Factors influencing college students’ willingness to continue learning in internationalization at home

Abstract

In recent years, due to the impact of COVID-19 and the continuous improvement of the internationalization level of university education, students’ demand for internationalized learning has been increasing, and Internationalization at Home (IaH), has become a topic of concern. However, internationalization learning is a long-term process that requires students to maintain a strong willingness to learn over a long period of time, existing literature has not yet studied the factors that affect students’ willingness to continue learning in IaH. This paper explores the factors that affect students’ willingness to continue learning in IaH by constructing a theoretical model combining Expectation Confirmation Model and Flow Theory, so as to develop a student-centered internationalized learning model that benefits the students and promotes the development of IaH. It is found that teaching resources, teaching organizers, teaching activities, teaching technology and teaching evaluation positively influence students’ willingness to continue learning, and it is also found that the flow experience has a positive influence in IaH's willingness to continue learning. This paper contributes to IaH literature by identifying factors influencing IaH students’ learning intentions and combines Flow Theory and Expectation Confirmation Model to construct an innovative theoretical model.

Keywords:

• Internationalization at home (IaH)
• expectation confirmation model
• willingness to continue learning
• flow theory
• influencing factors

REVIEWING EDITOR:

• Anatoly Oleksiyenko
• The Education University of Hong Kong Faculty of Education and Human Development
• Hong Kong

SUBJECTS:

• Bilingualism/ESL
• Higher Education
• International & Comparative Education

1. Introduction

After the strike of COVID-19 pandemic, it is believed that higher education internationalization would recover its original vitality and keep attracting students to study abroad. However, students from the world are suffering from post-pandemic predicaments, such as economic, political and financial plights, and cross-border study has not yet recovered its original status. In this circumstance, students willing to study abroad suffer from lacking of substitutes. Recently, a large number of scholars turned to ‘Internationalization at Home’ (IaH), a type of internationalization that attempts to transcend mobility, so that students can enjoy internationalized education and multiculturalism without cross-border mobility.

However, IaH learning is a long-term process requiring students’ continuous participation and long-term investment of time and energy. Existing studies have only focused on the connotation of IaH curriculum, IaH curriculum construction, IaH action paths, but few studies have paid attention to students’ willingness to continue learning in IaH. Gelderblom et al. (2019) found that students’ willingness to continue learning is an important factor influencing learning activities, which can be combined with students’ learning experiences to better explore students’ learning behaviors. For the ‘Internet native’ college students in the new era, they are more demanding of learning experience (Gemmell et al., 2014), which also leads to more diverse factors affecting their willingness to continue learning. In this context, traditional research cannot identify the influencing factors on students’ willingness to engage in IaH, which hampers educational institutions to develop relevant policies and facilitating IaH students to better obtain high-quality learning experience.

This paper takes expectation confirmation model as basis, highlighting IaH teaching organizers, IaH teaching activities and so on, combined with Flow Theory, to study the factors affecting students’ willingness to continue laH learning, so as to provide suggestions for IaH learning, to develop an internationalized learning mode benefiting most students with the core of improving students’ learning experience, and to explore a new way of cultivating international talents.

2. Literature review and research hypotheses

2.1. Research on IaH

IaH is a concept that contrasts with traditional international education. The concept was first introduced by Bent Nielsen at the European Association for International Education, and since then, scholars in Europe, and then the United States and elsewhere in the world have begun to focus on this topic. Leask (2009) defined ‘the development of intercultural competencies in students is a key outcome of an internationalized curriculum, which requires a campus environment and culture that obviously motivates and rewards interaction between international and home students in and out of the classroom’. The most widely accepted definition of the concept was proposed by Beelen and Jones (2015a), which defines IaH as ‘the purposeful integration of international and intercultural dimensions into a formal and informal curriculum for all students within domestic learning environments.’

After two decades development, research on IaH has yield substantial outcomes. Scholars widely agree that its primary research domains encompass three aspects, namely student-focused studies, organizational studies, and curriculum-focused studies (Hudzik, 2011; Robson et al., 2018). Student-focused research primarily delves into the motivations and purposes behind students’ engagement in IaH (Soria & Troisi, 2014). Organizational studies predominantly focus on international exchange programs and learning activities (Khalid & Janee Ali, 2018), while curriculum-focused research explores teaching models, technological support, and related topics (Rauer et al., 2021). Notably, research on students forms the foundation for achieving high-quality organization and curriculum design in the context of IaH (Jon, 2013).

A host of studies have focused on exploring the learning needs of IaH students (Beelen & Jones) and have identified, through various means, the needs of IaH students in campus and community life (Agnew & Kahn, 2014), as well as adapting to students’ writing and communication needs. However, IaH students typically engage in learning within their domestic settings, experiencing internationalized academic atmospheres solely within their national context, which makes sustaining their commitment to IaH challenging. Existing literature has inadequately addressed the factors influencing the sustained learning participation of IaH students and has not comprehensively identified all possible factors influencing the continuous learning intention of all types of students, particularly those whose requirements significantly differ from those in developed countries, encompassing learning resources, the learning environment, learning activities, and so forth (Yudkevich et al., 2016). Therefore, investigating the factors affecting students’ sustained engagement in IaH significantly impacts the enhancement of IaH teaching quality and elevating the standards of IaH teaching.

