Learning Sustainability: Post-Graduate Students’ Perceptions on the Use of Social Media Platforms to Enhance Academic Writing

Abstract

Academic writing is a vital element in any post-graduate study. Therefore, it is crucial to harness all the tools and capabilities available to serve this purpose. These capabilities include the digital tools that characterize the current era. This paper aims to explore post-graduate students’ perceptions of the use of social media platforms to enhance academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic who are enrolled in the Master of Educational Technology in our institution, Saudi Arabia. The study followed a qualitative research methodology and used semi-structured interviews with ten students to gather data. Thematic analysis was applied. The results showed that post-graduate students value the role of the use of social media platforms in enhancing their academic writing. The findings also showed the advantages, disadvantages, and obstacles of the use of social media platforms in enhancing their academic writing. The implications of this study can inform post-graduate supervisors to reconsider the benefits of social media platforms as high-value communication tools in enhancing the skills of academic writing. Thus, they may adopt, employ, and blend them with traditional methods of communication in their efforts to develop their students’ academic writing skills. Using social media platforms for learning academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic may mirror the fourth goal of sustainable development. The implications of the study over post-pandemic postgraduate education have been discussed.

1. Introduction

Sustainable learning is characterized by its ability to foster long-lasting knowledge and skills. According to Graham et al. [1], sustainable learning encompasses two main aspects. Firstly, it emphasizes that the learning obtained through formal education holds enduring significance for learners in the future. Secondly, it motivates students to continue their educational pursuits and embrace lifelong learning. This aligns effectively with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal number four, which is to “Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning” [2].

The corona (COVID-19) pandemic has invaded all sectors of our life. Similar to the global response to the rapid and deadly spread of the virus, the Saudi government suspended face-to-face instruction at schools and universities indefinitely until the epidemic was eliminated. They shifted to complete and immediate distance learning, which played a great role in managing education during that crisis [3] so that the sustainability of the educational process could be maintained [4]. This led to the rise of the role of social media platforms as an effective fertile environment to maintain the continuity of providing knowledge to students without interruption and to enhance learning outcomes.

Post-graduate research students, who needed to meet with their academic supervisors regularly, were forced to meet with their supervisors remotely using different social media platforms. Interestingly, although social media platforms were available before the pandemic, they were rarely employed [5]. As a result of the dependence on social media platforms during the pandemic, teachers and students paid more attention to these platforms’ benefits and useful functions, which could be fruitfully integrated into learning.

This, employing social media platforms in the field of education, is in line with the vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2030, which works on digital transformation in all fields, especially in the field of education, where it works to develop education and to improve the skills of teachers and students to ensure the quality of outputs with the highest efficiency and the lowest cost. It encourages creativity and innovation, urges the development of modern teaching methods that depend on educational technology, and makes the learner the focus of the educational process, by building stimulating and attractive educational environments for learning without being restricted by the factors of time and place [6]. These reasons have inspired the aim of the current study to explore post-graduate students’ perceptions of the use of social media platforms to enhance their academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2. Literature Review

2.1. Online Communication through Social Media for Educational Purposes

Student–instructor interaction is one of the most important types of interaction that occurs in the learning process. Through such interaction, students receive directions, support, guidance, instruction, and feedback on their learning. In some e-learning contexts such as blended and distance learning environments, online communication is a crucial component that facilitates that type of interaction between students and their instructors as physical interaction is missing. The literature reports a number of benefits of online communication between students and instructors. For example, online communities help in decreasing students’ feelings of isolation resulting from the spatial separation between students and their instructors [7,8,9]. Moreover, instructors’ keenness of communicating with their students may encourage them to be more active and engage in online learning activities [10]. Effective online communication improves students’ learning outcomes. such as academic performance, achievement, motivation, satisfaction, and persistence to complete a course [9].

With advances in technologies and social media, such as blogs, vlogs, instant messaging, virtual communities, and video and audio conferencing, a new dimension of communication, collaboration, and interaction between teachers and students has appeared. It has broken the barriers of time and place and added limitless flexibility to the learning process [11]. Nowadays, the use of social media is common and an almost integral part of most individuals’ personal lives via smartphones. Social media has been defined as an online service enabling users to create a public or private profile to connect and interact with their social friends [12]. In the educational field, social media means online platforms that allow connectivity, communication, collaboration, and interaction between the polars of the learning process, including teachers, students, experts, and administrators.

