Designing and Evaluating an Interface System to Combat Loneliness and Isolation Among Non-Native Speakers of English

Abstract

International students are among the many groups of people who move away from their personal networks to a completely new environment for extended periods of time (Matook, Cummings, & Bala,2015). In a new environment, international students can find themselves experiencing difficulties interacting with other people, which could lead to loneliness and social isolation. This research aimed to investigate how interactive technology can be used as a possible platform that could help combat loneliness and social isolation among international students in universities. A Grounded Theory approach was adopted to gather and analyse the data needed to meet the objective of this research. In all stages of the research, simulation and hypothetical scenarios were used to meet the requirements of the Australian National University (ANU) Human Research Ethics Committee, such that participants did not have to disclose sensitive personal issues. The first stage of this research involved data collection through individual interviews with university students in the ANU. Common themes gathered from the individual interviews were used to create ideas for a prototype. To verify these ideas, focus group sessions were conducted with university students in the ANU. While findings from the focus group have indicated the feasibility and approval for these ideas, a deeper analysis revealed an underlying theme that is associated with international students’ loneliness and social isolation. A lack of cultural competence was observed to be the underlying issue that might have caused difficulties for international students to interact with other people, which may eventually cause loneliness and social isolation. This conclusion, combined with conclusions about the ideas discussed in the focus group, developed into the ideation of a prototype that could help combat loneliness and social isolation among international students by familiarising themselves with the new area, culture, and ways of communication to develop cultural competence. The prototype was designed as a role-playing interface system that simulates common scenarios in Australia to build familiarity in these three aspects. The prototype was also designed to encourage international students to approach real people and real events in the real world, to apply what they have learned in the prototype and build real life connections. The second stage of this research involves the use of user studies as a method of exploring whether newly-arrived international students would find the features in this prototype useful as a selfmanagement tool to increase their cultural competence. The user studies were done with current or former international students from the ANU. Analysis from the results of the user studies gave rise to the conclusions of this research. Three conclusions can be made at the end of this research. 1. Lack of cultural competence was revealed to be an underlying issue behind international students’ loneliness and social isolation, as it may restrict the quality and quantity of social interaction. 2. Simulation and hypothetical scenarios involving cultural competence can be employed in interactive technology to help prevent loneliness and social isolation. 3. Simulation and hypothetical scenarios appeared to have successfully handled the ethical barriers to investigating the themes associated with this issue. Ideas for future work in this area are discussed Show more