2.2. Analysis of factors influencing students’ willingness to continue IaH learning

Research on willingness to continuous learning is mainly based on the expectation confirmation model, defined by Bhattacherjee (2001) as ‘the subjective tendency of an individual to continue using an information system after its initial adoption’. Therefore, IaH students’ willingness to continue learning can be understood as a learner’s willingness to continue IaH learning activities after a period of time and may prefer IaH learning in the future. Expectation confirmation model is often used in the field of education, such as the study of learners’ intention to continue using e-learning systems (Ayele & Birhanie, 2018) and MOOC learners’ willingness to continue learning (Hai et al., 2020). Some scholars have studied in depth the factors affecting the degree of confirmation of students’ expectations such as course content, teaching activities and course evaluation (Hai et al., 2020). Learning activities and learning resource were also identified as important factors influencing willingness to continue learning. It has also been found that students, teachers, curriculum and project management are important areas that affect cross-border programs (Almeida et al., 2019). In summary, this paper argues that the elements that affect students’ willingness to continue learning in IaH include: teaching organizers, teaching resources, teaching activities, teaching evaluation and teaching technology.

What is more, the new generation of university students, mainly the post-00s, is more demanding of the learning process. They not only need to obtain knowledge, but also high-quality learning experience from IaH learning. About this, scholars began to refer to Flow Theory on students’ sustained willingness to learn, defining it as ‘a heightened state of learning where students experience curiosity, enjoyment, concentrated attention during the course of study,’ and investigating its influence on students’ continued learning behavior (Klein et al., 2010). It has been found that when learners are in a favorable state of flow, their learning behavior tends to incline toward continuity (Liu et al., 2009).

Unlike traditional internationalization, IaH learning makes it challenging for students to immerse themselves, thereby providing an experiential rather than immersive learning environment. In such circumstances, if students fail to generate sufficient flow experience, they are highly likely to be left out midway due to a lack of learning interest or an inability to achieve adequate levels of learning satisfaction. Furthermore, in the post-pandemic era, IaH students are more susceptible to issues such as reduced focus, lethargic behavior, and lower-quality assignments (Gu & Mao, 2022). Consequently, enhancing IaH students’ flow experience through various means becomes notably crucial.

In summary, this paper posits that supplementing the Expectancy Confirmation Theory with the FT (Flow Theory), not only comprehensively considers classical factors identified in extant literature, but also accounts for the characteristics of contemporary students, thereby can more accurately capture the diverse factors influencing the sustained learning of IaH students. Additionally, while existing literature on the Flow Theory primarily focuses on the online learning experiences of students (Goh & Yang, 2021), there is a dearth of exploration regarding the significance of Flow Experience in internationalized learning and a paucity of research on IaH learning. Therefore, the role of Flow Theory in the process of IaH experiential learning warrants notable attention and in-depth exploration.

2.3. Hypotheses formulation

As stated above, this paper argues that five aspects can directly enhance students’ learning experience, thus increasing the degree of confirmation of students’ expectations.

IaH teaching resources refer to all kinds of teaching materials or conditions developed for IaH learning. The richness of teaching resources largely determines the quality of teaching (Wang & Wang, 2023), and high-quality IaH teaching resources can promote the internationalization of students’ knowledge, perspectives and abilities, which in turn affects students’ recognition of IaH learning, and the higher the degree of confirmation of their expectations.

IaH learning requires highly qualified and experienced teachers. Therefore, IaH teachers’ international experience, intercultural literacy, English proficiency, and teaching style will directly or indirectly affect students’ classroom learning experience (Challob, 2021), which in turn affects the degree of confirmation of students’ expectations.

IaH teaching activities are relaxing and enjoyable IaH learning situation created by teachers through colorful in-class and out-of-class activities, intercultural academic exchanges, and interactive exchanges to enhance students’ learning experience. It has been shown that IaH-related activities are more capable of enhancing students’ globalization, internationalization, and intercultural competence (Soria & Troisi, 2014). Rich extracurricular activities can also improve students’ participation (Soffer & Nachmias, 2018), which in turn enhances the degree of confirmation of students’ expectations.

IaH teaching evaluation can directly reflect the quality of learning (Challob, 2021). According to Leask (2015), intercultural and global dimensions should be integrated into students’ learning outcomes and assessment tasks. When students believe that IaH learning improves their international skills and enables them to use relevant knowledge in international competitions or academic exchanges, they will perceive the usefulness of their learning as high.

IaH teaching technology refers to the use of flipped classroom, multilingual communication software, and other effective technical support in IaH teaching. Gröber et al. (2007) proposes models such as lectures and virtual classroom, which are more capable of creating a suitable environment for internationalized talents, and the use of teaching technology will also directly affect the degree of students’ expectation confirmation (Sum & Oancea, 2022).

In summary, following hypotheses are proposed:

H1. IaH teaching resources positively affect the degree of expectation confirmation.

H2. IaH teaching organizers positively influence the degree of expectation confirmation.

H3. IaH teaching activities positively influence the degree of expectation confirmation.

H4. IaH teaching evaluation positively affects the level of expectation confirmation.

H5. IaH teaching technology positively influences the degree of expectation confirmation.

Compared with traditional higher education, IaH learning pays more attention to diversified intercultural communication, rich teaching activities, effective teaching techniques, etc., and the degree of expectation confirmation formed by these elements will make students more satisfied in IaH learning. When IaH students’ expectations have been fully met, they are more likely to be satisfied (Chiu et al., 2012). So, there should be a positive relationship between the degree of expectation confirmation and students’ learning satisfaction.

H6. The degree of IaH expectation confirmation positively affects IaH learning satisfaction.

