A comparison of attitudes toward remote learning during the COVID-19 pandemic between students attending a Chinese and an Australian campus

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a strong driver for moving more teaching and learning activities online. Border restrictions have had a severe impact on international students either hoping to enrol in courses offered in Australia or continue with such courses if they are already enrolled. The online learning experience is likely different between students onshore and offshore. This study took a unique opportunity to investigate any such differences in students' attitudes towards remote learning, necessitated by the pandemic, by comparing two cohorts of students, Australia- vs. China-based. The preferences of students based in Australia as to remote learning were commonly about the convenience of attendance and availability of the video recordings, whereas the latter was not considered likely were the classes delivered face-to-face instead. However, students in China had a strong preference for face-to-face sessions, with the lack of prior experience in an English-speaking learning environment and hesitance to speak with the lecturers and engage in the learning activities possible reasons for this. In quizzes, students in Australia performed better than those in China regardless of local or international student status. This difference may be due to the Australian-based students' prior experience of English-speaking environments and open-book quizzes. In conclusion, remote learning in a familiar language and learning environment is accepted by students, whereas if the teaching is delivered in a second language using unfamiliar teaching methods, remote learning will require additional scaffolding to enhance their learning experience

Students’ Preferences and Perceptions Regarding Online versus Offline Teaching and Learning Post-COVID-19 Lockdown

“…That could be a reason for lack of excitement after the reopening of the college. In our study, almost 70% of students liked online teaching and learning; these findings were consistent with another study demonstrating that 75% of Australian students preferred recorded zoom lectures and more than half of Australian students did not want face-to-face interaction during their learning [34]. In another study conducted in Italy, students were also satisfied with distant leaning [35].…”

Remote Education during the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Opinion of Students

“…For example, differences in students' perceptions of different forms of teaching in different countries may also be due to cultural differences, especially perceptions of the role of the teacher. What seems to be crucial at this point is the dimension of culture according to Hofstede (PDI) referred to as power distance (Chen et al, 2022;Hofstede, 2011). However, according to research results, in non-typical situations (like remote classes), women were significantly more likely to experience severe anxiety than men (Gewalt et al, 2022;Wahid et al, 2023).…”

“…Due to the lack of preparation and the temporary nature of the solutions applied, many authors started to use the term of remote education during the pandemic period (Depoo et al, 2022;Król and Zawicki, 2022). Before the pandemic, this form of teaching in tertiary education was perceived as a solution reducing costs and increasing the number of students who were not restricted by the distance to the campus (Chen et al, 2022).…”

A Systematic Review of Chinese Students’ Online Learning Experience in Higher Education

“…In such a climate, a small group of researchers have investigated Chinese students' OL experiences (e.g. Chen et al, 2022). Nevertheless, there is a lack of in-depth understanding of Chinese students in online distance learning contexts, corresponding to the relatively short history of online distance education in China.…”