Students’ digital literacy skills for learning in selected Tanzania’s public universities

Abstract

This paper explored the level of Digital Literacy (DL) skills for learning among students in two selected public universities in Tanzania. Case study design was used to compare University of Dar es Salaam-UDSM and Sokoine University of Agriculture-SUA as two cases purposively selected. Multi-stage sampling technique was used to select a total of 646 students where 325 students were from UDSM and 321 from SUA. The collected data were analysed using a combination of qualitative and descriptive approaches. The findings show that, students in the selected universities have some deficiencies in digital literacy skills for learning. Further, a slight variation exists between students of different programmes, indicating that, all students are predisposed to similar conditions for DL skills acquisition. Gender-wise, the paper indicates a closing gender gap in terms of technology acceptance and DL skills between male and female students. Furthermore, students in lower classes manifested higher skills compared to majority in higher classes on certain DL dimensions, suggesting that, one’s advancement to higher academic year does not necessarily translate into increased DL skills. This article recommends the need for a systemic and coordinated support to promote skills that enable students’ learning with ICT tools and internet.