Using social media in education has brought many advantages that enhance students’ learning outcomes [13]. It smooths online student–student as well as student–teacher discussions and interactions [14]. It also supports resource sharing in any format. It further facilitates both synchronous and asynchronous communication and lectures [15,16]. It offers alternative assessment tools and provides quick feedback [11].

With the introduction of social media technology in the field of education, the potential for fostering constructivism has increased. According to the theory of social constructivism, knowledge is defined as something that is constructed within a social context by learners collaboratively. Individuals within a community help each other, provide support, interact together, and benefit from others’ experiences. Social constructivism is aimed at constructing an individual’s own meaning depending on the help being presented to them from different sources available to them, away from negative memorization of information [17,18,19]. The constructive process requires support, scaffolding, a shift away from the traditional lecturing method, and the use of alternative assessments, such as discussions, e-portfolios, and project-based assignments.

Using social media platforms to enhance the academic writing skills of post-graduate students may apply the principles of social constructivism theory in several ways [20,21,22,23]. For example, social media platforms enable users to create and share their own content and resources, such as presentations, videos, and research proposals. This aligns with the idea of learners actively constructing knowledge through their own experiences and contributions. By encouraging learners to create and share their content, social media platforms facilitate the sharing of perspectives of the student and the supervisor and promote active engagement in the learning process. Moreover, social media platforms can facilitate feedback and reflection, which are essential components of social constructivism. Students can receive constructive feedback on their work from their supervisors. They can also engage in discussions to refine their understanding and reflect on their own learning experiences. Social media platforms provide access to a wide range of resources, including articles, videos, podcasts, and educational content. Learners can explore different perspectives and ideas, access real-world examples, and engage with multimedia content that enhances their understanding of complex concepts. This exposure to diverse resources and experts supports the idea of multiple viewpoints and the construction of knowledge, and fosters skills through exposure to varied information. Social media platforms encourage active learning and engagement through interactive features such as live video conferences and synchronous and asynchronous chatting. These interactive elements promote learner participation, reflection, and critical thinking. By actively engaging with content and participating in interactive activities, learners construct their knowledge and make connections between new information and their prior experiences.

2.2. Academic Writing

Academic writing is a complex and challenging cognitive process that aims to produce an objective piece of writing that presents a deep investigation and intends to prove or reject the ideas or concepts in the argument [24,25]. Developing a research proposal is a process that requires a student to be prepared with a number of skills, starting with identifying and expressing a proper new idea, writing hypotheses and rationale, reviewing the literature, and ending with suggested research methodology and procedures to examine the hypotheses.

The appearance of modern technology that depends on users’ participation to produce digital content, such as social media platforms, has changed the identity and limits of writing skills as it is considered the sole source of learning and is a demonstration tool for understanding different subjects. Much of the literature has proven that social media platforms have the potential to improve academic writing skills. For example, Seneviratne’s [26] dissertation confirmed that developing an individual’s academic writing ability can affect their overall academic performance. Therefore, learners usually seek ongoing discipline-based academic writing support. Throughout the study, the participants were provided with academic writing support by the researcher via digital social media for four weeks. The findings showed improvement in the participants’ academic writing. The researcher attributed this improvement to the use of a digital social media platform enabling the provision of ongoing and instant discipline-based academic writing support when the participants needed it most. A study by Scott et al. [25] on using Facebook to support academic accountability, motivation, and productivity showed that Facebook could serve as a platform for peer support so students helped one another in a sense of online community to improve their academic writing skills. Another study in the same field conducted by Buriro and Charan [24] asserted that the users of Facebook consider it as an opportunity to improve their writing skills. These users could easily write an academic paragraph, while 30% of the non-users could not. These findings established that Facebook can be useful for distant or e-learning prospects. A study by Zheng [27] illustrated that online discussion in a microblogging environment was useful for facilitating writing activities among students, increased their language complexity, and generated deeper thinking and higher-level cognitive skills when writing about what they had read. The results also asserted that student–teacher and student–student interactions became more dynamic and intensive, which positively affected their writing test scores. According to the findings of Sun’s [28] investigation, blogging improved participants’ autonomous monitoring of their writing entries as well as enhanced positive attitudes toward academic writing. Alsamadani’s [29] examination of the effectiveness of using blogging for students’ writing illustrated that blogging could improve students’ content. vocabulary choice. style, and language mechanism in their writing skills. The studies of Yeboah and Ewur [30] and Abdul Fattah [31] further asserted that the WhatsApp platform yielded significant effects on students’ writing skills and made communication among them easier and faster. The literature indicates that wikis have shown potential significance in students’ academic writing skills. For example, it was found that wikis can improve [32], motivate, and boost learners’ academic writing [33]. and provide feedback anytime and anywhere [34].

