International students’ transition to university: Connection and disconnection in online group work interactions

Abstract

An Australian higher education experience often includes group work as an important social learning opportunity. For international students, taking part in a group assignment can positively influence learning and adjustment to the new cultural and educational context through social interaction. However, students are increasingly choosing to use digital technologies to participate in group assignments, which may impact on opportunities available to make social connections with peers. This study investigated the experiences of 26 international students as they transitioned to study at an Australian university about their use of social media for group assignments and their resulting perceptions of connection to classmates. Analysis of the results suggests that students who engaged in collaborative rather than cooperative interactions via social media were more likely to perceive a connection to their classmates. This has implications for educators to include classroom modelling of digitally-mediated collaborative interactions to benefit students’ participation in group assignments, which can improve the transition experience through social connection. *This article was presented at the STARS Conference in Melbourne, Australia in July 2019 and was selected for publication in this special issue. The authors have kindly given their permission to have this article published and it has undergone a further review by the editors to confirm it aligns with the Journal’s submission guidelines and standards. Please cite this article as: Sleeman J., Lang, C., & Dakich, E. (2019). International students’ transition to university: Connection and disconnection in online group work interactions. Student Success, 10(2). 35-45. doi:10.5204/ssj.v10i2.1300. This article has been peer reviewed and accepted for publication in Student Success. Please see the Editorial Policies under the ‘About’ section of the Journal website for further information. Student Success: A journal exploring the experiences of students in tertiary education This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence. As an open access journal, articles are free to use with proper attribution. ISSN: 2205-0795 International students’ transition to university: Connection and disconnection in online group work interactions 36 | Student Success, 10(2) August 2019 Introduction Group assignments are popularly used in higher education courses to facilitate social learning interactions among students. While these interactions can have advantages for learning, they can also provide students with opportunities to make social connections that can increase engagement (Zhao & Kuh, 2004). These social connections are important for all students in making a successful transition to university, but for international students, the social element of learning can also facilitate academic adjustment through language and cultural learning (Cruickshank, Chen, & Warren, 2012). Where group assignments would once have entailed face-to-face interaction, they are now often conducted using digital technologies, such as social network sites (SNSs) (Henderson, Selwyn, Finger, & Aston, 2015). For this reason, this study investigated the digitally-mediated experiences of international students in group assignment situations, and their resulting perceptions of connections to classmates.