When students believe that IaH learning can achieve some degree of progress, such as learning results and the perception of positive usefulness, higher level of satisfaction will be achieved. Beelen and Jones (2015b) found that there is a significant relationship between users’ perceived usefulness of online learning platforms and their satisfaction, and also that when learners perceive their usefulness to be higher, the experience is better, and their willingness to continue learning will also be stronger. Accordingly, the following research hypotheses are proposed:

H7. Perceived usefulness positively affects IaH learning satisfaction.

H8. Perceived usefulness positively affects IaH's willingness to continue learning.

The flow experience runs through the whole learning process of students, since IaH learning experience directly affects students’ learning mood, which in turn affects their willingness to continue learning. Scholars have proved that flow experience can positively affect user satisfaction (Ho & Kuo, 2010). When students get a more pleasant learning experience, they may continue this kind of learning in order to get the feeling again.

IaH learning is characterized by diversified teaching resources, a strong sense of international learning experience, and strong teacher-student interaction, so it creates a positive flow experience for learners, which in turn enhances their satisfaction and willingness to continue learning.

H9. Flow experience positively affects IaH learning satisfaction.

H10. Flow experience positively affects IaH's willingness to continue learning.

Willingness to continue learning is students’ willingness to continue to participate in IaH learning after undertaking IaH learning for a while. Learning satisfaction is the degree of perceived goodness of learners throughout the learning process, which is an important factor affecting continuously use (Kuo et al., 2014). So when IaH students have higher satisfaction, they will be more willing to do IaH learning.

H11. Learning satisfaction positively affects IaH's willingness to continue learning.

In all, the theoretical model of this paper is proposed as follows (see Figure 1).

Figure 1. Theoretical model of this paper.

3. Research design

Questionnaire was designed, distributed and collected to collect information on the personal information of the participants, their household income and their learning behavior in the course of ‘Internationalization at Home’. The survey was administered exclusively to Internationalization at Home students, and the credibility of the questions was ensured through pre-testing of the questionnaire and prior student interviews.

3.1. Questionnaire design

The questionnaire consists of three parts: the first part is to collect the personal information of the respondents, including gender, age, place of origin, academic qualifications and major categories of study. The second part is to collect information about the respondents’ family situation, including the highest educational level of the family members, the nature of work of the parents and the monthly income of the family. The third part is to collect information about the students’ ‘Internationalization at Home’. The third part is the information on students’ learning behavior. According to the research model and hypothesis, a seven-point Likert scale is used to collect information on TO, TR, TA, TE, TT, PU, EC, CLI, LS, and FE (see Table 1). Respondents were asked to rate their responses as appropriate, with ‘1’ for strongly disagree, ‘2’ for disagree, and ‘3’ for rather disagree. ‘4’ for fair, ‘5’ for moderately agree, ‘6’ for agree and ‘7’ for strongly agree. (see Appendix A)

Table 1. Reliability and convergent validity of each measure.

Variables	Title	Parameter significant estimates				Factor loading	Question reliability	Portfolio reliability	Convergent validity
		Unstd	S.E	t	P	Std	SMC	CR	AVE
Perceived usefulness	PU1	1				0.725	0.525	0.829	0.547
	PU2	1.059	0.049	21.557	***	0.765	0.586
	PU3	0.992	0.048	20.882	***	0.734	0.538
	PU4	0.990	0.047	20.878	***	0.734	0.538
Expectation confirmation	EC1	1				0.792	0.627	0.907	0.662
	EC2	1.010	0.035	28.850	***	0.817	0.667
	EC3	0.963	0.034	28.651	***	0.812	0.660
	EC4	1.001	0.034	29.040	***	0.821	0.674
	EC5	0.999	0.034	29.193	***	0.825	0.680
Continue learning intention	CLI1	1				0.748	0.559	0.843	0.572
	CLI2	1.026	0.046	22.198	***	0.734	0.539
	CLI3	1.077	0.046	23.548	***	0.784	0.615
	CLI4	1.033	0.045	22.893	***	0.759	0.576
Learning satisfaction	LS1	1				0.744	0.554	0.830	0.550
	LS2	0.954	0.044	21.823	***	0.742	0.551
	LS3	0.959	0.044	21.685	***	0.737	0.543
	LS4	0.969	0.044	21.864	***	0.744	0.554
Flow experience	FE1	1				0.862	0.743	0.938	0.752
	FE2	1.010	0.027	37.441	***	0.866	0.749
	FE3	0.995	0.027	38.699	***	0.860	0.740
	FE4	1.031	0.027	36.950	***	0.882	0.770
	FE5	0.983	0.026	37.396	***	0.866	0.750
Teaching organizers	TO1	1				0.770	0.593	0.844	0.574
	TO2	0.962	0.042	22.867	***	0.749	0.561
	TO3	0.958	0.042	22.775	***	0.745	0.555
	TO4	0.992	0.043	23.367	***	0.767	0.588
Teaching resources	TR1	1				0.825	0.680	0.911	0.672
	TR2	0.999	0.032	31.318	***	0.831	0.691
	TR3	0.956	0.031	30.479	***	0.815	0.665
	TR4	0.981	0.032	31.065	***	0.826	0.683
	TR5	0.935	0.031	29.718	***	0.801	0.641
Teaching activities	TA1	1				0.774	0.599	0.856	0.544
	TA2	0.895	0.040	22.633	***	0.719	0.517
	TA3	0.889	0.039	22.772	***	0.723	0.523
	TA4	0.890	0.039	22.810	***	0.724	0.525
	TA4	0.952	0.041	23.502	***	0.746	0.556
Teaching evaluation	TE1	1				0.813	0.661	0.905	0.655
	TE2	0.944	0.033	28.941	***	0.801	0.642
	TE3	0.977	0.033	29.445	***	0.812	0.659
	TE4	0.984	0.033	29.866	***	0.820	0.673
	TE5	0.946	0.033	28.873	***	0.800	0.639
Teaching technology	TT1	1				0.912	0.832	0.963	0.837
	TT2	1.021	0.021	48.633	***	0.907	0.823
	TT3	1.067	0.021	50.522	***	0.919	0.845
	TT4	1.047	0.021	49.933	***	0.915	0.837
	TT5	1.07	0.021	50.942	***	0.922	0.850

Note: *** indicates significant at the 0.1% statistical level and all subsequent tables are the same.