The literature has also reported several disadvantages of using social media platforms for educational purposes. For example, students can be easily distracted on social media platforms by unrelated messages, comments, notifications, and entertainment distractions [14,35,36,37,38,39,40]. Another disadvantage is that using social media platforms may result in communication overload [35,40]. In addition to the high volume of messages and notifications, delays in communications and waiting for respondents for long periods can waste too much time [37,38,39]. The accuracy of the information transmitted on social media platforms cannot be guaranteed [40]. Moreover, technical problems can be a key issue that prevents students from proper communication with their teachers and peers [37,38]. Content on social media platforms may be ambiguous to some, which can lead to misunderstandings that distract students from the requested tasks [14].

During the COVID-19 pandemic, social media platforms played a great role in the rapid dissemination of and access to educational content [40], easy synchronous and asynchronous communication individually or collectively through online live broadcasting, and recorded webinars through platforms like YouTube (version 16.49.38), Teams (version 2022315310), Skype (version 8.79.0.95), WhatsApp (version 2.21.25.14), and Zoom (version 5.9.1).

The authors of this study, while they teach the course of Masters Dissertation, needed to meet the students weekly to discuss, guide, and improve their academic writings on the research proposals. The emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic has forced the educational systems in Saudi Arabia to an instant, sudden, and comprehensive shift to distance learning. This led the authors to employ social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Zoom, and Teams for supervision meetings with their Masters’ students. The authors believe that these platforms satisfactorily worked to enhance academic writing skills, which was positively reflected in their proposals’ quality. In this frame. this study aims to explore Master’s students’ own perceptions of the extent of the effectiveness of the use of social media platforms to enhance their academic writing skills during the COVID-19 pandemic.

2.3. Social Media, Academic Writing, and the Fourth Goal of Sustainable Development

Using social media for learning academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic can mirror this goal in several ways [1,4,41,42,43,44,45,46,47]:

Access to Education: Social media platforms provide a low-cost and accessible means of education, especially during a time when access to traditional education may be limited. By utilizing social media for learning academic writing, postgraduate students, regardless of their geographical location or socioeconomic background, can access educational resources and develop their academic writing skills.

Inclusivity and Equity: The use of social media to learn academic writing can promote inclusivity and equity in education. It can help bridge the digital divide by providing opportunities for post-graduate students who did not have access to traditional educational resources due to the pandemic. Social media platforms are often available on various devices, including smartphones, making education more accessible to them, even if they do not have access to laptops or desktop computers.

Global experience exchange: Social media enables post-graduate students to connect and exchange experiences on academic writing skills remotely. By facilitating distant connections, social media platforms promote expertise exchange, diversity, and the sharing of ideas. This fosters a sense of global collaboration and helps individuals develop a broader perspective on academic writing practices.

Lifelong Learning: Social media platforms offer a continuous learning environment where post-graduate students can engage in academic writing discussions, access resources, and receive feedback from peers and experts. This supports the idea of lifelong learning, which is essential for personal growth and professional development. By using social media for academic writing learning, post-graduate students can continuously improve their writing skills and stay updated with the latest trends and practices.

Innovation and Creativity: Social media platforms provide a space for learners to express their creativity and innovation in academic writing. They can share their ideas, experiment with different writing styles, and receive feedback from a diverse audience. This encourages critical thinking, problem-solving, and the development of new approaches to academic writing, aligning to foster innovation and creativity in education.

Using social media platforms for learning academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic may mirror the fourth goal of sustainable development by enhancing access to education, inclusivity, global collaboration, and lifelong learning, and by fostering innovation and creativity. It employs the abilities of technology and connectivity to ensure that quality education is accessible to all, regardless of their circumstances.

3. Research Questions

This study’s main objective is to examine post-graduate students’ perceptions of the use of social media platforms to enhance their academic writing skills during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study will investigate the following questions:

• How do post-graduate students perceive the role of social media platforms in enhancing their academic writing?
• What are the obstacles to the use of social media platforms that hinder enhancing academic writing?

