Influences of social media learning environments on the learning process among AEC university students during COVID-19 Pandemic: Moderating role of psychological capital

Abstract

The outbreak of COVID-19 has adversely affected university students’ learning process, especially in developing countries like Nigeria. Consequently, many institutions have adopted social media for the learning process because of the COVID-19 lockdown. Hence, the current study aimed at assessing the influences of social media learning environments on the learning process among university Architecture, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) students during the COVID-19 Pandemic lockdown. Data was collected from the students of AEC-related courses using a structured questionnaire. Warp 7.0 PLS-SEM was used for the analysis of the collated data and model development. The study results indicated that the AEC students’ psychological capital (PsyCap) moderates the relationships between social media learning environments and the learning process among AEC university students in Nigeria. The results also showed significant influence change between the social media learning environments and the learning process among the AEC students in Nigeria. The study is limited to students in the AEC-related courses in Nigerian universities. Moreover, the results of this study could be helpful to other developing countries having issues with the use of social media learning environments. The study further recommends the training of AEC students on the use of resources in the social media learning environments for the positive developmental state of the student’s self-efficacy, hope, optimism, and resilience.

Keywords

• social media
• psychological capital
• learning process
• aec students
• nigeria