#2. ERASMUS PROJECT : Building our final discussion guide
The Panteion Lab « News Consumers Trends » led by Betty Tsakarestou is conceived as a discussion around the recent forms of collaborative consumption, social networks and social medias platforms. The goal is to analyse in a widen perspective the practices of those new mediums by a community group, a startup, an association and so on.
Our team is mainly composed by Erasmus students, who are living right now in Athens, along with another former Greek Erasmus student, including Vivien Lobenwein, Mélanie, Ivan Vorona, Lou and Eleni-Boralda Manelari.
Hence, and according to our own experiences, we focus our research on this question : « How do Erasmus students live — as expatriates — with the social networks and the social media platforms ? »
We have previously defined the four topics we are willing to study here. Then, we proceed to create a Discussion Guide. This document, based on questions relatives to our hypothesis and topics of research is adress to our community of interest : the Erasmus student in Athens now.
After testing the Discussion Guide between us, which is relevant according to the fact that the members of our team are in Erasmus mobility as well, we realized that our questions were not specified enough. Most of them brought us necessary informations but failed to provide us a deeper understanding of the Erasmus students’ social medias behaviours.
Thanks to those lacks, we realize the importance of the context to conceive our Discussion Guide. Indeed, there is some ‘community’ situations shared by most of the Erasmus students : housemating, university, parties and events or trips organized by student organisations as ESN and the financial topic.
So from now on, our research is oriented into a qualitative process. Our objectives is to make interviews — with video and recording mediums — with Erasmus Students in the 5 contexts we have just mentioned.
I. HOUSEMATING
At first glance, going to Erasmus mobility feel like a leap into the unknown. An unknown that we imagine being full of discoveries and experiences. However, it also mean to leave out your habits, routine, friends and… house. So, moving to another place can be somehow perceived as a source of anxiety, and one of the first concerns for students. In order to ease this need to find a location, startups and social platforms were blooming this last past years : Couchsurfing, Airbnb, Students network etc.
In parallel, it became a common task to get in touch through internet with people you have never met before and create some ‘virtual’ relationships. In any case, moving from a country to another provoke undeniably changes in your social life as well as your behaviour on social medias. And, that is precisely what we are trying to discover here.
So, according to our four topics of interest, we create a Discussion Guide adapted to the Housemating context. We will proceed to several interviews : with one girl, two boys and six people living in the same flat.
Here you find the examples.
Situation = Shared flat with 3 girls from Hungary.
- Hi, can you do a short presentation of yourself ?
#name #nationality #age #studies - Why did you choose Athens as an Erasmus destination ?
#lifestyle #study #family or friends ? - What was your reaction when you know you were accepted in Erasmus program ?
#feelings #posting — sharing the news on social media - What were your first concerns ?
#flat #university #friends - How did you find your flat ?
#platforms #socialmedias #contacts - Would you say that the social medias and platforms have been useful in your research ?
#story about research - Imagine that Internet does not exist. How would you proceed to find a place in Athens ?
- Did you wanted to live with housemates ? Have you done this before ?#personal story and will
- Did you have some fears or expectations about it ?
#specific nationality, genre, age of housemates - How would you define your relationships with your housemates ?
- How is the communication going between you ?
#facebook group #whatsapp group - Have you a kind of sharing economy together ?
#sharing #exchanges #common money for house - Are you doing events or parties together out of home ?
II. UNIVERSITY
The Erasmus exchange program is one of the greatest culture and character building programs that you can have in your whole life. Studying abroad is a unique experience, because you have the opportunity to learn new ways of teaching, to collaborate with the professors and the other Erasmus students and of course to earn knowledge. Certainly, this is not something easy, but is a great challenge for yourself to accomplish the courses and the projects by using a foreign language.
So, in this second part of the article, which contain our four topics of interest, we created a Discussion Guide adapted to the University context.
Here you find some examples of questioning.
Situation = 2 foreigners Erasmus students interviewed at his University, Panteion University of Political and Social Science.
- Why did you choose Panteion university?
#exchange program with my home university #special courses #city - Which was your first impression?
- Which courses did you choose?
#examples - Which type of classes do you prefer?
#examples - How is you experience comparing to your home university?