4. Methodology

4.1. Participants

The population of the study included all post-graduate students who enrolled in the Master of Educational Technology Program in Education College at our institution in Saudi Arabia and registered in the second semester of the 2021–2022 academic year to write their thesis. Ten students were selected randomly to voluntarily participate in the study.

Table 1. The demographic data of the interview sample.

Demographic Data		n	Percentages
Gender	Males	4	40%
	Females	6	60%
Age range	22–27 years old	8	80%
	28–31 years old	2	20%
Specialization in Masters	Educational Technology	10	100%
Specialization in Bachelor’s degree	Science	1	10%
	Math	2	20%
	Computer Sciences	4	40%
	Arabic	1	10%
	Early Childhood	1	10%
	Social Studies	1	10%

illustrates the demographic data of the interviewees.

4.2. Research Approach

The aim of the study was to explore post-graduate students’ perceptions of the use of social media platforms to enhance academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic who were enrolled in the Master of Educational Technology at our institution, Saudi Arabia. To achieve this aim, a qualitative approach was used to gain insight into how post-graduate students view the use of social media platforms and how they may support their academic writing. The researchers conducted one-to-one semi-structured interviews with the ten participants. The responses of the participants during the interviews were recorded instantly in text form.

4.3. Research Procedure

At the beginning of the academic semester, students were assigned to a dissertation supervisor. An introductory meeting had been held with the participants of this study to explain how the work would be executed to prepare their research proposals during the COVID-19 lockdown. The plan was to use different social media platforms to conduct the necessary meetings between the students and the supervisors. The students met with the supervisors weekly in a one-to-one manner through the Zoom and Teams platforms. In addition, an enormous number of consultations were conducted, and feedback was sent via WhatsApp (Figure 1). Once the research proposals had been done and submitted, the necessary approvals from the Ethics Committee at King Faisal University were obtained (Reference KFU-REC-2022-MAR-EA000535). Then, a number of semi-structured interviews were carried out with 10 students to collect data to understand their perceptions on using social media platforms to enhance academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic.

4.4. Data Collection and Analysis

The authors of the study conducted semi-structured interviews with their students and wrote down their responses instantly. The interviews included the following main questions:

• What social media tools were used by you in writing the research plan?
• Which of these tools do you prefer to use? Why?
• Describe your experience using your favorite tool in some detail.
• What do you think of the use of these tools in terms of their usefulness in improving the quality of your writing of the research plan? Why?
• From your point of view, what are the disadvantages of using these tools that may negatively affect the quality of your writing of the research plan? Why?
• From your point of view, what are the obstacles to using these tools that may reduce their usefulness in improving the quality of your writing of the research plan? Why?
• Do you prefer using social media tools or traditional methods of communicating with the supervisor regarding the development of the research plan? Why?

The data from the interviews was coded thematically and manually analyzed with consideration of the research questions [47]. The analysis of the data focused on identifying the key themes that emerged from the students’ responses about using social media platforms to enhance their academic writing. The process of analyzing the interviews relied on Braun and Clarke’s [47] six-phase model for thematic analysis:

• Familiarizing yourself with your data: The authors of the study were the interviewers. Therefore, they were very familiar with the data.
• Generating initial codes: The initial interesting codes from the data were identified. The codes were then assessed in a meaningful way regarding the research questions.
• Searching for themes: Here the analysis re-focused on the codes on a broader level, which is generating themes. In this phase, different codes are sorted into potential themes.
• Reviewing themes: The initial list of themes was refined, and some candidate themes that did not have enough data to support them were ignored.
• Defining and naming themes: In this phase, the data were defined by identifying the essence of what each theme was about and were refined by determining what aspect of the data each theme captured.

  Table 2. Themes and frequencies of the interview data revealed from the thematic analysis.