3.2. Data collection and sample characteristics

The survey process was divided into two stages: pre-testing and formal research. After the initial design of the corresponding questions for each measurement indicator, the questionnaire was reviewed, screened and modified by several experts to form the pre-test questionnaire. The pre-test was conducted on students of a college of international education and 62 valid questionnaires were returned. AMOS 26.0 was used to conduct item analysis and validation factor analysis of the pretest questionnaire, and it was found that most of the questions in the questionnaire were in line with the research direction. However, there were problems with the model fitness of individual indicators that were not satisfactory. This paper reformulated the questionnaire and eliminated the questions that did not pass the cross-factor.

Then, official questionnaires were distributed to universities with IaH programmes in China, covering universities in North China, Northeast China, Central China and South China, etc. A total of 1726 questionnaires were collected. To ensure reliability, authenticity and accuracy of the data, research samples with too short a response time, duplicate scoring results and missing data were excluded, and finally 1053 valid questionnaires were obtained. Finally, the AMOS 26.0 was used to conduct the empirical study.

Descriptive statistics show that the proportion of males and females in the 1053 questionnaires is about 44% and 56% respectively, and 63% of the students have participated in IaH study. The proportion of family members with the highest education level of bachelor’s degree is 49.3%, and according to the descriptions, most of the parents work in enterprises and institutions. Other details of the sample are shown in Appendix B.

4. Data analysis and results

4.1. Reliability and validity tests

According to the preliminary results of the reliability and validity analysis of each measure in the questionnaire, the standardized factor loading (Std) of each indicator are greater than 0.6 and significant and the reliability coefficient (SMC) are greater than 0.36. Also, the compositional reliability (CR) is greater than 0.7 and the average variance extracted (AVE) greater than 0.5 (see Table 1). It is clear that the reliability of each measure is high and has good internal consistency and convergent validity.

The results of the discriminant validity tests shows that the root mean square of each latent variable AVE value is greater than the correlation coefficient between that latent variable and the other latent variables (see Table 2), indicating that there is good discriminant validity between the latent variables.

Table 2. Tests for discriminant validity of variables.

Variables	PU	TO	FE	TT	TE	TA	TR	EC	LS	CLI
PU	0.547
TO	0.382	0.574
FE	0.215	0.259	0.752
TT	0.282	0.250	0.326	0.837
TE	0.324	0.306	0.367	0.305	0.655
TA	0.411	0.321	0.333	0.352	0.449	0.554
TR	0.320	0.351	0.233	0.317	0.387	0.353	0.672
EC	0.272	0.312	0.247	0.319	0.424	0.458	0.312	0.662
LS	0.292	0.199	0.253	0.192	0.236	0.257	0.183	0.380	0.550
CLI	0.462	0.242	0.354	0.221	0.258	0.286	0.212	0.268	0.492	0.572

Note: The values on the diagonal of the table are AVE values.

4.2. Model testing and analysis

4.2.1. Overall model fit test

SEM was constructed to obtain the overall model fit indicators. The chi-square to degrees of freedom ratio of the model is 2.690, the GFI is 0.880, the RMSEA is 0.040, the CFI is 0.948, the NFI is 0.919, the AGFI is 0.867 and the IFI is 0.948. As shown in Table 3, all the fit indices of the model meet the criteria and the model fit are good.

Table 3. Overall model fit.

Common indicators	χ²/df	GFI	RMSEA	CFI	NFI	AGFI	IFI
Standard values	<3.0	>0.80	<0.08	>0.90	>0.90	>0.80	>0.90
Questionnaire value	2.690	0.880	0.040	0.948	0.919	0.867	0.948

4.2.2. Path analysis

Path analysis is conducted on the model and the path regression coefficients and significance levels between the potential variables are obtained as shown in Table 4.

Table 4. Path test results.

Assumptions	Path	Unstandardized coefficient	Standardized coefficient	S.E	C.R	P
H1	TR→EC	0.075	0.088	0.027	2.780	0.005
H2	TO→EC	0.118	0.119	0.033	3.633	***
H3	TA→EC	0.284	0.274	0.035	8.116	***
H4	TE→EC	0.210	0.245	0.028	7.558	***
H5	TT→EC	0.097	0.143	0.021	4.653	***
H6	EC→LS	0.306	0.310	0.035	8.770	***
H7	PU→LS	0.166	0.150	0.040	4.192	***
H8	PU→CLI	0.297	0.293	0.035	8.398	***
H9	FE→LS	0.106	0.146	0.024	4.386	***
H10	FE→CLI	0.138	0.208	0.021	6.615	***
H11	LS→CLI	0.345	0.377	0.033	10.368	***

With the exception of the empirical results for H1, which exhibited a relatively high p-value, the p-values for the remaining hypotheses were all statistically significant at the 0.0001 level. Specifically, the variables TR, TO, TA, TE, and TT demonstrated significant positive effects on EC, aligning with findings in extant literature grounded in Expectation Confirmation Theory (Al-Emran et al., 2020; Ayele & Birhanie, 2018; Bhattacherjee, 2001; Hai et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2021). These research conclusions suggest that while IaH students share a high degree of similarity with conventional students in the fundamental constructs of learning needs, but distinctions in the specific content of their learning requirements, which are reflected in the questionnaire employed in this study. Empirical results for hypotheses H6–H8 are consistent with existing literature, and thus, will not be reiterated.

