Abstract

The emergence and expansion of technology in education ushered in serious challenges to learner support services in open and distance learning institutions. As a result, learner support service providers like counsellors go into online or virtual counselling, using social media platforms in order to reach their numerous students in various geographical areas. One of the critical areas of virtual counselling in open and distance learning institutions is the academic counselling. This study examined students’ exposure to social media platforms for academic counselling inopen and distance learning institutions in Nigeria. The study employed the simple survey research design using the students of the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN), which is a macrocosm of Nigeria with 78 study centres located across all the geopolitical zones of the country. Six hundred and twenty (620) students, 298 males and 322 females from five study centres in Lagos and Enugu were randomly selected for the study. An instrument entitled Social Media Accessibility Inventory (SMAI) was developed and validated for data collection. Four research questions and one hypothesis guided the study. The study revealed that open and distance learning students have access to limited platforms of social media with various challenges and implications for academic counselling. Among other things, it is the recommendation of the study that students in open and distance learning institutions should be exposed to several platforms of social media due to the virtual nature of their programmes and work demands in order to achieve their academic goals.