  Main Themes	Sub Themes	Frequency	Percentages
  Social media tools	WhatsApp	7	70%
  	Microsoft Teams	4	40%
  	Zoom	3	30%
  	Twitter	2	20%
  	Telegram	1	10%
  	Blackboard	1	10%
  Benefits	Easy communication	7	70%
  	Transcending the limits of space	6	60%
  	Instant feedback	5	50%
  	Repeat review files	5	50%
  	Interactive guidance	5	50%
  	Save time and effort	5	50%
  	File and resource sharing	5	50%
  	Transcending the limits of time	4	40%
  	Diverse file format	3	30%
  	Communicate experienced researchers	3	30%
  Favorite method of holding meetings	Distance	6	60%
  	Blended	4	40%
  Obstacles	Technical problems	5	50%
  	Poor face-to-face communication skills	3	30%
  	Distracting	3	30%
  	Lack of technical skills	1	10%
  	Burden	1	10%

  illustrates the themes and frequencies of the interview data revealed from the thematic analysis.
• Producing the report: This phase involved the final analysis under the themes and write-up of the final report. The final report of the data analysis and the concluded findings will be reviewed in the following section.

5. Findings and Discussion

Research Question 1: How do post-graduate students perceive the role of social media platforms in enhancing their academic writing?

The data analysis from the interviews illustrated that social media platforms had played a vital role in enhancing post-graduate students’ skills in academic writing. They mentioned that they had used different social media platforms such as WhatsApp (version 2.21.25.14) (7 of 10), Microsoft Teams (version 2022315310) (4 of 10), Zoom (version 5.9.1) (3 of 10), Twitter (version 3.0.3) (2 of 10), Telegram (version 8.4.2) (1 of 10), and Blackboard (version Learn 9.1, 3900.2.0) (1 of 10). For example, the analysis showed that 9 out of 10 participants preferred using WhatsApp for quick and easy communication between students and supervisors. Participant 2 expressed that “WhatsApp is my preferred method for quick, formal, and informal conversations with my supervisor. The messaging capabilities make it easy for us to exchange files, links, and text and video resources asynchronously”. Participant 5 said that “Overall, I find WhatsApp to be a convenient, user-friendly platform that facilitates flexible communication between myself and my supervisor. It helps us stay aligned and address issues of my academic writing efficiently”. Participants 3, 8, and 9 agreed that they all thought that their communication experiences were successful using the Zoom and WhatsApp tools. For example, Participant 3 said, “I find Zoom to be a very convenient and reliable way to have regular meetings with my supervisor. The video conferencing features make it easy for us to discuss the research proposal and get on the same page”. Meanwhile. Participant 8 explained, “My supervisor and I use Zoom for our one-on-one meetings each week. It allows us to have focused discussions about my research proposal. I think it is a perfect solution for the lockdown problem”. Participants 8 and 9 thought that using WhatsApp groups to share files, links, and other relevant information about their research proposals was great. “It allows us to communicate through both text and voice notes. This flexibility is helpful when I need to explain something in more detail to my supervisor.” In addition. Participant 1 reported that “Overall. I am quite satisfied with using Microsoft Teams to communicate with my supervisor. It keeps us connected and aligned, despite that we are working remotely”. On the other hand, Participant 4 highlighted Twitter as a useful learning-based communication tool, as she says, “We used Twitter to be a versatile communication tool that enables my supervisor and I to stay connected, share knowledge, mention each other when we find a useful tweets that can inform my work, and help us brainstorm new research ideas”. One participant (# 7) mentioned Telegram as his preferred tool of meeting with the supervisor. He confirmed, “I appreciate Telegram’s clean. distraction-free interface. which allows us to have focused. productive conversations without the noise and distribution of other social media apps”. Similarly. one participant (# 10) thought that Blackboard could serve as a good meeting tool. He asserted, “Blackboard’s discussion board feature allows my supervisor and I to engage in asynchronous, threaded conversations about my research proposal, sharing ideas and feedback at our own pace”.

The majority of students reported that social media platforms helped provide easy communication between students and their supervisors synchronously (7 of 10) and asynchronously (6 of 10). They thought that synchronous sessions provided them with more interactive guidance and instant feedback on their writing errors, styles, narration, and sequence regarding the research proposal (Participants # 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10). In addition, participants (# 7 and 8) said that they could attend synchronous workshops on scientific research and academic writing. The students also explained that asynchronous communication via social media platforms was beneficial because it allowed them to communicate more flexibly, regardless of the time (Participants # 1, 2, 3, and 6). For instance, Participant 3 said, “I find that social media platforms allow easy synchronous and asynchronous communication between me and my supervisor. I can ask questions, and receive feedback and guidance through messaging and posting”. More specifically, Participant 4 emphasized, “The synchronous capabilities of social media. like real-time chat features. make it convenient for me and my supervisor to have quick updates on how I am doing in my proposal and discussions as needed. This helps keep both of us aligned on my research progress”. Moreover. Participant 6 thought. “Posting instructions. Ideas. and resources on social media platforms creates an asynchronous centralized hub that both students and supervisors can access. It helps everyone, I guess, keep important information and documents safe to revisit when needed”.

