environmental and occupational health students’ attitudes toward social media in online learning during the covid-19 pandemic

Background: individuals engaged in education and health currently during the coronavirus disease 2019 (covid-19) pandemic find it urgent to avail themselves of high-speed communication and information technology.objectives: this survey was conducted to investigate the attitudes of environmental and occupational health students toward social media (sm) use in online learning during the covid-19 pandemic.methods: this was a cross-sectional study which its population consisted of 375 environmentaland occupational health students studying at kerman university of medical sciences, kerman, iran, in the academic year 2020-2021. the present study followed a quantitative design using the social media attitude scale designed by otrar and argin. the data were analyzed using spss software (version 26) and paired t-test.results: the participants were within the age range of 18-46 years, and 64.8% of them were female. instagram was the most popular sm (frequency of use: 40%). twitter (27%), facebook (20%), and linkedin (13%) were placed in the next ranks. the need for sharing (61.4±14.93) was the most preferred dimension of sm. social competence (54.23±5.17), social isolation(51.33±4.43), and relationship with teachers (40.63±9.7) were placed in the next ranks. moreover, there was no significant difference between environmental and occupational health students’ attitudes toward sm (p>0.01).conclusion: medical universities can use sm for educational purposes by designing a forumfor study or helping students with health skills. however, researchers should be aware of healthscience students’ attitudes toward sm before developing such programs.