#different courses #new experience - How is you experience of studying in English?
#difficulties - How is your communication with local students?
#new friends - Do you use the university canteen? Why?
#free meals #close - Do you use the university library? Why?
#studying - How do you feel to study abroad with your level of English?
#accomplishment #progress - How hard is studying in Panteion University? Why?
#facing difficulties
III. PARTIES AND EVENTS
Going to Erasmus is known to be an experience full of adventure. And this adventure will, of course, be full of events and parties all along. Those kind of things will pace your new life and make you meet a bunch of people. Erasmus student go to school throughout the week, but try to discover and enjoy their new country’s life by attending events during the rest of the time. This is a way for them to really live the Erasmus experience.
Those events or parties can be of all kind. They are often organized by the universities’s main association such as ESN — Erasmus Student Network — or by any entity whithin the city. It can be cultural visits of the city’s monument, social activities, theme party…
So in this part of the article, we will try to find out how an Erasmus student organize his life out of school. According to our four topics of interest, we create a Discussion Guide adapted to the Parties/Events context.
Here you find some examples of questionning.
Situation = interviewing Erasmus students in an actual party in Athens
- What kind of event do you mostly attend here in Athens?
#cultural #entertainment - Did your university made some cultural visits you attended?
#museums #monuments - What kind of activities have you done since you are here?
#visit #hiking #going to the beach - Do you go the your university’s parties?
#give some example - How do you proceed to be aware of all those events?
#social media #friends #special websites - Are you influenced by your friends on the choice of the place you are going?
- Did you join some groups / websites to be aware of events and parties in Athens?
#facebook groups #give examples - Do you often use the Facebook events to identify new events? Do you put your participation on them?
- Did you use to do all of those things, or did you change you habits when you begun the Erasmus experience?
- Do you think that attending those “Erasmus events” are a real part of the experience?
IV. TRIPS
We all know that Erasmus students have plenty of free time. They do attend their classes, but still there’s always free time to do what they love more. Besides the parties and the events they join at their host city, they do travel a lot to other places as well. Indeed, this trips are part of the Erasmus experience even if it depends of time, money and will. Every Erasmus student has a different situation and personal point of view about this topic. Hence, we will question some of them, during a trip that they organized themselves due to friendship affinity on an island near of Athens, Santorini.
Here you find some examples of questioning.
Situation = Self-organized trip with Erasmus student in Santorini for a week end
Erasmus students : Paula (Spain, 20 years old) Lucas (Spain, … years old)
- How do you choose your destination?
#cheap tickets #friends home city - Usually you travel alone or with friends?
- Do you prefer to visit cities of your host country or other countries
#examples - Which is the best way of traveling in terms of stay?
#couchsurfing #hostel #hotel - Do you spend your money from the scholarship on travels?
- How long does your trip last usually ?
#weekend #week #day - How do you spend your money during your trips?
#souvenirs #activities #shopping - Do you visit some places more than once?
#special places #events #friends - What is your favorite thing about travelling?
#new experiences #new friends #visit #culture - Do you attend to the trips organized by your university? Why?
- Do you think that external trips are part of the ERASMUS experience?
V. FINANCES
As we all live in capitalism, we found it also useful to add a part about finances. We are curious, if the Erasmus scholarship is enough for living, according to what we want or have to spend. In this discussion, we try to understand how Erasmus students manage their money and budget. We would to see if community’s living creates a certain kind of collaborative consumption between housemates or classmates.
- How do you prefer to pay on abroad?
#cash #card #online - How did you finance your life in the country?
#work #saving #scholarship - Did you get some help?
#family #scholarship - What are your major expenses?
#food #events #rent #travels - Do you use any Mobile apps to pay?
#applications (example : Paypal) - If you are out of money, from whom do you borrow money?
#parents #erasmus friends - Do you check your expenses regularly ?
#application - If you are living in a shared flat, how do you finance commons?
#system #randomly - Did you find some ways to reduce your expenses ?
For food? #free meals at university #common food with flatmates
For transport? #uber #transport card for student #not paying
To communication? #sim card #free wifi spots
For events or trips? # special discounts #free places or events
- Is it the first you are managing the money by your own ?
#independence #personal life #education
