ERIC Number: EJ1134312
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2017
Pages: 8
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0307-5079
EISSN: N/A
Erasmus Students' Involvement in Quality Enhancement of Erasmus+ Mobility through Digital Ethnography and ErasmusShouts
Klemencic, Manja; Žnidaršic, Martin; Vavpetic, Anže; Martinc, Matej
Studies in Higher Education, v42 n5 p925-932 2017
Erasmus+ is one of the European Union's flagship programs which supports short-term international student mobility within Europe as one of its primary purposes. Erasmus students are uniquely well placed to compare educational processes of their home and host institutions, the learning environments and student life conditions. They are so far under-utilized resource of information on quality of educational practices and insights on how to improve student experiences. Furthermore, international students often lack a collective voice in university structures where they could contribute to the decisions concerning quality of educational practices. So far, student surveys have been the most frequently used approach in understanding lived experiences of Erasmus and international students. This commentary argues that qualitative approaches to collect data on student lived experiences are superior to survey research, yet more costly. In times when all students are digital natives, it has become possible, however, to canvass data from students through digital ethnographic approaches. The commentary introduces ErasmusShouts, a web application, which engages Erasmus students as auto-ethnographers and prompts them to reflect on, and record their lived experiences of Erasmus mobility. This approach can be adopted to generate large-scale qualitative data on international students' experiences for use by higher education practitioners and researchers to improve educational practices and learning environments.
Descriptors: Student Mobility, Educational Cooperation, International Cooperation, College Students, Comparative Analysis, Educational Practices, Foreign Students, Ethnography, Foreign Countries, Educational Quality, Qualitative Research, Student Surveys, Student Attitudes, Electronic Publishing, Educational Experience, Reflection
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: European Union
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A