Continuing higher education through the social media-based community of inquiry during the crisis: evidence from Turkey and Pakistan

This study aimed to find out the social presence, teaching presence, and cognitive presence of higher education students in social media environments in developing countries such as Turkey and Pakistan during the pandemic crisis. We adopted a survey approach to collect data from higher education students in Turkey (n = 350) and Pakistan (n = 350). Consistent multiple group analysis (cMGA) analyzed that there was no difference between Turkish and Pakistani students' presence in the social media-based community of inquiry during the COVID-19 crisis. While a consistent partial least square structural equation modelling found that social presence mediates between teaching presence and cognitive presence. It shows that teaching presence is an important factor to maintain a social presence and ultimately brings a cognitive involvement of the students in social media environments during the crisis to continue higher education. This study has implications for higher education instructional designers to continue education during the crisis.