The Experience of International Student Using Social Media during Classes

Abstract

The purpose of the study is to explore the use of social media by international students during
classes and discern the pros and cons of their use of social media. An explanatory sequential
mixed methods design is used to give evidence about the research problem starting with a
quantitative method (questionnaire) and then a qualitative method (semi-structured
interviews). The study shows that 64.4% of international students used social media during
classes while 35.6% did not. In terms level of satisfaction, the study result shows that males
and females were not significant different in this regard. Additionally, most of the participants
57.4% used social media for 1-10 minutes, while 27.7% used them for 11 to 30 minutes of
class time. Some international students used social media for coping with the weakness of
their knowledge during class time, whereas the majority of them indicated that they used
social media for surviving the transition of relocating form their own countries to United
State as sojourners by stating that they used social media to stay connected with and informed
about their family, friends, and country news and events. The use of social media during
classes should be integrated with the learning environment, especially regarding the
motivation of use, which can potentially provide success in overcoming most reasons for
frustration and home sickness.