Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected 91% of the educational institutions globally and forced educational institutions to shut down. The public health crisis has caused issues among international college students, particularly students of Chinese or Asian descent. This chapter focuses on how American colleges and universities responded to this public health crisis, when in-person classroom instruction suddenly became unavailable, forcing instructors and international college students to transition to online/remote learning. Also, the chapter discusses international college students' experience with online learning, and the challenges and opportunities instructors experienced with online teaching in turbulent times. The authors also offer recommendations on ways to improve online teaching and online learning for instructors and international college students.
TopBackground
U.S. colleges and universities have strategically targeted ICS to help with campus diversity initiative and to balance the budget shortfall (Choudaha et al., 2013). U.S. colleges and universities have strived to provide the support and resources ICS need on campus. Unfortunately, the unforeseen COVID-19 pandemic has caused complications and issues in supporting ICS.
U.S. Higher Education Initial Responses to COVID-19
The 2020 COVID-19 outbreak altered many aspects of U.S. higher education (Sahu, 2020; Schleicher, 2020), from admissions, enrollment, student life, collegiate athletics to classroom instruction. This pandemic has precipitated considerable financial instability, both in the form of emergency expenditure and significant reductions in revenue. As the pandemic accelerated in scope starting in March 2020, U.S. higher education institutions faced the dilemma of having to make quick decisions to protect college students’ health, as well as to ensure that college students’ educational pursuits are not hampered significantly during these turbulent times on campus.
When U.S. campuses discontinued in-person instruction in spring 2020, most domestic students could return home immediately except for ICS whose homes were oceans away. Because of the travel restrictions and lack of available international flights, most ICS were neglected by U.S. colleges and universities and ICS had to find their accommodation (Wong, 2020). Some ICS were fortunate to be able to remain on campus, therefore, requiring U.S. colleges and universities to initiate campus-wide policies to ensure ICS safety. Being quarantined on campus not only required adequate housing and dietary accommodations, but also the provision of adequate opportunities for meaningful social interactions on campus. Although depression and other mental health challenges were detected among ICS, compared to domestic students they were also least likely to seek out mental health services for fear of the social stigma attached to mental problems (Eisenberg et al., 2009; Hyun et al., 2007; Mori, 2000).
Key Terms in this Chapter
Synchronous: Instructor will conduct teaching in real time. Instructors and students will log on to the Learning Management System to meet in person.
Racism: A particular group of individuals being discriminated because of the race and ethnicity.
Xenophobia: Discriminate against people from other countries.
Online Teaching: Course instruction that is taught through the use of different Learning Management Systems or learning platforms.
International College Students: Students who were born outside of the U.S. but currently pursuing a college degree at a U.S. college or university on a nonimmigrant visa.
Asynchronous: Learning content has been preset by the instructor using a Learning Management System. Students will learn the content at their own pace without being required to meet with the instructor.
Online Learning: The learning instruction is conducted through the use of different electronic devices. It is also known as remotely learning.