Theophilou, EmilySchwarze, VeronicaBörsting, JohannaSánchez Reina, Jesús RobertoScifo, LidiaLomonaco, FrancescoAprin, FarbodOgnibene, DimitriTaibi, DavideHernández Leo, DaviniaEimler, Sabrina2023-06-072023-06-072023Theophilou E, Schwarze V, Börsting J, Sánchez-Reina R, Scifo L, Lomonaco F, Aprin F, Ognibene D, Taibi D, Hernández-Leo D, Eimler S. Empirically investigating virtual learning companions to enhance social media literacy. In: Fulantelli G, Burgos D, Casalino G, Cimitile M, Lo Bosco G, Taibi D, editors. Higher education learning methodologies and technologies online: 4th International Conference, HELMeTO 2022, Palermo, Italy, September 21–23, 2022, revised selected papers; 2022 Sep 21-23; Palermo, Italy. Cham: Springer; 2023. p. 345-60. DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-29800-4_27978-3-031-29799-11865-0929http://hdl.handle.net/10230/57090Comunicació presentada a 4th International Conference on Higher Education Learning Methodologies and Technologies Online, celebrat del 21 al 23 de setembre de 2022 a Palerm, Itàlia.Social media platforms provide opportunities for users across the world to connect and communicate between them and engage into acts of social support and entertainment. Yet it can also bring negative consequences as it has been associated with poor mental health and life dissatisfaction. This underlines the importance of delivering social media literacy (SML) interventions that raise awareness of the dangers and threats that are hidden within. To this date, SML initiatives have shown their benefits towards the acquisition of SML skills through the forms of school interventions and mini-games. However, studies on promoting SML through social media platforms need to be also encouraged and innovative approaches to provide interactive scenarios with hands-on experiences need to be formulated. Hence, the project COURAGE introduces a new approach towards SML by proposing the integration of educational opportunities within a controlled social media platform. To provide students the opportunity to learn whilst they naturally explore social media we propose the integration of virtual learning companions. In this paper we report seven empirical approaches towards SML skills acquisition powered by virtual learning companions. The paper concludes with a discussion towards the benefits and limitations of using this type of SML interventions.application/pdfeng© The Author(s) 2023. This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.info:eu-repo/semantics/conferenceObjecthttp://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-29800-4_27social media literacyvirtual learning companionssocial mediaempirical studiesinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess