Teachers' and support staff's views and experiences of digitally mediated EMI courses in two different university contexts

This study aimed to investigate teachers’ and support staff’s views and experiences of teaching and supporting students in digitally mediated English Medium Instruction (EMI) courses in two different university contexts in Japan and Malaysia. Teaching in an EMI online setting was analysed through a behavioural science lens, adopting the Theoretical Domains Framework and the Capability, Opportunity, Motivation - Behaviour (COM-B) model. A survey and interviews were used to collect data from 20 teachers and 15 support staff. Descriptive statistics, alongside inductive and deductive thematic analysis were used to analyse the data. Overall, the findings suggest that the teachers and support staff perceived themselves as capable, motivated and with favourable physical and social opportunities to deliver their work. Challenges reported were often related to the social influence of student engagement and participation (social opportunity), which impacted on staff confidence (reflective motivation) in delivery. Lack of EMI-specific and information technology (IT) training (psychological capability) and the online infrastructure (physical opportunity) were further underlined. These results highlighted areas for future intervention including education, training, modelling and environmental restructuring and highlighted the nuanced differences in experiences and influences on behaviour between the two contexts and their related policies and environments.