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Global Spartan Stories: International Students in the Pandemic
Through different class communications, the presenter collected MSU international students' reflections on their study and life in the pandemic and tries to reveal a glimpse of their remote learning in global contexts through a documentary report. To many international students, studying in the pandemic was just like riding a roller coaster: a great expectation of study abroad at the beginning, then disappointment as it had been changed into online classes, and then excitement again with interesting findings on Zoom class. This, however, was often followed by mid-term exhaustion after a few weeks' struggle with study pressure and time differences. First, online classes offered great convenience and mobility. Many international students could now enjoy a nice family reunion while taking online classes. When attending Zoom lectures, many international students were nervous and worried about their English. Therefore, remote teaching of international students often requires much more patience and understanding.Many students also liked the self-paced learning offered by asynchronous classes. Still, many times the class would be reduced to a routine of watching class videos and finishing follow-up quizzes.In 2020, MSU collaborated with Fudan University in Shanghai to offer some local classes during the pandemic. Though students could only take online classes from Fudan, they still enjoyed some of the classes and different activities/events organized by MSU students' association. In this way, they got to know each other better and became more familiar with MSU courses and culture.To access a PDF of the "Global Spartan Stories: International Students in the Pandemic" poster, click here.Description of the Poster :
Global Spartan Stories: International Students in the Pandemic
Xinqiang Li
Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures
Why MSU
“My father studied at MSU 30 years ago. And surprisingly I’ve been assigned to the same dormitory building as my father’s!” – a student from Korea
“I have many friends studying here and dreamed one day I could see the beautiful snow at MSU. Because of the recent chaos, my parents worried about my future study in the US and tried to persuade me to transfer to Singapore, but I eventually chose MSU for its higher quality of education.” – a student from China
“My older brother studied at MSU and he suggested me apply to this school. He gave me a lot of advice on how to apply for scholarship (from my country) for studying abroad.” – a student from UAE
“I attended high school here in Michigan and really enjoyed the football games at MSU. Actually, it was my American host mother who drove me to campus when I moved in, as she was concerned about my safety in the pandemic.” – a student from China
Taking online classes
Zoom in – Classes on Zoom
First contact – in English
For the very first time Hua (pseudonym) clicked into Zoom class, rehearsing in her mind the self-introduction she previously wrote: “My name is…”. To many international students like Hua, this was their first time to take overseas class online. They were nervous, worried about their English expression and often kept silent until the teacher asked them to answer questions. Luckily, many times the instructors showed patience and understanding to such situation and tried to accommodate the international students in the online space.
Breakout room and groupwork
Groupwork might sometimes be a challenge, too. Coming from different cultural and educational background, many international students might still need time to adapt to different groupwork. There were inspiring conversations in Zoom Breakout rooms, but there were also awkward 15 minutes of silence before the instructor pulled them back to the main room.
On the other hand, there were happy collaborations in online class. International students often found their American classmates “friendly” and “helpful”, offering to input discussion summaries on Google doc. and never hesitating to shout out “Good job!” when their international partners finished their presentations. This was one of the sweetest cultural experiences the international students had enjoyed, even in an online space.
Camera on and off
One of the advantages of Zoom class at MSU is students were allowed to turn off their camera during the class. Such flexibility added more home comfort to the “learning-at-home” format and enhanced the learning effects. More importantly, this way international students would suffer less language difficulties and Zoom fatigue, and concentrate more on the instructor’s English speech. This actually provided one special advantage which could hardly be achieved in a traditional classroom. Admittedly, this might sometimes lead to abuse of the freedom, with students swiping cell phone or sleeping behind the camera. Still, it turned out there were few students drifting away from my class behind the black screens, and I was fine with students taking class in pajamas or drinking coffee behind the camera, if only this could make themselves at home and help to improve their learning.
Zoom inspiration and fatigueThe exciting moment on Zoom was when students from countries, despite the time difference, insisted on participating in the class and sharing their cultures, exchanging different perspectives and building constructive relationship online.
“Every class having a similar format, such as sharing a power-point presentation, and lecturing on the side, has gotten to be quite tiring. From hearing and looking at the same thing every day, I have lost interest in a lot of my classes.”
Zoom out - online classes in general
To many international students, studying in the pandemic was just like riding a roller coaster: a great expectation when getting admitted to MSU, then disappointment as it switched to online class, and then the excitement came back when they met people from different countries online while enjoying home comfort. This, however, was often followed by a mid-term burnout after a few weeks’ struggle with study pressure and time differences.
