Leveling the playing field for international students in IT courses

Abstract

Australia is a destination of choice for international students studying IT who in 2019 comprised 62% of IT enrolments in universities [9]. Studying in English is often problematic for students from a Non-English Speaking Background (NESB), leading to these students facing barriers with reading instructional materials, reading and writing code and learning English at the same time as learning technical skills. In the area of assessment, NESB students perform at lower levels than domestic students and, anecdotally, these students struggle with exams and tests, where cognitive resources are reduced as a result of stress. This paper is based on an earlier study where the exam format was modified to remove extraneous cognitive load, and keyword glossaries in Mandarin were given to Chinese students as part of a database course exam. The results of the earlier study showed significant improvement in student performance, leading to draft guidelines for developing exams for international students. The current study used these guidelines to redesign an undergraduate database exam, provided students with a choice of keyword glossaries in several languages, and surveyed students immediately after the exam. The results of this intervention were statistically compared with another technical course for students at the same level in the same semester. There was a significant interaction effect, with international students in the Database course performing better than would be expected without intervention. There was no longer a significant difference between international student and domestic student performance in the exam. Results are discussed with respect to cognitive load and mental effort measures.