Chinese University Students’ Digital Engagement in Post-COVID

A Sociomaterial Approach

Abstract

Many scholars internationally conducted research on teaching and learning during the pandemic. Some scholars identified positive changes in student academic performance and student satisfaction while others found negative impacts on students’ mental health. My observation is that Covid-19 and technology (non-human actors) have shaped students’ cognition (way of thinking), behavior (digital practices), and affection (mental health). In fact, in China, digital engagement has become an important part of the lives of university students even in the post-Covid era. This qualitative study aims to investigate two Chinese universities with focus on their students’ digital engagement from a sociomaterial perspective. This research focuses on three questions: 1) What are Chinese university students’ perceptions and practices of their digital study (2022-2023)? 2) What dilemmas or conflicts did they confront when they configured a digitally mediated learning space that constitutes messy assemblages of material and social practices? 3) How did they respond to new challenges (human actors and nonhuman actors)? In order to answer these questions, the study adopts interviews and visual analysis of individual digital learning environment (including imaging and texts). It offers insights on reframing student digital engagement as constantly shifting sociomaterial assemblages from which different forms of agency emerge as effects of connections and activity. These assemblages can be closely read and interpreted from the students’ dynamic study practices, which are not only social but also at times private and unobservable. The study will contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the human-material-digital practice and enactments for the Chinese academic community and beyond.