“After a few weeks, my enthusiasm waned and didn’t care about my class anymore. Since the class was recorded, I can always watch the recordings. That gave me an excuse for not paying attention to the class.”
Time difference
“Due to different time zones, I start my first class at 10 pm. If I have a class at 4 AM, I try to sleep 2 or 3 hours before the first-class starts. I usually set an alarm 15 minutes before the class starts. Waking up, I take some water, and this helps me to stay awake at 4 AM and concentrate on the class.”
“At 3am I woke up all of a sudden, and sadly found I’ve missed the CAS 110 class at 12 am. Then, I fell asleep again…”
Time difference posed many challenges to international students. Luckily, most classes offered the advantage of having class sessions recorded, which is “a useful resource for all students, not just those attending asynchronously” (Gannon). On the other hand, there were also many enthusiastic international students who expected and enjoyed the intimacy of the overseas class and insisted on participating in the synchronous lectures (instead of watching the class recordings) even when it was 3, 4am in their home countries.
Bonuses of online class
Online class offered more convenience and mobility. Now students didn’t have to get up early and wait for the bus in the cold winter morning. Even though they sometimes had to take class late at night, they could at least enjoy the delicious midnight snacks made by their moms. Despite the inconveniences of class time, they could now celebrate different festivals with their families, which was unimaginable when they studied in the US.
“In order to celebrate the Spring Festival with my family, I tried to finish all my homework on New Year’s Eve. Even though I had to leave the dinner party earlier for another online class, I was excited when hearing my American professor greet us with “Happy New Year” in the class.” In the meantime, their friends staying at MSU admired their photos of family reunion and festival celebration. These friends, however, had their own way of celebration, enjoying the spacious hall of the dormitory building, and sometimes cooking together with friends. When they missed home, their moms were always available on video chat asking about their life in the US.
The Fudan program
In 2020, MSU collaborated with different partner schools around the world to offer more classes during the pandemic. The collaboration with Fudan University in Shanghai was one of the major programs. Fudan is a well-known university in China (“it’s just like Stanford University in China”, as one student said) and Shanghai is such a vibrant cosmopolitan city. Therefore, this program had attracted many Chinese students. However, it was a pity that they could not visit the campus of Fudan as the program offered only online classes. Despite the disadvantages, many students still enjoyed some classes, and they could speak Chinese freely in the class, which was an added bonus. Even in Shanghai the MSU students could still participate in different activities/events organized by MSU students’ association, and in this way, they got to know each other better and became more familiar with MSU courses and culture.
Acknowledgments
Thank WRA 1004 classes for their contribution. All the materials come from in-class discussions and writing practices.
References
Gannon, K. (2020, October 26). Advice: Our hyflex experiment: What's worked and what hasn’t.
MSU Alumni Office (2021, April 28). Global Day of Service, Spartans Will!
Global Spartan Stories: International Students in the Pandemic
Xinqiang Li
Writing, Rhetoric and American Cultures
Why MSU
“My father studied at MSU 30 years ago. And surprisingly I’ve been assigned to the same dormitory building as my father’s!” – a student from Korea
“I have many friends studying here and dreamed one day I could see the beautiful snow at MSU. Because of the recent chaos, my parents worried about my future study in the US and tried to persuade me to transfer to Singapore, but I eventually chose MSU for its higher quality of education.” – a student from China
“My older brother studied at MSU and he suggested me apply to this school. He gave me a lot of advice on how to apply for scholarship (from my country) for studying abroad.” – a student from UAE
“I attended high school here in Michigan and really enjoyed the football games at MSU. Actually, it was my American host mother who drove me to campus when I moved in, as she was concerned about my safety in the pandemic.” – a student from China
Taking online classes
Zoom in – Classes on Zoom
First contact – in English
For the very first time Hua (pseudonym) clicked into Zoom class, rehearsing in her mind the self-introduction she previously wrote: “My name is…”. To many international students like Hua, this was their first time to take overseas class online. They were nervous, worried about their English expression and often kept silent until the teacher asked them to answer questions. Luckily, many times the instructors showed patience and understanding to such situation and tried to accommodate the international students in the online space.
Breakout room and groupwork
Groupwork might sometimes be a challenge, too. Coming from different cultural and educational background, many international students might still need time to adapt to different groupwork. There were inspiring conversations in Zoom Breakout rooms, but there were also awkward 15 minutes of silence before the instructor pulled them back to the main room.
On the other hand, there were happy collaborations in online class. International students often found their American classmates “friendly” and “helpful”, offering to input discussion summaries on Google doc. and never hesitating to shout out “Good job!” when their international partners finished their presentations. This was one of the sweetest cultural experiences the international students had enjoyed, even in an online space.
