Ownership and Uses of Smart Phones in Accessing Online Materials by University Students: A Comprehensive Study From Moshi Co-operative University

Abstract

Smart phones are becoming important devices of many people in their daily life. The University students are among the groups of people who circumstantial evidence shows that they own and use Smart phones in their daily life. But it is not known to what extent the students of Moshi Co-operative University (MoCU) own and uses these smart phones in accessing online materials. So this paper was aimed at answering these two questions which are: To what extent the students of MoCU own smart phones and to what extent they use these smart phones in accessing online materials. To accomplish this, the study took a sample of 348 students as a representative sample out of MoCU 3670 students. The sample included students from degree, diploma and certificate. Since these were not homogenous, the study employed stratified random sampling to get the sample. The representative students were studied and findings show that 85.6% of all students at MoCU own Smart phones. In uses of smart phones towards accessing online materials, the study revealed that, the students mainly use smart phones in surfing online, downloading tutorial videos, watching online tutorial videos, sharing learning materials on WhatsApp and accessing examination results on Moshi University Students Admission and Registration Information System (MUSARIS) to mention just a few.