It is noteworthy that, consistent with the hypotheses in this study, the empirical results for FE indicate significant impacts on LS and CLI. These findings robustly affirm that for post-00 students, their self-discipline in learning is relatively deficient, leading to a propensity for anxiety (Cheng et al., 2023). Consequently, it is imperative for them to immerse themselves in the learning process to satisfy their learning needs (Hamari et al., 2016) and sustain active engagement in their academic pursuits.

4.2.3. Model construction

As can be seen from Table 4, the absolute value of the CR of each hypothesis is greater than 1.96, and the p-value is less than 0.05, passing the significance test and verifying all the hypotheses of this paper. The research model is obtained as shown in Figure 2:

Figure 2. SEM path analysis.

4.2.4. Analysis of intermediary effects

To further examine the presence of a mediating effect, a bootstrap method is used. The data are randomly sampled 5000 times to examine whether the upper and lower bounds of the interval included 0 at the 95% confidence interval, with the inclusion of 0 indicating that the path effect is not significant and the exclusion of 0 indicating that the path effect is significant.

The mediating effect between each observed variable and willingness to continue learning is examined, with each observed variable as the independent variable, willingness to continue learning as the dependent variable, and expectation confirmation and satisfaction with learning as mediating variables, respectively, and the results are shown in Appendix C. It can be seen that at the 95% confidence interval level:

The chain mediating effect of teaching resources (TR) on expectation confirmation (EC) and learning satisfaction (LS) is 0.008, with a 95% confidence interval containing 0. This suggests that the mediating effect of expectation confirmation and satisfaction with learning on the influence of teaching resources on willingness to continue learning is not significant. This indicates that solely relying on the accumulation and aggregation of instructional resources is insufficient to achieve the goal of enhancing students’ sustained motivation for learning. Consequently, IaH educators must explore various approaches to integrate learning resources and engage in interactions and co-creation with students (Qi et al., 2023) to genuinely enhance students’ Continuous Learning Intention (CLI).

The confidence intervals for TA, TE, TT and TO pathways do not contain 0, suggesting that expectation confirmation and learning satisfaction mediated the effect of each factor on willingness to continue learning. While these empirical findings align with the hypotheses posited in this study, it is contended that achieving comprehensive motivation for students’ Continuous Learning Intention (CLI) necessitates the synergistic interaction of multiple factors. This aspect represents one of the potential directions for future research.

The confidence intervals of the paths of FE and PU do not contain 0, indicating that satisfaction with learning mediates the effect of each factor on intention to continue learning. It also demonstrates that indirect effects are significant and that both flow experience and perceived usefulness can directly influence students’ willingness to continue learning.

4.2.5. Summary of the empirical results

Figure 2 and the empirical results of the mediation analysis show that TT, TA, TO, TE, PU and FE all have positive effect on CLI. As can be seen from Figure 2, teaching activities and teaching evaluation have a greater influence on EC, with standardised coefficients of 0.27 and 0.25 respectively, indicating that these two categories are of greater concern to students in IaH learning. This is followed by TT (0.14) and TA (0.12), while TR do not have a significant effect on expectation confirmation. The mediation analysis shows that the greatest influence on CLI is for TA and TE, with total effect values of 0.030 and 0.022 respectively. For observed variables with low total effect values, the mediation path is not significant.

5. Conclusions

Based on the expectation confirmation theory, this paper constructs a conceptual model of the factors affecting students’ IaH willingness to continue learning, and verifies the model through the data collected by questionnaire survey. The main research conclusions confirm the hypothesis proposed in this paper.

5.1. Conclusions of the study

The study found that IaH teaching resources, IaH teaching organisers, IaH teaching activities, IaH teaching evaluation and IaH teaching technology all had a significant positive effect on the level of expectation confirmation. This paper verified the mediating role of learning satisfaction in the relationship between observed variables and willingness to continue learning, finding that learning satisfaction is fully mediated by the three highly influential factors of instructional activities, instructional technology and instructional evaluation, while the mediation path is not always significant for the less influential factors.

The degree of expectation confirmation of IaH learning has a significant positive impact on learning satisfaction, indicating that the higher the degree of expectation confirmation of IaH learning, the more students will perceive the content they are learning as valuable and useful, which will help to increase their satisfaction with learning and thus increase their willingness to continue learning.

Perceived usefulness has a significant positive effect on IaH learning satisfaction and IaH willingness to continue learning, which shows that IaH learning can help with employment, improve knowledge of other cultures, etc. It can make students perceive positive usefulness in IaH learning and indirectly affect the willingness to continue learning through learning satisfaction.

Positive flow experience has a significant positive effect on IaH learning satisfaction and IaH willingness to continue learning, which can make students perceive learning as more effective. The instructor’s teaching style and the knowledge content of the course closely influence the students’ positive mind-flow experience, and the richer the learning experience, the more likely it is to increase students’ willingness to continue learning.

