The Role Of Video-Centric Social Media As A Contemporary Educational Tool For Hotel Management Programs.

Abstract

With the ever changing ICT facilities, the tools used in educational system are changing rapidly. The pandemic has hastened the fast changing face of the education as all the educational activities have resorted to online methods. Some of these institutes have created their own video channels on various social media platforms supporting video telecasts. All the social media platforms which support video telecasting in some way or other are termed as Video-Centric Social Media (VCSM) in this research paper. YouTube, Facebook-live, Instagram-Live are the examples of VCSM. This study tries to find out whether these VCSM platforms can become an educational tool for Hotel Management. It also tries to find out which core subjects of the Hotel Management can utilise these platform as teaching pedagogy. Hotel management program has always been a skill and practical oriented program. The core subjects namely Food Production, Food & Beverage Service, Front Office & Housekeeping are basic subjects allied with four core departments of Hotels and Restaurants are practical oriented. Since the institutes are closed since lockdown to tackle COVID-19, the theory subjects are been taught through online resources. The main problem is with these core subjects which also include a major chunk of practicals. This paper tries to check whether VCSM platforms can be used to teach the practicality of the subjects and if yes then which are the subjects can be taught with the help of these platforms. The data will be gathered though a structured questionnaire developed for students to check the viability of the learning though these platforms. Formal interviews will also be conducted to check the preference of the faculty. The research will be helpful to develop different teaching pedagogy for subjects where VCSM can be used as a teaching tool.