RUAHA CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY

This study examined the role of social media on student identity development in Tanzania higher education. Two research objectives guided the study; firstly, investigating how social media influence learning identities and perception among university students. Secondly, examining how university students perform their academics activities in the context of social media learning space. The Ruaha Catholic University was used as a case study. It is out of this population that a sample of 173 students from three programmes was extracted by using random sampling. Qualitative data collected from semi-structured interview were subjected to thematic analysis, whereas quantitative data collected through open-ended questionnaire were computed and analyzed by using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23.0. After studying the phenomena that were of interest to the study, the results revealed that social media are widely used by students of higher institutions and contribute a significant role to the development of their academic life and therefore shaping their ideas and practice of being the university students. It is recommended that educators, who wish to engage students in an open discussion and expression of ideas in and out of the classroom, should look to social media as the potential educational tools towards learning.

Social Media, Social Networking Sites, Identity, Identity Development