Many significant developments have been continually and drastically evolved due to the change in the technological landscape. The consequence of technological advancements in education is the most essential and apparent among universities. The introduction of online courses has hence revolutionised the education experience for students in rendering flexibility and opportunities for learning. The present study is thereby conducted to explore and highlight the extent to which online courses and online learning, in general, expose the Saudi students in U.S. universities to new academic practices and cultural norms. For elucidating this researcher, the researcher adopted a qualitative for understanding and exploring the phenomenon. The data for the current study was collected using semi-structured interviews. To provide an overview, significant statements were analyzed and meaning units were generated for developing a full description of the phenomenon. Majorly, the participants in this study were graduate and undergraduate Saudi students who took online courses at U.S. universities between August 2015 and May 2017. The results of this study show that Saudi students’ academic performance was not affected by the method of delivering courses (face-to-face vs. online). In addition, Saudi students were introduced to a new classroom culture through the online courses. The results also revealed some advantages of online courses to those students such as flexibility and convenience. Technical issues were identified as a major challenge with online course. Primarily, the results of the phenomenological study are presented to help understand how Saudi students perceive online learning in U.S. universities and inform further research and practice on how to accommodate this growing group of international students in U.S. universities.
| Published in | Higher Education Research (Volume 5, Issue 1) |
| DOI | 10.11648/j.her.20200501.16 |
| Page(s) | 31-36 |
| Creative Commons |
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited. |
| Copyright |
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Science Publishing Group |
Saudi Student, Online Learning, Phenomenological Study, Higher Education, International Students, Western Universities
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APA Style
May Alashwal. (2020). The Experience of Saudi Students with Online Learning in U.S. Universities. Higher Education Research, 5(1), 31-36. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20200501.16
ACS Style
May Alashwal. The Experience of Saudi Students with Online Learning in U.S. Universities. High. Educ. Res. 2020, 5(1), 31-36. doi: 10.11648/j.her.20200501.16
AMA Style
May Alashwal. The Experience of Saudi Students with Online Learning in U.S. Universities. High Educ Res. 2020;5(1):31-36. doi: 10.11648/j.her.20200501.16
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Download@article{10.11648/j.her.20200501.16,
author = {May Alashwal},
title = {The Experience of Saudi Students with Online Learning in U.S. Universities},
journal = {Higher Education Research},
volume = {5},
number = {1},
pages = {31-36},
doi = {10.11648/j.her.20200501.16},
url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20200501.16},
eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.her.20200501.16},
abstract = {Many significant developments have been continually and drastically evolved due to the change in the technological landscape. The consequence of technological advancements in education is the most essential and apparent among universities. The introduction of online courses has hence revolutionised the education experience for students in rendering flexibility and opportunities for learning. The present study is thereby conducted to explore and highlight the extent to which online courses and online learning, in general, expose the Saudi students in U.S. universities to new academic practices and cultural norms. For elucidating this researcher, the researcher adopted a qualitative for understanding and exploring the phenomenon. The data for the current study was collected using semi-structured interviews. To provide an overview, significant statements were analyzed and meaning units were generated for developing a full description of the phenomenon. Majorly, the participants in this study were graduate and undergraduate Saudi students who took online courses at U.S. universities between August 2015 and May 2017. The results of this study show that Saudi students’ academic performance was not affected by the method of delivering courses (face-to-face vs. online). In addition, Saudi students were introduced to a new classroom culture through the online courses. The results also revealed some advantages of online courses to those students such as flexibility and convenience. Technical issues were identified as a major challenge with online course. Primarily, the results of the phenomenological study are presented to help understand how Saudi students perceive online learning in U.S. universities and inform further research and practice on how to accommodate this growing group of international students in U.S. universities.},
year = {2020}
}
TY - JOUR T1 - The Experience of Saudi Students with Online Learning in U.S. Universities AU - May Alashwal Y1 - 2020/02/10 PY - 2020 N1 - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20200501.16 DO - 10.11648/j.her.20200501.16 T2 - Higher Education Research JF - Higher Education Research JO - Higher Education Research SP - 31 EP - 36 PB - Science Publishing Group SN - 2578-935X UR - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.her.20200501.16 AB - Many significant developments have been continually and drastically evolved due to the change in the technological landscape. The consequence of technological advancements in education is the most essential and apparent among universities. The introduction of online courses has hence revolutionised the education experience for students in rendering flexibility and opportunities for learning. The present study is thereby conducted to explore and highlight the extent to which online courses and online learning, in general, expose the Saudi students in U.S. universities to new academic practices and cultural norms. For elucidating this researcher, the researcher adopted a qualitative for understanding and exploring the phenomenon. The data for the current study was collected using semi-structured interviews. To provide an overview, significant statements were analyzed and meaning units were generated for developing a full description of the phenomenon. Majorly, the participants in this study were graduate and undergraduate Saudi students who took online courses at U.S. universities between August 2015 and May 2017. The results of this study show that Saudi students’ academic performance was not affected by the method of delivering courses (face-to-face vs. online). In addition, Saudi students were introduced to a new classroom culture through the online courses. The results also revealed some advantages of online courses to those students such as flexibility and convenience. Technical issues were identified as a major challenge with online course. Primarily, the results of the phenomenological study are presented to help understand how Saudi students perceive online learning in U.S. universities and inform further research and practice on how to accommodate this growing group of international students in U.S. universities. VL - 5 IS - 1 ER -
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