Last modified: 2020-09-15
Abstract
With the rise in remote learning due to the COVID-19 global pandemic, the need to rapidly find viable technology solutions to connect educators and their students is critical. However, the effectiveness of many new technologies is hindered due to externality issues caused by lack of wide scale adoption and glitches inherent in any immature product. In contrast, WeChat - the highly successful Chinese social media app, is a stable, well established, feature rich software platform with an installed base of 1.2 Billion users. It holds great promise to serve as a viable solution for higher education. The goal of this exploratory study is to assess the potential of WeChat, by identifying key features and benefits, and examining actual implementations in educational environments.