University students’ and educators’ perceptions on the use of digital and social media platforms: A sentiment analysis and a multi-country review

Abstract

Due to Covid-19, an inevitable restructuring of higher education teaching and learning pedagogies ensuring the continuous and effective learning of students is deemed important. Despite such vitality, a prevalent disparity worldwide on the usages and gains of digital and social media integration is still noticeable. Following a Scoping Literature Review and using the Atlas.ti software for a Grounded Theory qualitative analysis, this study aims to ascertain the significance of digital and social media tools during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. The study explains the common challenges and opportunities both students and educators faced in thirty countries. Drawing on the sentiment analysis of these stakeholders, results indicate that despite the acceleration of digital education into a flexible, and student-centered didactic approach, various barriers in effectively fulfilling online learning still exist. Findings also revealed the lack of, and therefore need for, proper teaching and learning material and strategies suitable for digital education.