The Experience of International Student Using Social Media during Classes

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. 

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.