How international students taking online master’s degree courses engage with their learning environments: a case study of a UK university

• In Event: Digital Learning in Higher Education: Examining Environments, Engagement, and Empowerment

Proposal

Online education has undergone expansion for decades, and the number of international students who take online courses at foreign university is increasing. For instance, in the UK, the number of online international students in UK HEIs has increased by approximately 17% from 2018/19 to 2022/23 (Higher Education Statistics Agency, 2024). Such phenomenon could be explained and discussed from the perspectives of the internationalisation of higher education, particularly internationalisation at a distance (IaD), which focuses on the forms of education across borders where students and the education provider are separated geographically (Mittelmeier et al., 2021). In other words, under the concepts of IaD, what travels across borders is not the students but knowledge (Yue et al., 2023). IaD blurs the traditional division of ‘home’ and ‘host’, offers a useful and effective approach to internationalisation supported by technology, and provides opportunities for a more inclusive approach to international higher education as students can benefit from higher education provided by foreign institutions while physically being ‘at home’.

Apart from a degree or certificate, universities promote that their online courses can provide students with the flexibility of combining learning with other live commitments, grant them access to digital resources, and help them develop global connections and international networks. However, research that captures IaD students’ experiences is still limited, and it is unclear if those promoted aims have been achieved from students’ perspectives.
The first step in understanding IaD students’ experience is to understand how they engage with their learning environment, as environments can be key in influencing their experience. Considering these IaD students are mainly learning in the virtual host environments while being affected and influenced by their physical home environments, the modified version of Urie Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological systems theory, which reflects the impact of both physical/virtual world and home/host environments (Huang et al., 2024), is used as the primary analytic framework in this paper. By evaluating students’ environments through the lens of different ‘systems’, the understanding of individual’s environments and tracking the changes during their studies become possible.

Through the lens of revised bioecological systems theory, this paper is guided by two primary research questions:
1. How do IaD international students perceive their learning environments?
2. How do IaD international students engage with their learning environments?

All my participants were taking education-related degree programmes at the postgraduate taught (master’s) level. The data was collected and analysed in two stages:
Stage 1: Semi-structured interviews were conducted in summer 2022, with international students who: (i) took online courses for one year, (ii) took online courses for one semester, and took onsite courses for the other semester. This stage provides an insight into IaD students’ learning environments, with comparison power of understanding the similarities and differences of environments of online and onsite students from students who experienced both learning modes. Thematic analysis was used to provide an overview of IaD students’ learning environments.
Stage 2: Monthly diary entries from online international students reflecting their learning and life were collected, and follow-up semi-structured interviews were conducted every 4 months to further unpack their experiences throughout the academic year 2022/23. This stage provides an in-depth understanding of online international students’ perceived environments, with the power of tracking changes and developments. At this stage, interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was used to understand how the students make sense of their experiences and environments in detail.

Gaps between students’ expected experiences and their actual experiences were demonstrated, and the promoted benefits of online courses were not fully met. Participants believed that the online degree programme made education from a ‘prestigious UK university’ affordable and approachable, but current provisions may not be ideal as students all experienced difficult and struggling times.

Firstly, all participants reflected on their interpersonal relationships, and they believed the online relationships they developed are fragile, and ‘global connections and networks’ may not be established after they complete their programme. Unlike how they would build connections in face-to-face settings, their communications were limited to their studies, and participants felt it hard to recognise their online peers as part of their social circles. Although some close relationships were developed at later stages of their studies, particularly after some group work and more in-depth online conversations, these relationships were hard to maintain.

Secondly, although IaD students could integrate their learning into their daily commitment, it was difficult for students to properly balance their study, work and life. For example, as my participants were practitioners in education settings, their work vibe were similar to the course-providing university, and these caused added stress to both work and learning. Also, as these students were living with their families, the unexpected family duties affected their learning more than they expected.

Thirdly, although technology supports IaD students' learning, challenges may be caused by the use of technology. For example, some students had difficulties accessing YouTube when some videos were part of teaching materials, and some students experienced unstable internet connection when having synchronous sessions on Zoom.

There are ways that universities could do to enhance these IaD students’ experiences and make online learning more inclusive. For example, universities could design courses more practically, requiring students to bring their work into the tasks, so that potential connections beyond academic studies can be built. For these online courses, the potential of asynchronous learning should be addressed properly, and IaD students should be provided with more flexibility in the forms or deadlines of assessments, so that they can manage better in balancing their live commitments and learning. Furthermore, potential technological challenges should be considered when designing the course, so that the courses can be more approachable and effective.

Author

• Daian Huang, The University of Manchester