The Use of Social Media as a Platform in Education: Ramifications of COVID-19 in Iraq

Abstract

Social media applications have become a vital tool for human daily communication and are widely used in the education process worldwide. Regardless of the use of social media by some instructors as a personal initiative, in Iraq, social media's use for educational purposes has been neglected. The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic pushed the world to implement online teaching using varying technology applications including social media as an essential tool in the learning process. This shifted the Iraqi government’s understanding of social media's role in education to the extent that they formally recommended that the educational departments, schools, universities use social media as a formal platform to keep the education going. However, there were concerns about using social media for several factors such as internet services, information and communication technology skills of instructors and students, integrity, and quality insurance of education. This study investigated the teachers' and students’ perceptions regarding these concerns by adopting a survey method through an online questionnaire using 'google forms' (N= 2010) with responses from teachers and students of universities and high schools and parents of students of basic schools. This study revealed that less than half of the respondents were in favor of using social media in the learning process. The findings suggested that the educational level, age, and geographical hierarchies and jobs of respondents are also correlated with using social media and e-learning.

Received: 12 September 2020 / Accepted: 11 February 2021 / Published: 10 May 2021