There is a significant positive effect of learning satisfaction on the willingness to continue learning at IaH, where students’ expectations are confirmed to a higher degree when they are more satisfied with their learning at IaH.

5.2. Suggestions for IaH practice

Based on the above findings, this paper proposes the following recommendations:

Firstly, create an international campus atmosphere, and give full play to the role of the ‘first classroom’ and ‘second classroom’. A student-centered teaching environment, involving internationalized curriculum, content, materials and courseware, should be constructed and merged into local classrooms. Through a variety of extra-curricular club activities, interactive exchanges with international students, international academic conferences/forums/training, students’ can enhance their IaH learning experience in a relaxed and enjoyable atmosphere. In addition, for universities with international students, it is even more important to promote the integration of local and international students inside and outside the classroom through face-to-face academic exchanges and co-curricular competitions to further strengthen the IaH learning experience for local students.

Secondly, diversified modern information technologies should be used to break through the geographical restrictions of IaH learning exchange and cooperation, and actively promote the integration of IaH learning online and offline. It is suggested to build a model of ‘teaching in the same class, testing in the same paper, scientific research in the same room, and activities in the same class’ for both local and foreign students offline. Thus, local students can interact, communicate and cooperate with students and teachers from other cultures. With the help of modern information technology, new teaching and learning modes such as ‘5 G + VR live education’, ‘5 G + AR immersive teaching’ and ‘5 G + MR holographic learning mode’ can be adopted to create an immersive learning experience of IaH.

Thirdly, by integrating the IaH learning evaluation system into teaching planning and actively exploring various ways of teaching evaluation, students’ IaH learning effect can be evaluated in an all-round way. For example, students’ international knowledge ability can be examined by writing academic reports and conducting academic discussions on international events or global issues. Besides, students could be encouraged to participate in international competitions and write international graduation theses to examine students’ intercultural communication level, international attitudes and values.

What is more, it is advisable to establish a mechanism for the training of international teachers through ‘screening + training + standardization’ to strengthen the intercultural competence and literacy. Teachers with ‘international mentality’, ‘international academies’, ‘international teaching ability’ and ‘international communication ability’ should be selected and enrolled, and further training resources be prepared to enhance current faculties’ IaH teaching capability. Also, teachers should be encouraged to create an interactive intercultural atmosphere to enhance the IaH learning experience and to better connect local and international students.

Finally, IaH teachers’ performance management system should be established, so as to achieve the purpose of synergy development with the school’s international learning strategic goals. Teachers’ intercultural knowledge, intercultural communication ability and intercultural literacy should be taken as part of the assessment and evaluation. It is also advisable to break the single-channel mobility system for titles and implement the job appointment system by employing IaH standards in teachers’ evaluation and motivation system.

In short, the purpose of IaH learning is to enable students to be exposed to diverse cultures without cross-border flow, so as to form an international perspective and an international pattern. Under this circumstance, it is important to cater to the learning needs of students. In this way, a holistic campus learning environment with an international and multicultural atmosphere should be built, creating an international learning experience that is ‘experiential’ rather than ‘infusion’. It is also necessary to develop IaH learning strategies and policies that are tailored to the characteristics of the country and the school in terms of internationalization of the curriculum, diversification of teaching resources, rigorous management of teachers and comprehensive assessment of students, so that they can fit the local context, teachers, and students.

5.3. Contribution

This paper explores the IaH learning models from the perspective of student needs, aiming to gain a deeper understanding of students’ expectations and requirements concerning IaH learning. The contributions of this study are twofold. Firstly, addressing the deficiency in existing literature regarding the exploration of Internationalization at Home (IaH) students’ needs, this paper conducts a detailed and comprehensive examination of IaH students’ requirements in areas such as Teaching Activities (TA), Teaching Organizers (TO), Teaching Environment (TE), Teaching Resource (TR), and Flow Experience (FE). By doing so, it identifies factors influencing the sustained engagement of local learning students in IaH, thus providing a supplementary perspective to the current literature. Secondly, this study, in response to the learning characteristics of post-00 students in the post-pandemic era, innovatively combines Flow Theory (FT) with Expectation Confirmation Theory. It constructs a theoretical model and empirically tests it, expanding the application scope of Flow Theory and advancing the Expectation Confirmation Model.

Additionally, it is noteworthy that although the research sample is drawn from China, the conclusions can be generalized to Global South (GS) countries or regions. China serves as a typical GS country (Johnston, 2022), and its strategy for internationalizing its higher education sector has been a state directed effort designed to increase China’s favorable international political and academic relations. This contrasts, for example, with the neo-liberal, market-oriented approach adopted by the United Kingdom and Australia (Pan, 2013). China’s internationalization in higher education can represent Global South countries, not only because students in China are more likely to be keen on internationalized study (Altbach & Knight, 2007), but also that China’s internationalization educational policies are directed according to the needs of college students. Therefore, the conclusions of this paper can well be adapted to other Global South countries, namely Brazil, Vietnam, South Africa and so on.

5.4. Limitations and further prospects

This study has several limitations that should be acknowledged. Firstly, while IaH can bring numerous benefits to students, it may not fully achieve the goal of cultivating inter-cultural competence. Therefore, in future research, alternative methods and strategies should be explored to help students attain better outcomes.

Secondly, this study employed a standard questionnaire survey to examine students’ continuous learning intention. In the future, to gain a more in-depth understanding of students’ IaH learning needs, alternative, non-standard survey methods could be considered.

