Exploring the Use of Social Media Platforms by Public Universities

Abstract

The use of social media platforms by university students and teachers has been found to facilitate the learning and teaching processes. This includes providing opportunities for students to share and discuss relevant ideas and issues, thus making the task more enjoyable and raising the level of achievement. This study explored the use of social media platforms by public universities in Egypt. It investigated how these universities utilized social media platforms, and whether they are used for educational purposes or not. The data was collected from 21 universities using a questionnaire survey of 2100 undergraduate and postgraduate students. The official social media pages of each university were surveyed and analyzed using content analysis method. The results revealed that the use of social media platforms by public universities was for the purpose of communicating with the general public more than the students. This study also found that the majority of students consider social media platforms of their universities to be useless and not supporting their academic studies. This paper offers practical implications and recommendations for universities' decision makers and social media developers.