Camera on and off
One of the advantages of Zoom class at MSU is students were allowed to turn off their camera during the class. Such flexibility added more home comfort to the “learning-at-home” format and enhanced the learning effects. More importantly, this way international students would suffer less language difficulties and Zoom fatigue, and concentrate more on the instructor’s English speech. This actually provided one special advantage which could hardly be achieved in a traditional classroom. Admittedly, this might sometimes lead to abuse of the freedom, with students swiping cell phone or sleeping behind the camera. Still, it turned out there were few students drifting away from my class behind the black screens, and I was fine with students taking class in pajamas or drinking coffee behind the camera, if only this could make themselves at home and help to improve their learning.
Zoom inspiration and fatigueThe exciting moment on Zoom was when students from countries, despite the time difference, insisted on participating in the class and sharing their cultures, exchanging different perspectives and building constructive relationship online.
“Every class having a similar format, such as sharing a power-point presentation, and lecturing on the side, has gotten to be quite tiring. From hearing and looking at the same thing every day, I have lost interest in a lot of my classes.”
Zoom out - online classes in general
To many international students, studying in the pandemic was just like riding a roller coaster: a great expectation when getting admitted to MSU, then disappointment as it switched to online class, and then the excitement came back when they met people from different countries online while enjoying home comfort. This, however, was often followed by a mid-term burnout after a few weeks’ struggle with study pressure and time differences.
“After a few weeks, my enthusiasm waned and didn’t care about my class anymore. Since the class was recorded, I can always watch the recordings. That gave me an excuse for not paying attention to the class.”
Time difference
“Due to different time zones, I start my first class at 10 pm. If I have a class at 4 AM, I try to sleep 2 or 3 hours before the first-class starts. I usually set an alarm 15 minutes before the class starts. Waking up, I take some water, and this helps me to stay awake at 4 AM and concentrate on the class.”
“At 3am I woke up all of a sudden, and sadly found I’ve missed the CAS 110 class at 12 am. Then, I fell asleep again…”
Time difference posed many challenges to international students. Luckily, most classes offered the advantage of having class sessions recorded, which is “a useful resource for all students, not just those attending asynchronously” (Gannon). On the other hand, there were also many enthusiastic international students who expected and enjoyed the intimacy of the overseas class and insisted on participating in the synchronous lectures (instead of watching the class recordings) even when it was 3, 4am in their home countries.
Bonuses of online class
Online class offered more convenience and mobility. Now students didn’t have to get up early and wait for the bus in the cold winter morning. Even though they sometimes had to take class late at night, they could at least enjoy the delicious midnight snacks made by their moms. Despite the inconveniences of class time, they could now celebrate different festivals with their families, which was unimaginable when they studied in the US.
“In order to celebrate the Spring Festival with my family, I tried to finish all my homework on New Year’s Eve. Even though I had to leave the dinner party earlier for another online class, I was excited when hearing my American professor greet us with “Happy New Year” in the class.” In the meantime, their friends staying at MSU admired their photos of family reunion and festival celebration. These friends, however, had their own way of celebration, enjoying the spacious hall of the dormitory building, and sometimes cooking together with friends. When they missed home, their moms were always available on video chat asking about their life in the US.
The Fudan program
In 2020, MSU collaborated with different partner schools around the world to offer more classes during the pandemic. The collaboration with Fudan University in Shanghai was one of the major programs. Fudan is a well-known university in China (“it’s just like Stanford University in China”, as one student said) and Shanghai is such a vibrant cosmopolitan city. Therefore, this program had attracted many Chinese students. However, it was a pity that they could not visit the campus of Fudan as the program offered only online classes. Despite the disadvantages, many students still enjoyed some classes, and they could speak Chinese freely in the class, which was an added bonus. Even in Shanghai the MSU students could still participate in different activities/events organized by MSU students’ association, and in this way, they got to know each other better and became more familiar with MSU courses and culture.
Acknowledgments
Thank WRA 1004 classes for their contribution. All the materials come from in-class discussions and writing practices.
References
Gannon, K. (2020, October 26). Advice: Our hyflex experiment: What's worked and what hasn’t.
MSU Alumni Office (2021, April 28). Global Day of Service, Spartans Will!
Authored by:
Xinqiang Li
Posted on: #iteachmsu
Global Spartan Stories: International Students in the Pandemic
Through different class communications, the presenter collected MSU...
Authored by:
NAVIGATING CONTEXT
Monday, May 3, 2021