The lived experience of Asian international students in online learning environments in higher education

Despite the large segment of Asian international students in higher education in the U.S. to date, there has not been adequate acknowledgement or exploration of the needs of Asian international students. The purpose of this study was to develop an inductive, comprehensive understanding of Asian international students’ lived experience in online learning environments. A descriptive phenomenological method was used to achieve the goal of this study: describing Asian international students’ lived experience in online learning environments. Ten Asian international students from China, Taiwan, Indonesia, and Thailand described the experiences that stood out for them in online learning environments. Verbatim transcriptions of interviews were used as the primary source of data in this study. Phenomenological analysis revealed seven themes emerged. Language barrier reflects how the participants’ language barrier shaped their experience in online learning environments, how the language barrier affected their learning, and how they perceived their language barrier. Relationships/interactions reflects how participants perceived their relationships/interactions with teachers and/or classmates, and how their relationships/interactions with teachers and/or classmates