Social Media Networks as Interactive Counselling Platform A National Open University of Nigeria Survey

Abstract

Technology and social conditions are constantly and rapidly changing, thereby making obsolete certain practices that used to be valid not too long ago. Today, we are very easily and instantly connected to each other through e-mail, cell phones, social media sites, and a myriad of such technologies. In the field of education, information technology is fast improving and modifying different aspects of open and distance learning by offering a new set of learning tools with their unique set of characteristics. In the area of support services, counselling is one of the critical learner support services available to students of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) at the Study Centres spread across the length and breadth of the country as it is in every other open and distance learning institution worldwide. With the advent of information technology, there is an increasing need for counsellors to communicate and interact with students beyond the traditional face-to-face medium. Social media networks have continued to evolve rapidly as a technology firmly rooted in time and space; hence the need for counsellors to acquire sufficient expertise to utilise these social media technologies as counselling aids in the face of future developments. With social media sites like Facebook, e-mail, g-mail, Google Talk, Twitter, Skype and blogs, information dissemination to and interactions with students is not only simplified but are also greatly enhanced. In this paper, the attitudes, perceptions, views and opinions of NOUN student counsellors and students on the adoption of social media tools in counselling was examined using a survey questionnaire. Simple percentages and chi-square tests were used in data analysis. Results of the study revealed a lack of the use of social media tools in the act of communication and problem-solving between NOUN student counsellors and students. The results indicated that students' engagement with counsellors through social media tools could be academically rewarding and economically cost effective. The findings further advance the urgent need for NOUN counsellors to integrate the use of social media networks into counselling and other learner support services.