The changing ecologies of international students: Comparing internationalisation at a distance and internationalisation abroad

This research explores and compares the learning ecologies of international students studying through internationalisation at a distance (IaD) and internationalisation abroad (IA) by investigating their experiences of first year of master's study with a UK university. We do so by using our previously proposed Revised Ecological Systems Theory as a conceptual framework, which integrates the physical/virtual and home/host dimensions into Bronfenbrenner's traditional Ecological Systems Theory. Our findings identified the co-existence and fluid nature of the physical/virtual and home/host ecologies for both IaD and IA students. We argue that learning ecologies and their changes throughout the academic year were not fully distinct for IaD and IA students, but their experiences within them vary between these two groups. Compared with IA students, IaD students stayed in relatively stable physical environments, but they experienced challenges with developing interpersonal connections with peers and had more limited intercultural encounters with the institution's host culture. Our findings suggest the importance of considering the physical/virtual and home/host dimensions of students' learning ecologies, and we provide suggestions for both practice and future research.

Practitioner notes

What is currently known about this topic

• Supported by technologies, internationalisation at a distance (IaD) is an emerging category of internationalisation of higher education, broadening students' access to higher education across borders.
• Existing research has focused on students' experiences in short-term online collaborative projects, virtual exchanges and the use of technologies, and evidence shows certain benefits of internationalisation, such as developing intercultural competence, can be achieved online.
• Universities are developing and providing more programmes for international students, both online and in-person.

What this paper adds

• A comparison of the perceived learning ecologies of online and in-person students taking degree programmes at a UK university.
• Empirical evidence of the co-existence of physical/virtual and home/host learning ecologies for both online and in-person international students.
• Addressing the importance and possibility of revising traditional Ecological Systems Theory as a framework to better fit the digital era.

Implications for practice and/or policy

• The comparison between online and in-person students can provide a more holistic understanding of the experiences of international students, identifying the specific factors impacting students' experiences for each group, and further developing a better understanding of internationalisation of higher education as a whole.
• Universities should consider what is beyond the virtual world when designing IaD programmes and supporting online students, purposefully integrating more practical, collaborative and cultural-related elements in the course design.