The outbreak of COVID-19 was pronounced a global pandemic in March 2020, forcing the physical closure of many schools and universities worldwide. This resulted in the need for a rapid transition from face-to-face teaching to online learning formats in order to prevent significant educational disruption (O'Brien et al., 2020). Whilst the use of digital and social media had to this point already been utilised for formal and informal learning by individuals, as well as education institutions (Greenhow and Lewin, 2016), the sudden rupture of the re-dominant, physical learning context promoted digital media and social to become key players, central and vital to the continuation of education during the COVID-19 pandemic (Sahu, 2020).

The sudden need to develop new approaches to teaching and learning presented learners and teachers with an unforeseen, and frequently also undesired challenges to learning and teaching. This significant transition to an unfamiliar mode of learning was also contextualised in unvoluntary changes to living circumstance, which put many learners into contexts of relative social isolation from their peers, and making the use of social and digital media the primary source of social contact, as well as providing connectivity for academic learnng and collaboration with peers and also their academic teachers/tutors.

Similarly, academics also faced significant challenges to adapt their teaching to these unexpected circumstances, posing challenges to their subject knowledge make ups, and in particualr to those areas that Koehler and Mishra (2009) identified in their work as technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPAK).

In their work on the use of social and digital media and their potential to facilitate learning,  Greenhow and Lewin (2016) draw on theoretical concepts of social constructivism and connectivism as promising lenses through which to conceptualise the nature of such learning. The authors consider in particular how the engagement with social media can produce expected, as well as unexpected learning outcomes of varying degrees and occurrences of formality and informality. Both concepts, and in particular the concept of connectivism, provided useful framework that underpinned the interpretation of students' lived experiences and the higher level themes, factors, reasons and feelings that were inherently expressed through these.

Whilst there is clearly existing research into the effectiveness of online learning, as well as an emerging body of research into the use of digital and social media as instruments for informal, as well as formal learning the cirumstances surrounding the academic year of 2020/20 can be truly seen to be unique, and worthy of investigation.

It was therefore the aim of this study to investigate the learning experiences of students who studied during their final year of Higher Education Sports Science courses, and to gain a picture of their respective learning experiences during the COVID19 pandemic.

The over-arching research questions explored in this context were the following:

• What were the key factors influencing the learning, and also the living experiences of students during the COVID19 pandemic?
• What was the role of digital and social media in this?
• What was the impact of the variety of approaches to teaching on the respective learning experiences of students? 

It was hoped that exploring the questions above might make a valuable contribution to exploring the lived experiences of students during this challenging period of time and also discussing the quesstion what, if anything, may be learnt from this for future practice of teaching and learning in Higher Education from this.

A qualititive and largely interpretative approach was used as the principal underlying methdological approach to this study. In total, 14 final year students (50% males and 50% females, age range 20-26) studying at a UK University on programmes related to the area of Sport, Exercise and Rehabilitation Sciences, participated in this study. Of the 14 interviewees, 7 (50%) were Sport and Exercise Sciences students, 4 (28.57%) were Physiotherapy students and 3 (21.43%) were Sport, PE and Coaching Science students. With 12 (85.71%) of the participants being undergraduate students and 2 (14.29%) being masters students. In this sample there was also a geographical spread with, 6 students from England, 4 from Hong Kong, 2 from Wales, 1 from Singapore and 1 from Taiwan. At the time, all students were studying their programmes online, using digital and social media a a principle way of study. Semi-structured, small focus group interviews were the principal method of data collection. These were conducted online using the recording and transcription functionality of zoom, with any transcription errors subsequently corrected during the early stages of engaging with the data anlaysis process. Data analysis was largely inductive and guided by the principles of constant comparative method (Charmaz, 2006), employing a two-stage approach to coding (initial coding and focused coding). As initial themes and sub-themes emerged from the narratives, an initial coding framework was devised and subsequently refined via a process of re-examination and also cross-validation between different focus group data. A limitation of this study is the relatively small sample size here. However, given the qualitative approach to this study and the relative depth and richness of the data, this experiences reflected upon by the participants of this study provide a valuable contribution to the body of knowledge in this, so far sparesly investigate field of study.

The findings of this study confirmed the central role that social and digital media assumed as a medium for learning during the period of university closures and forced social isolation. It also brought to the fore the fluidity that characterised the 'boundaries' between formal and informal learning. In line with Greenhow and Lewin's (2016) observations on this fluidity of informal and formal learning, as well as the importance of connections and connectivity were significant findings of this study. Both, the social media more readily associated with informal learning, as well as the digital media associated with more formal learning, fulfilled hybrid and interconnected functions as part of students learning and social experiences. For instance, social media more readily associated with informal and social activities such as Youtube, Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook, frequently organised and utilised by students in independently organised interest groups provided invaluable 'connectivity' and support to those who had membership and ownership in these. However, they were also used as means to facilitate collaborative learning and provide useful platforms to solve formal learning challenges. Vice versa, more formal and functional media used by the University to organise formal learning, such as Zoom and Mircrosoft Teams were not only used by students to participate in organised and indepedent learning, but also as means for socialising and fostering social connections, thus constituting hybridised engagement with these media driven through the initiative and engagement of learners with these. The more formal engagement with synchronous and asynchronous learning, led by academic staff as part of the core learning of the programmes was perceived in a variety of ways by students. Whilst much (not all) of the synchronous learning was seen to be engaging, asynchronous learning was received more critically, with boredom and overload being two significant reasons for disengagement.

Greenhow, C., & Lewin, C. (2016). Social media and education: Reconceptualizing the boundaries of formal and informal learning. Learning, media and technology, 41(1), 6-30. Koehler, M., & Mishra, P. (2009). What is technological pedagogical content knowledge (TPACK)?. Contemporary issues in technology and teacher education, 9(1), 60-70. O’Brien, W., Adamakis, M., O’Brien, N., Onofre, M., Martins, J., Dania, A., ... & Costa, J. (2020). Implications for european physical education teacher education during the COVID-19 pandemic: a cross-institutional SWOT analysis. European Journal of Teacher Education, 43(4), 503-522. Sahu, P. (2020). Closure of universities due to coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19): impact on education and mental health of students and academic staff. Cureus, 12(4).