International Journal of

ADVANCED AND APPLIED SCIENCES

EISSN: 2313-3724, Print ISSN: 2313-626X

Frequency: 12
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 Volume 10, Issue 12 (December 2023), Pages: 87-99

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 Original Research Paper

Ecological perspectives on virtual community engagement among university students during and after COVID-19

 Author(s): 

 Ahmed A. Ahmed 1, 2, Safaa A. Farghly 1, 3, Takwa S. Bekhit 1, 4, Abdelwahab D. Ahmed 1, 5, Mervat G. Shamrokh 1, 6, *

 Affiliation(s):

 1Department of Social Sciences, College of Arts, University of Hail, Hail, Saudi Arabia
 2Department of Working with Individuals and Families, Faculty of Social Work, Helwan University, Helwan, Egypt
 3Department of Working with Groups, Faculty of Social Work, Helwan University, Helwan, Egypt
 4Lecturer at Sociology Department Faculty of Arts, Assuit University, Assuit, Egypt
 5Department of History, Faculty of Arts, University of Khartoum, Khartoum, Sudan
 6Department of Working with Communities and Organizations Department, Faculty of Social Work, Helwan University, Helwan, Egypt

 Full text

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 * Corresponding Author. 

  Corresponding author's ORCID profile: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8795-9550

 Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

 https://doi.org/10.21833/ijaas.2023.12.011

 Abstract

This research, conducted at Hail University, explores how university students interact with online communities during and after the COVID-19 pandemic using an ecological perspective. It aims to understand the increased role of these platforms in education and socialization during the pandemic. The study focuses on examining students' views, activities, and motivations in online interactions. A detailed electronic questionnaire was used to investigate students' understanding, use, and application of online communities. It also looked at ecological methods to improve involvement, such as increasing awareness, assessing risks, providing support, and tackling challenges in online communities. Various methods, including content analysis, surveys, case studies, and detailed interviews, were used to test these approaches. The results show that students frequently use online communities, with no significant differences in use based on gender, field of study, or academic level. The research highlights the importance for educational institutions to adopt these findings and methods to create an effective online community environment that supports students' overall growth and academic success. This study is unique in its ecological approach and offers new insights into student engagement in virtual communities.

 © 2023 The Authors. Published by IASE.

 This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

 Keywords

 Virtual communities, Ecological perspective, Student engagement, COVID-19, Digital interaction

 Article history

 Received 26 July 2023, Received in revised form 13 November 2023, Accepted 25 November 2023

 Acknowledgment 

This research has been funded by the Scientific Research Deanship at the University of Ha'il-Saudi Arabia through project number RG -20 198.

 Compliance with ethical standards

 Conflict of interest: The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

 Citation:

 Ahmed AA, Farghly SA, Bekhit TS, Ahmed AD, and Shamrokh MG (2023). Ecological perspectives on virtual community engagement among university students during and after COVID-19. International Journal of Advanced and Applied Sciences, 10(12): 87-99

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 Tables

 Table 1 Table 2 Table 3 Table 4 Table 5 Table 6 Table 7 Table 8 Table 9 Table 10

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