Social Networks Competency in Education Among Working Civil Engineering Students.

The most recent widely used web-based platforms for user interaction and communication are social networking sites (SNSs). After 2019 and as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, SNSs are becoming heavily utilized in schools and universities by teachers and professors to allow for assisting, motivating, and supporting pupils by organizing groups on several applications, such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Telegram, etc., or using other tools like Microsoft Teams, Google Meet, Zoom, etc. Despite the fact that there are numerous publications about the use of SNSs in education, studies about the competency of utilizing SNSs in the teaching of working civil engineering students are scarce in the relevant literature. Thus, the purpose of this article is to examine the competency of several SNS usage categories, such as online discussion, knowledge creation, information sharing, and chatting, among working civil engineering students who are in desperate need of prompt sources of information due to their work commitments. The usefulness of employing SNSs in education is also evaluated in this study based on the viewpoints of multiple civil engineering instructors as a result of their observations of the students' performance. It is anticipated that the outcomes of this paper will be useful in education for researchers and instructors. The authors found that the key factor for effective utilization of the SNSs in civil engineering education is the engagement between the instructor and students, which will lead to the development of mutual understanding and trust needed for students' success.