Participants emphasized the role social media played during the lockdown periods caused by the pandemic. Social media helped to effectively overcome spatial and temporal barriers (Participants # 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 9), enabling students to communicate continuously with their supervisors to follow up on the work and tasks assigned to them. For instance, Participant 5 expressed her appreciation of social media’s vital role during the COVID-19 lockdowns. She said “Social media platforms became an important tool enabling me to stay in touch with my supervisor despite physical distancing. We could continue our meetings and learning through seamless video calls, file sharing, and online discussions”. Participant 9 added that “The asynchronous feature of social media communications has been particularly useful during sudden periods of lockdown. Even when we could not agree an appointment, my supervisor and I could still exchange updates, provide feedback, and resolve issues through messaging and document collaboration”.

This is in addition to what the participants indicated that learning through these platforms helped them save time and effort (Participants # 3, 5, 6, 7, and 10), compared to traditional meetings, which require time-consuming preparations before the actual face-to-face meetings. Participant 7 mentioned that “These platforms removed all the geographic barriers during the coronavirus lockdowns. My supervisor moved to another city, but we were still able to maintain regular face-to-face meetings and work sessions through video conferencing.” Similarly. Participant 10 explained “In fact. I liked the idea of meeting online; it saved my time that I used to spend in transportation”. It also enables file and resource sharing like books, articles, voice notes, and videos (Participants # 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6). Participant 2 mentioned that “We were working together on documents, presentations, and other files in a shared digital space. This simplifies the review and feedback process”. The students could additionally and repeatedly review files and records like voice and text instructions, advice, and guidance whenever needed (Participants # 1, 2, 4, 5, and 6). Participant 1 said “Even if it was not online meetings. I would love to use social media platforms where I can easily keep the supervisor’s notes and comments saved so I can get back to them whenever I need them”. This is in addition to the resources in diverse formats supported by social media platforms, which can be referenced to strengthen their skills in academic writing, such as videos, articles, books, etc. (Participants # 2, 3, and 7). Participant 3 revealed “Well on social media most of the media formats are supported. I can share and view almost everything”. To illustrate more. three participants (# 4, 7, and 8) mentioned that they used social media platforms to contact more experienced researchers and joined research channels and followed specialized academic accounts. This is positively reflected in their academic writing skills. Participant 8 confirmed “My colleague and I could get some consultations about our research plans online through Twitter and Telegram from an expert”.

The participants differed about their favorite method of holding meetings with their supervisors. Six participants (# 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10) preferred meeting remotely using social media platforms, and the rest (# 1, 2, 3, and 8) preferred blended method meetings (traditional and remote). The preference for remote meetings through social media platforms is attributed to the advantages previously discussed. As for blended method meetings, the participants expressed their reasons for preferring it in that it was more flexible because they could meet either remotely or traditionally according to the nature of the work stage and its requirements. For example, Participant 1 thought that, at the beginning of preparing the research proposal, the student may need more traditional meetings to receive more explanations and details and clarify and ask questions about the required work. Meanwhile, in the later stages of final touches, including language formulation and typographical errors, or arranging and coordinating parts of the proposal, there may be no need for the traditional face-to-face meetings. The participants also referred to the need of using a blended method of meetings based on the ambiguity or clarity of the work task, the simplicity or difficulty of the required modifications, the number of inquiries raised, or emergency circumstances.

These findings are in agreement with previous literature [24,25,27,28,29,30,31,32,33,34]. The literature indicated the effective and influential role of social media platforms in improving academic writing skills by providing opportunities for immediate communication between students and the supervisor, making the process of giving feedback and guidance flexible and easy, regardless of place and time. It also helped increase students’ motivation to productivity and improved the quality of research proposals.

Meanwhile, these results disagree with previous studies [14,32,33,34,35,36,37]. which pointed out the defects that limit the use of social media platforms in the educational setting. These may include distracting the learner’s attention through the large number of irrelevant messages, media, and notifications available online, which waste time. They may also suffer from certain issues of inaccurate content, and technical problems of Internet connection.