Authors’ contributions

Conceptualization, Lv Chen; methodology, Li Mei; software, Li Mei and Ma Junjie; investigation, Lv Chen and Li Mei; writing-original draft preparation, Lv Chen, Li Mei; writing-review and editing, Ma Junjie; literature review and part of the paper writing in the R&R process, Wang Junsong. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.

Informed consent statement

Informed consent was obtained from all subjects involved in the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by National Education Science Planning Project: Research on Multidimensional Identification of ‘Internationalization at Home’ Learning Needs for College Students and Corresponding Teaching Mode Design (DIA220368).

Notes on contributors

Chen Lv

Chen LV holds a Doctorate in Management from Nankai University and serves as an Associate Professor and Deputy Dean at the School of Economics and Management at Tianjin Chengjian University. His primary research interests encompass internationalization in higher education, corporate governance, and intellectual property protection. He is currently leading one national-level project (ongoing, DIA220368), and also directing a sub-project under the Key Tasks of the Teaching Quality and Teaching Reform Research Plan of General Colleges and Universities in Tianjin, commissioned by the Tianjin Municipal Education Commission (also ongoing, A231079201). Dr. Lv has also previously participated in completing two national-level projects and independently led one bureau-level research project. He has published over 30 academic papers across various journals.In 2022, Lv Chen participated in the 2nd National College Teachers’ Teaching Innovation Competition, where he secured third place (National Third Class Award) and won the first prize at the Tianjin Division (Provincial and Ministerial First Class Award). Throughout his career, he has consistently guided students to achieve notable accolades in various competitions, including a Silver Award in the “Challenge Cup” Tianjin University Student Business Plan Contest, and a second-place provincial and ministerial award in the “Challenge Cup” Tianjin University Student Extracurricular Academic and Technological Works Competition.

Mei Li

Mei Li, an undergraduate student at the School of International Education of Tianjin Chengjian University, mainly engaged in research on internationalization of higher education; Chinese educators publish a paper; Hosted a national level college student innovation and entrepreneurship training program project; Led the team to participate in the Youth Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition and won the Municipal Bronze Award and the Tianjin Maker Marathon Final Excellence Award.

Junjie Ma

Junjie Ma, a undergraduate student majoring in Engineering Management, School of International Education, Tianjin Chengjian University. His research interests include internationalization of higher education. Participated in the national project presided over by Associate Professor Chen LV. He won many awards in school, including the third prize of the 2022 Hope Cup Mathematical Modeling Contest and the Excellent student of Tianjin Chengjian University in 2020-2021 academic year.

Junsong Wang

Junsong Wang, a undergraduate student majoring in Engineering Cost at the School of Economics and Management, Tianjin Chengjian University. Her main research interests include higher education internationalization and corporate governance. She has participated in a national-level project led by Associate Professor Chen Lv. In 2023, she completed the national-level university student innovation and entrepreneurship training project in China. She has participated in various competitions, including winning the first prize in the Tianjin division of the 2023 National College Student Maker Marathon and the second prize in the 2022 Hope Cup Mathematical Modeling Competition.

Appendix A.

Questionnaire items and sources.

Table

Variable	Number	Title	Source
Perceived usefulness	PU1	In general, the study of IaH will be useful for my future work and studies.	Davis,(1989) Bhattacherjee (2001)
	PU2	The study of IaH will improve my knowledge of international affairs and cultures.
	PU3	IaH gives me the opportunity to learn more about other countries’ cultures.
	PU4	I think that IaH is an effective way of learning without studying abroad.
Expectation confirmation	EC1	IaH approach is better than I had expected.	Bhattacherjee,(2001) Lee and Choi (2013)
	EC2	The international knowledge covered in IaH is better than I had expected.
	EC3	Overall, the teaching resources and techniques used in IaH are better than I had expected.
	EC4	IaH study has helped me in my work and studies more than I expected.
	EC5	My expectations of ‘not studying abroad’ are fulfilled by studying the IaH course.
Continuous learning intention	CLI1	I would like to spend more time in IaH	Bhattacherjee (2001) Lin and Wang(2012)
	CLI2	I would like to continue to study ‘Internationalization at Home’ rather than using other learning methods.
	CLI3	I would recommend the IaH learning approach to others.
	CLI4	I will continue to engage in IaH in my future Masters or PhD studies.
Learning satisfaction	LS1	I am happy with the IaH approach to learning.	Yi-Shun (2003)
	LS2	I am more satisfied with studying IaH than studying abroad.
	LS3	I would share my experience of studying IaH with others.
	LS4	IaH will give me better job prospects.
Flow experience	FE1	I am in a high and productive state of learning when IaH	Chen (2006) Koufaris (2002)
	FE2	During IaH course, I am able to grasp the knowledge and adapt to the lecturer’s style of teaching with ease.
	FE3	I am able to concentrate very well during the course.
	FE4	I feel that time went by much faster than I think it would when I am studying IaH.
	FE5	I have a strong sense of curiosity and freshness about what I am learning in IaH.
Teaching organizers	TO1	In the ‘Internationalization at Home’ classes, the teacher shares his experience of studying or working abroad with me.	Dai et al.
	TO2	The teacher’s foreign language skills meet my need to improve my intercultural communication skills.
	TO3	I think the teacher has an international level of communication and an international perspective.
	TO4	I think that local teachers can also give me a 'study abroad’ classroom experience.
Teaching resources	TR1	The language materials for IaH are of international standard.	Hutchinson and Water (1987) Dai et al.
	TR2	The materials used in the course of my studies in IaH have a multicultural dimension.
	TR3	IaH courses are taught by foreign teachers.
	TR4	The materials used in the IaH program allow me to learn from a wide range of disciplines and fields of study.
	TR5	The local teachers in the IaH also provide me with a wealth of international learning resources.
Teaching activities	TA1	IaH includes interaction with international students.	G. Polya (1957)
	TA2	During IaH, students will participate in joint activities with Chinese and foreign students such as Western Culture Days, Chinese and foreign student debates and Chinese and foreign football matches.
	TA3	International academic activities such as international seminars and lectures by renowned teachers are offered as part of the IaH.
	TA4	IaH includes fun and games.
	TA5	IaH is accompanied by an international social practice course.
Teaching evaluation	TE1	During my IaH studies, I will participate in many international competitions.	Laufer et al. (2021) Crowther (2003)
	TE2	IaH will give me the ability to participate in international academic projects.
	TE3	I will be able to improve my foreign language skills significantly.
	TE4	I will (possibly) be able to complete an international graduation project as a result of my IaH studies.
	TE5	I can participate in an international dissertation through the IaH.
Teaching technology	TT1	In IaH, a blended learning model is often used.	Davis et al. (2018) Islam et al. (2017)
	TT2	In IaH, I study with foreign students through an international online learning platform (online study room).
	TT3	IaH uses a 'flipped classroom’ model, where students complete the content assigned by the teacher through independent learning.
	TT4	IaH, the course is taught in a combination of live and recorded sessions.
	TT5	I often use multilingual communication software in the course of IaH.

