The COVID-19 pandemic has brought unprecedented challenges to the world of education, when lockdown had to be implemented to reduce the spread of the virus. Institutions of learning had to have teaching and learning taking place forcing them to quickly adapt to online learning (virtual learning). Social media played a vital role in enabling educators to connect with students, facilitate discussions, and share resources. Many research papers have been written about the use of social media in education during this period in an adhoc manner. At the moment there is very little or no survey research papers on how social media has been used in e-learning during the pandemic period of COVID19. Therefore, this paper endeavors to explore on how social media has been used in e-learning. The research papers on social media in education written during COVID-19 pandemic were used in this paper. The benefits, challenges and open issues are highlighted. Social media proved to be the main stone of virtual learning during the pandemic. It was observed that the benefits out-weight the challenges and open issues of social media in education.

Keywords: social media, students; educators, education; learning management system; institutions; Facebook; twitter; Instagram; YouTube; blogs; wikis