The core notion of social constructivism theory described by Dewey [17], Piaget [18], and Vygotsky [19] appears to be aligned with the findings of the study. Social media plat-forms seem to be a rich source of social interaction through various synchronous and asynchronous communication and interaction tools. Considering the features of social media platforms, it is found that their strengths agree with the principles of social constructivism theory. Social media platforms could promote active engagement, encourage collaborative learning, and provide access to feedback from a wide audience, such as teachers, peers, experts, and scientists in different learning fields [20,21,22,23]. Indeed. social media platforms have changed the focus of the learning process from the memorization of information to learning how to access information.

The above results illustrate how employing social media platforms by the supervisors compensated for the shortage and gap of real face-to-face interaction and communications with their students during the pandemic, to provide them with the necessary feedback that guide them to improve their academic writing skills while preparing their research proposals. The results also showed the way that learning through social media platforms can achieve the fourth goal of sustainable development [2], during the closure times. This may be mirrored through the equity and accessibility to education and resources, regardless of the place and time limitations among learners. Social media platforms are available on different devices, including smart phones, at low cost that ensures inclusivity by reducing the digital gap between learners who have access to computers and laptops and those who have not. Learning through social media platforms offers lifelong learning that offers opportunities for professional and personal development. Add to that the great chance of communicating globally with experts and specialists to share their writing and thoughts and receive feedback on their work. This can contribute to developing new approaches to their academic writing and improving its quality, in line with the goal of enforcing innovation and creativity in education.

Research Question 2: What are the obstacles to the use of social media platforms that hinder enhancing academic writing?

Analysis of the data from the interviews showed that there are many obstacles that limit the role of social media platforms in enhancing the skills of post-graduate students in academic writing. Five of the participants mentioned that they sometimes encountered some technical problems, such as poor Internet connection, devices failure, hacking and cyber security problems, and the possibility of losing data, documents, recordings, and media due to accidental deletion or failure to keep backup copies of them (Participants # 2, 3, 7, 9, and 10). For instance, Participant 3 explained this issue in some detail, saying “The reliance on internet connectivity and access to digital devices can create technical barriers for students, especially those with limited resources or connectivity issues like me. As I live in a remote city, we suffer from poor internet connectivity that disrupts my access to social media platforms and hinders reaching online resources. You can imagine how disappointing that is”. Participant 7 added “I suffered from device failure once; the hardware malfunctioned. I lost all of my written work, research materials, and all my stuff”. Moreover, Participant 9 expressed his concerns about utilizing social media platforms. He said “I am always worrying about getting hacked on social media platforms so my privacy and security, my written work, and my academic research would be compromised”. The participants also added (Participants # 3, 4, and 9) that most of the use of social media platforms is in written or audio forms, which leads to poor face-to-face communication skills that contain body language and facial gestures, which may negatively affect the understanding of the content of messages, which may be ambiguous to some. This may also affect understanding of the required tasks and modifications. Participant 4 asserted that “I usually use written chat with my supervisor. I missed her facial expressions and her body language a lot. Sometimes I cannot understand her comments”.

Some participants (Participants # 3, 4, and 7) mentioned that relying on social media platforms, which naturally include various media, messages, and notifications from multiple sources, may distract the student from the conversation with the supervisor about the research proposal, and this may also lead to wasting time, especially in the case of waiting for a response from one of the parties. Participant 3, for example, revealed that “The constant distraction and temptation to check social media notifications can interrupt the flow of both the distance meetings with the supervisors and the writing itself. Indeed, these notifications hinder my concentration on academic work”. One of the participants (# 8) stated that “users’ lack of awareness of all the functions and features available in social media platforms may limit their optimal use in serving educational matters”. Finally, one participant (# 5) clarified that the use of these platforms may increase the burden imposed on both the supervisor and the student, as most of these meetings and conversations are made outside official working hours. She said “Unfortunately, both students and supervisors believe that they can communicate at any time, expect immediate responses and constant availability on social media platforms, even during non-working hours. This is really annoying and puts undue pressure on everyone”.

These results are in line with previous studies from the literature [14,35,36,37,38,39,40]. The literature revealed many disadvantages of social media platforms in the educational context. These disadvantages include distraction from educational purposes by unrelated messages and entertainment options available online, a high volume of messages and communication, wasting time when waiting for responses from others, the issues of accuracy of the content, technical problems caused by the Internet’s unstable connection, and the possibility of misunderstanding messages.

