Using Social Media for Education: A Study on Audience Engagement in Marathi Fora for Competitive Civil Service Exams on Facebook

The transformation of web 1.0 to web 2.0 and the evolution of the internet motivated electronic communication. It encouraged the emergence of social media platforms where digital societies were welcomed by the people at large. With this, the medium of communication witnessed a paradigm shift. As the means of communication changed, it impacted several sectors. One of which is the education sector. The massive usage and availability of the internet in India have opened the doors for online education in India. While accomplishing the goals of informing and entertaining the audience, social media served as a tool for multiple practices. It included marketing, promotion, advertisements, etc. but, along with this, nowadays it is being used prominently as an online educational tool. Social networking sites like Facebook developed features like Facebook Groups/Fora which have been used by people at large for multiple purposes. Similarly, it is being used as an educational tool as well. These educational groups are in multiple languages, including the regional language Marathi. Thus, the researcher aims to understand the emergence of social media sites as an educational platform, audience composition in the form, their engagement in the same, and usage during the pandemic. The study incorporates a triangulation research approach; it employs survey and in-depth interviews as quantitative and qualitative research tools respectively. A survey with 197 respondents was conducted with the survey forms being distributed in English and Marathi languages. The in-depth interviews of admins of Facebook fora for the MPSC exam were conducted to understand their perspectives. The study reveals the emergence of social networking sites as an effective educational platform, especially during the pandemic. The study further is useful to communication researchers to understand how different communication platforms engage the audience for various purposes.