Higher Education

A sample of 206 second-year Education students completed questionnaires on issues relating to their preparation for and perceptions of two methods of assessment of the same course: an assignment essay and an end-of-course multiple choice question (MCQ) examination. The questionnaire required a simultaneous response for each assessment method to statements focusing on their learning approaches, their perceptions of the levels of intellectual abilities being assessed, and their preference for either the assignment essay or MCQ examination as an assessment method of the course and the reasons for their choices. The above variables were analysed in relation to each other and to performance outcome in both assessment tasks. Results suggest distinct patterns according to assessment method. Students were more likely to employ surface learning approaches in the MCQ examination context and to perceive MCQ examinations as assessing knowledge-based (lower levels of) intellectual processing. Poorer performance in the MCQ examination was associated with the employment of deep learning strategies. In contrast, students were more likely to employ deep learning approaches when preparing their assignment essays which they perceived as assessing higher levels of cognitive processing. Poorer performance in the assignment essays was associated with the employment of surface strategies. The implications of these findings are discussed.

Evidence suggests that the COVID-19 pandemic has significantly impacted international student communities while reflecting wider societal inequalities. This study in the Finnish context examined international students’ experiences of the published national crisis communication and media usage during the first year of the pandemic. Using the national COVID-19 crisis communication practices as an example, we examined what kinds of strategies the international students deployed to access information in this non-English-speaking country and how they perceived the information communicated. Theoretically, we based the analysis on the theories of crisis communication and information inequality, which identify communication practices, such as language choice, that differentiate groups of people and impact their health outcomes. These are combined with rhizomic understanding, as reported by Deleuze and Guattari (1988/2020), of accessing media, and extended it to a mobile group of people (international students) living transnational lives. The data included interviews with international students studying at Finnish universities. The findings show that the students deployed five interlinked strategies to access information during the COVID-19 pandemic that highlight the heterogeneity of information and its usage, global asynchronousness of pandemic paths, and temporal changes in approaching information.