Meanwhile, the results differ with the studies of Buriro and Charan [24], Scott et al. [26], Zheng [27], and Woo et al. [34], all of which indicated the effective and influential role of social media platforms in supporting the educational process, such as providing opportunities for immediate communication between students and the teacher, and the flexibility of providing feedback and guidance, regardless of place and time. This helped to increase students’ motivation to sustain learning.

The above finding asserts that using social media platforms in education can be affected by a number of disadvantages. This suggests the necessity of combining the use of traditional face-to-face and online communication based on social media platforms. This could make a balance by benefiting from the advantages of both communication modes and reducing the effect of their disadvantages.

6. Limitation

This study has some limitations. The study shed light on social media platforms in general and does not focus on a specific platform in more detail. Only academic writing skills were emphasized. The study does not investigate other research skills. The sample of the present study was limited to post-graduate students who enrolled in the Master of Educational Technology Program in Education College at in our institution in Saudi Arabia and registered in the second semester of the 2021–2022 academic year to write their thesis. There is no quantitative data or analysis in this research. The data were collected right after the COVID-19 pandemic period; there is a possibility that if that condition was changed, the findings would be different. Therefore, the findings of this study should only be generalized with caution.

7. Conclusions

This study investigated post-graduate students’ perceptions of the use of social media platforms to enhance their academic writing during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study’s findings present the positive role of social media platforms in developing the academic writing of post-graduate students. This role has been reflected in the quality of student research proposals. This could be attributed to the characteristics and benefits of these platforms in terms of ease of communication between students, supervisors, and experts. Moreover, students can receive instant feedback and share resources in different forms. Social media platforms save time and effort and have overcome spatial and temporal barriers. They have enabled students to attend online workshops and helped them to keep records of their files and communication so they could repeatedly review them as needed. These benefits have been, most importantly, illustrated during lockdown periods and have filled the gap that occurred due to the lack of traditional face-to-face meetings.

On the other hand, the study’s findings shed light on the obstacles to using social media platforms that hinder enhancing academic writing. These obstacles included technical problems, poor face-to-face communication skills, distraction caused by other communicators on the platform, which may also lead to wasting time, and the burden of the high volume of messages and communicating outside official working hours.

The results of this study may have some implications regarding the employment of social media platforms to enhance the academic writing skills of students with all the benefits they offer, both during and post the pandemic. As the COVID-19 pandemic forced a rapid shift to online and remote learning, leading to an increased reliance on social media platforms for educational purposes, the study provides evidence of the effectiveness of using social media as a tool for teaching and learning to enhance academic writing skills among postgraduate students that may be sustained to adopt in the post-pandemic era. The study’s findings also highlight how postgraduate students in Saudi Arabia can globally adapt their learning to such a new learning environment facilitated by social media. The findings also illustrate an understanding of the challenges and opportunities presented by social media in remote learning, which can inform the development of effective instructional design and pedagogical approaches for the post-pandemic era. Another significant implication is the digital literacy and competencies gained by postgraduate students during the pandemic, which can guide the design of post-pandemic educational programs that prioritize the integration of technology in general and social media platforms in particular.

The results of the study are also in alignment with the vision of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia 2030, which encourages digital transformation and dependence on technology in all fields, especially the education field. It is keen to provide teachers and students with 21st century skills that are viewed as basics for the labor market in this era [6]. The results of this study are, furthermore, in agreement with the fourth goal of sustainable development by enhancing access to education, inclusivity, global collaboration, lifelong learning, and fostering innovation and creativity. It employs the abilities of technology and connectivity to ensure that quality education is accessible to all, regardless of their circumstances [2]. Examining the findings of this study in the context of Saudi Arabia and other regions can help educational institutions and policymakers devise comprehensive plans to address the changing needs of postgraduate students’ research skills generally. along with their academic writing skills, particularly in the post-COVID era. This can lead to enhanced postgraduate education and align with the wider objectives of providing inclusive and equitable quality education.

Further quantitative and qualitative investigations into this area are essential to fill in the research gaps, such as examining the role of social media platforms in developing other skills, such as research skills, citation skills, proofreading skills, foreign languages skills, etc.