As a result of the COVID-19 epidemic, most educational institutions shifted to online education. Students and faculty members in many public institutions, particularly those in developing countries, are hampered by the absence of formal online learning management systems. Responding to COVID-19, many institutions in developing countries adopted social media sites to maintain e-learning and sustain education process. The distinction between online and real-world communities is becoming increasingly narrow, especially among the younger generations who have grown up with social media at their fingertips. This research explores perspectives of higher education students in India regarding the use of social media for e-learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic. For this purpose, an online questionnaire was directed to a sample of higher education students in India via a personal network. The results showed that students were more satisfied with their use of social media because of their perceptions of its ease of use and usefulness. The majority of the students are active on social media for 1–2 h daily (p < 0.01). YouTube was the platform of choice among all the respondents (n = 154; 36%). The results confirmed that students feel that social media websites have a significant positive impact on their overall academic performance (p < 0.01). Novel methods of teaching and learning are constantly being sought out by educators. The present moment is an opportunity to examine and analyze the theoretical benefits of social media technologies and consider their relative advantages for education through the use of technology’s ability to enhance student learning.

No abstract

PurposeOpen access is a new scholarly publishing model that has appeared in place of the commercial publishing model. The aim of this study was to investigate the level of awareness, use and attitudes of the Indian students in higher educational institutions about scholarly open access.Design/methodology/approachSurvey method was used in the study. The sample population of the study was 212 Indian students belonging to different higher educational institutions in India.FindingsThe results of the study reveal a gloomy picture about the open access (OA) awareness and use among Indian students. Unfamiliarity with the OA journals and high publication fee were the main obstacles for the students not to publish in OA journals. However, a majority of the students reported their willingness to publish in OA journals in future if the obstacles are removed. A very meager ratio of the respondents had published in OA journals so far. In addition, motivational factors for publishing in OA journals were also taken into consideration, and respondent's indicated winning research grants, great impact and higher citations as main factors to publish in OA journals.Research limitations/implicationsThis study is geographically limited to the students of the higher educational institutions located in India.Practical implicationsThis study will help to understand the involvement and behavior of the Indian students toward scholarly open access. The study will also guide what measures need to be taken in the take up of open access movement.Originality/valueInstitutional repositories appeared to be relatively a novel term for the respondents, and in order to get the citation advantages and higher visibility, librarians can make an effort to persuade students to publish their research work in open access journals and institutional/subject repositories. The study recommends that institutions need to take appropriate measures to inform students about the importance and overall benefits associated with using of OA platforms in their scholarly work.