2 Reflecting on your student identity

Belonging sometimes comes about as a part of having a shared social identity. Developing your student identity can be particularly challenging for those not studying on campus with other students.

Regardless of how you study, a sense of student identity is important for developing positive attitudes towards your studies. It increases commitment and can increase your sense of satisfaction. It can help you remember why you aspired to study and helps you finish your qualification. This is because social identity influences our attitudes and behaviour.

Your social media use is a very important contributor to developing your identity as a student. Your student identity in social media can take several different forms. For example, you may be part of groups that develop your professional identity, discipline identity, cohort identity and course identity.

In this activity you will reflect upon how important you consider it is to feel like you are part of a university community.

Activity 1 Reflecting upon your sense of student identity

Timing: 10 minutes

Do you already feel like you have a strong sense of your own student identity? Consider how you currently feel about your student identity and consider how social media currently contributes to that. Also consider those areas you would like to develop in the future.

Ask yourself are you part of groups that develop your:

• identity as a student at your particular institution
• professional identity
• discipline identity
• cohort identity (those who are studying at the same pace as you/likely to graduate at the same time)
• course identity (those who are on the same modules or qualification as you).

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Figure 2 (interactive) Mind mapping

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An interactive clickable figure. One circle in the centre, labelled Your student identity. Then clockwise, the following labels coming from the centre: institutional, professional identity, discipline identity, cohort identity, course identity.

Figure 2 (interactive) Mind mapping

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In this activity you should have reflected on your sense of student identity and identified areas that could be developed. Note that this sense of identity develops over time, it may be something that comes naturally to you, however, for some students it involves more active decision making and engagement in groups that may be outside of your initial comfort zone.

Different students also have different aspirations and needs. This is to be expected and you should consider your personal study goals when deciding which activities best suit your needs.

In the next section you will learn more about how you can use social media to improve those areas you have identified as being lacking.