Sessions

An Overview and Evaluation of an Online Intercultural Education Course

The global pandemic has limited student mobility, thus reducing intercultural learning opportunities. These sorts of learning opportunities remain crucial, however, for students to develop skills for intercultural communication. Many educational contexts are now faced with a need to provide intercultural learning by transforming curricula to online modes of delivery. The presentation outlines an online intercultural education course at Sojo University, Kumamoto. Originally established for face-to-face instruction, the course was converted to online delivery. Aims include fostering intercultural learning, developing awareness of diversity in English language, and supporting independent learning skills. In the presentation we outline the educational framework guiding the course, and provide examples of online activities including observations, surveys, posting opinions, and media research. For added context, we include qualitative data on how the framework, in its face-to-face application, was seen in self-reflective writing and self-evaluative end-of-course comments among 69 students. A content analysis using data-driven coding revealed some meaningful intercultural learning. Informal observations of learning using the online application suggest the depth of intercultural learning has been enhanced in the online course format. The presentation aims to offer teachers in other settings a potentially useful and relevant example of online intercultural education in home contexts.