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Social media and learning in an era of coronavirus among chemistry students in tertiary institutions in Rivers State

Abstract The study examined the awareness level of social networking site and how it is applied for learning in an era of coronavirus by Chemistry students in tertiary institutions in Rivers State Nigeria. Three research questions and two hypotheses guided the study. The study adopted the analytic descriptive survey design. One hundred and sixty undergraduate students from Ignatius Ajuru University of Education (IAUE) and Rivers State University (RSU) were randomly selected for the study. The instrument for data collection was a researcher made questionnaire titled social media awareness and application for learning in COVID-19. The consistency coefficient of the instrument was determined by Pearson product moment as a measure of its stability over time. The reliability coefficient of the instruments was 0.95. The instrument was administered to the students online via their numerous class social media platforms. Mean, standard deviation and t-test were the statistical tools used for data analysis. The result reveals that students are aware of social media for learning such as Zoom, WhatsApp, Facebook etc. A second outcome of this investigation showed that there is poor application or used of social networking site for learning among Chemistry students in Rivers State owned universities, it was also found out that finance, travel restriction, assessment and evaluation, poor internet reception, availability of electricity and others were identified as challenges while mental health of student, lack of pre-class preparation and associating with real friends were not considered to be challenges to the use of social media for learning. Furthermore, there was no significant difference in the level of awareness between IAUE students and those of RSU in the use of social network site for learning. The extent to which students apply social media for learning does not depend on university type. Based on the above results, it was recommended among others that universities in Rivers State should endeavor to engage their students in training that will avail them the opportunity to apply or utilize effectively social media in their learning activities.