EDUCATION ON SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS AS LEARNING AND DEVELOPING RESOURCE.

Formal and informal education through social media platforms is an important source of knowledge. They are accessible to any user, require limited mobility, and provide enormous learning opportunities. Online learning through social media after the COVID-19 pandemic is more available, accessible, and possible to the diverse learner population globally. In 2022, women are more open for education and have increased use of social media for different educational opportunities, both formal and informal, but there is still gender bias and inequality in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) fields and the digital sector (e.g., digital technologies, Computer Science, Information Technology, Information and Communication Technology, Artificial Intelligence, cybersecurity). The main objective of the research was to examine the role of available social platforms in educational and learning purposes for young women in Serbia. The research targeted young women, aged 18-32, actively participating and educating at the University of Kragujevac and the University of Priština, with temporary head office in Kosovska Mitrovica, in the Republic of Serbia. Data was collected through implementation of five focus groups, with 40 respondents. The method used for the research is both qualitative and quantitative. The research contained several different categories: educational and learning purposes of social media platforms, networking between scientific workers, presentation of new scientific achievements and information sharing between scientific workers and the wider public, and practical implementation of the skills learned through social media platforms. Collected data was processed qualitatively in the MAXQDA program and quantitatively in the SPSS program. Results showed that women do not only empower themselves enough with the exploration of online resources but also others when they teach online, actively share information on social media, but less participate in online discussion forums. On the other side, research showed the gap in communication between the scientific workers and the wider media as well as the lack of modern and innovative networking mechanisms. Those findings will encourage academic and scientific workers to support and use social media to outreach and dissemination the data and use them in the developing, networking, and learning context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]