Four narratives about online international students: a critical literature review

ABSTRACT

In the current higher education context, offering online programmes is seen as an effective means to recruit more international students. However, supporting online international students studying at a distance is not a simple task for both universities and tutors. The problem mainly stems from a lack of theoretical understanding of online international students and their learning experiences. The present article, therefore, aims to address the gap, by systematically, yet critically reviewing relevant academic narratives about online international students. Our review reveals four types of narratives presented in the literature, describing online international students in particular ways: unspecified others with a rapid increase in their numbers, specific others with deficits, specific others as pedagogical resources and active participants in international learning communities. We discuss the merits and the drawbacks of each type of narratives for online educators seeking pedagogical suggestions about supporting online international students.

KEYWORDS:

• Critical literature review
• international education
• international student
• non-western student
• oonline international student
• online higher education

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyungmee Lee

Kyungmee Lee is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, and co-Director of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning. Her research targets the intersection of online education, higher education and international education. Kyungmee’s scholarship emphasises concepts of discourse, knowledge and power, understood through a broadly Foucauldian lens.

Brett Bligh

Brett Bligh is a lecturer in the Department of Educational Research, Lancaster University, and co-Director of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning. His research interrogates the nexus of technology mediation, physical environment, and institutional change in higher education. Brett’s work prioritises activity theory conceptions of human practice, and interventionist methodologies.