizes to adopt eLearning as the only option for sustainable education. Despite the numerous Learning Management Systems, the rapid migration to eLearning posed numerous challenges that negatively affect the effectiveness and sustainability of the educational activities. The current study systematically reviewed recent articles that recognized the value and feasibility of using Social Networking Sites (SNSs) in education. The study highlighted the current eLearning challenges and illustrated effective strategies for the sustainable educational use of SNSs by both institutions, teachers, and students. Thus, solutions to the problems experienced in education during the COVID-19 period were highlighted based on SNS-supported strategies.

The Effect of Emotional Intelligence and Academic Social Networking Sites on Academic Performance During the COVID-19 Pandemic

“…ASNS are considered to be central to teaching in higher education during the pandemic. 14 ASNS support the interactions between teachers and students to ensure the teaching process runs smoothly. 14 , 15 These sites also support the upkeep of online classes because face-to-face classes are not possible in this pandemic.…”

“… 14 ASNS support the interactions between teachers and students to ensure the teaching process runs smoothly. 14 , 15 These sites also support the upkeep of online classes because face-to-face classes are not possible in this pandemic. 16 We cannot overlook the importance of ASNS in higher education, as these skills can significantly influence overall academic performance.…”

Early Childhood and Lockdown: The Challenge of Building a Virtual Mutual Support Network between Children, Families and School for Sustainable Education and Increasing Their Well-Being

“…The observed results of the Cargol Treu Banyes' experience include a large part of these elements of social support explained and validated in a broad way within the literature on this concept, and it is remarkable how the virtual support network offers a space for meeting, communication, interaction, and socialization, which, in turn, besides the virtuality, minimizes the isolation and social distancing that confinement implies [28,70], and, in consequence, also helps to mitigate its harmful effects in terms of mental and emotional health and school learning, in concordance with other studies [5,39,43], to mention: apathy, inactivity, and demotivation, among others. In particular, children constructed a way of playing and learning among themselves through the shared videos and photos, which increased their motivation in respect to the proposed activities and their participation in the network, thus reinforcing the conclusions of work such as [65,71].…”

“…This network manages to mobilize the main assets that make up social capital, such as trust, empathy, affection, reciprocity, solidarity, or exchange, giving rise to a virtual community. This community provides social support to its members, which translates into an improvement in their emotional well-being, their development of learning, and their capacity for empowerment [71]. At the same time, and because early childhood education also focuses mainly on the personal and family well-being of pupils, and the accompaniment of families, this virtual community complements distance education for children, which has a very difficult time fulfilling its socially assigned tasks, objectives, and approaches, and strengthens the link between students, families, and school.…”

Adoption of Social Media in Socio-Technical Systems: A Survey

“…In this case, the use of social media spontaneously and ad-hoc for each context or study group has allowed teachers to at least partially make up for the human processes and relationships that usually occur in face-to-face activities. For example, In [71] the authors discuss the help that social media platforms have given and can give in mitigating the unique educational challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic, where the sudden advent of containment measures requires educational institutions of all sizes to adopt eLearning as the only option for sustainable education. This review shows that social media can complement traditional tools such as learning management systems by helping students in achieving pedagogical goals through the creation of contextual learning outcomes.…”