Chinese Students’ Perception and Expectation of Online and Post-Pandemic Teaching and Learning Approaches in a UK Transnational Program
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report (Previous Reviewer 2)
Thanks for the revision. I think it reads well now. Good luck with the rest process.
Author Response
Thank you kindly for your positive feedback
Reviewer 2 Report (New Reviewer)
General comments
Many grammatical errors. I would recommend extensive English editing.
The abstract
1- the abstract needs extensive editing in terms of structure, for instance;
"Surveys were circulated amongst students to collect qualitative and quantitative data regarding infrastructure for online learning (internet, IT device, learning platforms and study place) as well as the challenges and expectations of online learning including student preference towards the delivery of materials in the post-pandemic era. Focus groups, facilitated by the delivery team, were organised to explore common themes arising from the surveys and to understand student requirements more thoroughly for a successful TNE program"
How did you conduct each research design? Both qualitative and quantitative should be addressed in detail. Do not let the reader guess!!
The abstract must be improved.
Line 133, 134 "To date, no investigation has been conducted to determine current teaching expectations of students in the post-pandemic era in a transnational context."
Are you sure? So, what are the differences between your work and this article?
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2021.711619/full
What about the three instruments used in this study, two surveys and a qualitative tool, adopted? Adapted? Validation? Please explain all this information.
Author Response
Please see attachment
Author Response File: 
Author Response.pdf
This manuscript is a resubmission of an earlier submission. The following is a list of the peer review reports and author responses from that submission.
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Dear Authors,
I am sorry that my review is not positive for your manuscript. I am aware that you have put an important effort on your manuscript. From my point of view, your paper has too many limitations to be considered suitable for a Scopus Q2 journal such as Education Sciences. My main concerns are listed below:
- The quantitative instruments you use in you research have not been validated previously and you don't analyze their reliability. This is a major concern to me as the validity and reliability of your research is seriously compromised by this fact.
- You just report almost only descriptive statistics. From my point of view, you have had the chance to perform several statistical inferential analysis (by gender, group...) and you haven't done it. The only inferential statistical analysis that you report refers to "students were asked via the initial survey to select which method of teaching 304 would they prefer. It was significantly (P < .001) determined by all levels and degree pathways that students would prefer a hybrid model of delivery compared to face to face or online learning model". You don't report the F value or whatever statistical test you have used (it's not included in the text, you just report a "p" value).
- Introduction section should be widely broadened. Less than 30 references to support your theoretical basis and discuss all your results seems too few to me. In this sense, the introduction section is really short and does not prove the need or relevance to perform this study. The mere fact as you indicate that something has not been done before (to date, no investigation has been conducted to determine current teaching expectations in the post pandemic era in a transnational context) is not enough to justify the relevance of your study.
- You set three main objectives in your study, but hypothesis are not clearly defined nor theoretically justified.
- There are several important limitations in your study (low sample size, type of sampling, use of non-validated instruments...) and you don't refer or discuss them. Even the best research papers in the world have limitations that must be addressed and discussed. This is also an important limitation to me.
Reviewer 2 Report
This study investigates students' online learning experiences in a China-UK transnational programme, especially in the post-covid period. Several issues exist in the paper and the author may need to make further changes.
1. The author needs to include a review of related TNHE papers published in recent years, especially about students' learning issues not only about the China-UK but also in other regions, for example, Australia, the US.
2. It is important to include some theoretical discussions about the related issues. The current writing mainly focuses on describing the findings but without theoretical discussion. The author may also consider the concept of in-betweenness in the TNHE context.
3. Finding and discussion should focus on the TNHE context. The current study mainly discusses online learning in general. What are the connections between TNHE and these online teaching/learning activities? What are the differences between these online learning and traditional learning in the TNHE context?
I hope the author could consider the above issues in the revision. Good luck.