Appendix B.

Formal test survey subject basic information table

Table

Variables	Category	Number of people	Percentage
Have you participated in IaH	Yes	659	62.6%
	No	394	37.4%
Gender	Male	464	44.1%
	Female	589	55.9%
Year of study	Freshman year	49	4.7%
	Sophomore	163	15.5%
	Junior	371	35.2%
	Senior Year	343	32.6%
	University Age 5	53	5%
	Graduate student and above	74	7%
Place of birth (domicile)	Northeast China (including Liaoning, Jilin and Heilongjiang)	26	22.5%
	North China (including Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia)	192	22.5%
	East China (including Shandong, Jiangsu, Anhui, Zhejiang, Fujian, Shanghai)	237	19.6%
	Southern China (including Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan)	237	18.2%
	Central China (including Hubei, Hunan, Henan, Jiangxi)	206	5.6%
	Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao (including Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macao)	8	8.6%
	Northwest China (including Ningxia, Xinjiang, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Gansu)	59	2.5%
	Southwest China (including Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Tibet, Chongqing)	91	0.5%
Highest education among family members (parents)	Elementary school	24	2.3%
	Middle school	103	9.8%
	Secondary/high school	172	16.3%
	Specialist	172	16.3%
	Bachelor’s degree	519	49.3%
	Master’s degree	56	5.3%
	Doctoral degree	7	0.7%
Mother’s work	Enterprise employees	446	42.4%
	Business owners/self-employed	163	15.5%
	Farming	262	24.9%
	Freelance	160	15.2%
	Temporarily not working	22	2.1%
Father’s work	Enterprise employees	434	41.2%
	Business owners/self-employed	142	13.5%
	Farming	319	30.3%
	Freelance	145	13.8%
	Temporarily not working	13	1.2%
Major categories of study	Philosophy	24	2.3%
	Economics	174	16.5%
	Law	87	8.3%
	Literature	141	13.4%
	History	106	10.1%
	Science	162	5%
	Engineering	113	15.4%
	Agriculture	23	10.7%
	Medicine	45	2.2%
	Management	96	4.3%
	Arts	29	9.1%
Monthly household income	<0.5	25	2.8%
	0.5–1.0	110	2.4%
	1.0–1.5	222	10.4%
	1.5–2.0	317	21.1%
	2.0–3.0	233	30.1%
	3.0–5.0	78	22.1%
	>5	68	7.4%

Appendix C.

Tests of mediating effects between each observed variable and willingness to continue learning

Table

Effect Path	Path	Value	SE	Bias-corrected 95%CI		Percentile 95%CI
				Lower	Upper	Lower	Upper
Total effect (TR)		0.008
Intermediary effect1	TR→FE→LS→CLI	0.008	0.005	0.001	0.019	0.000	0.018
Total effect (TO)		0.012
Intermediary effect1	TO→FE→LS→CLI	0.012	0.006	0.003	0.027	0.002	0.026
Total effect (TA)		0.030
Intermediary effect1	TA→FE→SAT→CLI	0.030	0.009	0.016	0.053	0.015	0.051
Total effect (TE)		0.026
Intermediary effect1	TE→FE→SAT→CLI	0.026	0.009	0.012	0.048	0.011	0.047
Total effect (TT)		0.016
Intermediary effect1	TT→FE→SAT→CLI	0.016	0.006	0.007	0.030	0.006	0.028
Total effect (PU)		0.354
Intermediary effect1	PU→SAT→CLI	0.057	0.022	0.019	0.105	0.017	0.102
Intermediary effect2	PU→CLI	0.297	0.052	0.196	0.402	0.197	0.403
Total effect (FE)		0.175
Intermediary effect1	FE→SAT→CLI	0.037	0.012	0.016	0.063	0.014	0.061
Intermediary effect2	FE→CLI	0.138	0.027	0.086	0.193	0.085	0.192

Note: Bootstrap test is used to put back a random sample of 5000 times.