The Impact of Online Learning on International Students' Studies Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic During the 2020 Spring Semester: A Case Study of Southwest University

Abstract

Toward the end of 2019 and since the beginning of 2020, there has been a worldwide collapse of the pandemic disease called covid-19 that caused a complete shutdown in several countries. As a result, schools, universities and other institutions of higher learning were forced to close. The only way learning could take place was through online learning. Unplanned online learning brought uncertainty among institutions, educators and learners which needs to be examined. The purpose of this case study was therefore to explore how online learning during the COVID-19 period influenced SWU international students’ studies, and to understand the attitude of these international students toward online learning during the covid-19 period and finally finding out strategies that SWU international students used to tackle the challenges they encountered through online learning. Semi-structured interviews were conducted among twelve international students offering different online courses. Researchers used content analysis to help them arrive at findings and conclusions. Results from the research showed that poor network connectivity, limited class participations were among the strongest themes to address the first research question. Passion for learning and apathy of online learning were among the themes under students’ attitude. Strategies used to cope up with the challenges faced included prior class preparations and seeking better internet connectivity showed up.