Remote Learning in Higher Education During the Pandemic: A Study of the Experiences of Chinese International Students at United Kingdom and United States Universities in 2020/21

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic crisis, many universities around the world made a drastic change by transferring most of their offline classes to emergency remote learning (ERL). The aim of this study was to explore how Chinese students, who studied in United Kingdom (UK) and United States (US) universities during the 2020/21 academic year, perceive their experiences of remote learning. As the UK and the US have two relatively advanced education systems, the arrangements of their universities for ERL and their support for international students are worth exploring. Moreover, during the ERL, a portion of Chinese students had online classes in their home countries instead of the country in which their universities are located. Therefore, semi-structured interviews were carried out to explore the academic experiences and social interaction of students who studied in UK and US universities, while remaining in China. The data were analyzed using the thematic analysis method. The findings showed that ERL was perceived negatively by students despite its flexibility in areas of academic learning experiences and social interaction.