The use of social media applications for learning and teaching in the open distance learning: user experience

The use of social media application tools and mobile devices such as smartphones, tablet, and others has in recent years positively impacted teaching and learning practices in most academic institutions. Apart from sharing of information among students and teachers, but also as a means of communication, these tools are also used as platforms where teaching and learning take place, and social learning is the term that is used to describe this type of learning. This research study had two primary objectives: the first one was to introduce a learning environment where e-tutoring takes place and secondly to explore how the use of social media as platform for e-tutoring address the academic needs of and the subsequent impact on all participants’ user experience. A qualitative case study approach was chosen as a method to explore the user experiences of first-year students studying an introduction to programming course in an open distance learning environment. A WhatsApp application was used as a social media tool to create a virtual teaching and learning environment to enable the researcher and the study participant exchange academic-related information and other learning resources. An Interpretive phenomenological analysis was used to analyze the data recorded in the Experience Journal and three superordinate themes emerged after a systematic analysis of the recorded data. The results of the study revealed three identified themes namely, openness and quick learning, high degree of learners’ flexibility, and positive participants’ reactions.