Join Clayton Smith and George Zhou in their webinar on Wednesday, February 2, 2022 to discuss their chapter in Taking Stock 2.0.
With the current global pandemic, online learning has become the new norm for most students across the word. This has proven difficult for international students who face academic challenges (such as language difficulties, culturally-related learning differences, and academic support issues) and non-academic threats (such as cultural differences, isolation, relating to and identifying with the campus community, social issues, and finances). This chapter explores the connection between the promising practices for teaching linguistically and culturally diverse international students online, as well as individual instructor characteristics that best promote their learning, and student satisfaction and perceptions of learning. Researchers found that there are teaching practices that altered student satisfaction and student perceptions of learning, such as emphasizing communication, fostering a sense of belonging, and clarifying marking schemes. They also found that individual instructor characteristics preferred by online international students, included calling on students by name, using humor and jokes, and being understanding of the current global situation. Taken together, emphasizing these teaching practices and instructor characteristics could lead to enhanced international student experiences.
