Brief write-up
Project objectives
To support the University’s desire to cultivate global citizenship and prosocial values, this project centered on the revision and evaluation of Intercultural communication and engagement abroad, a fully online General Education course for international exchange students, which included a newly-added intercultural-global citizenship project.
Activities, process and outcomes
Individually, in the host environment, the 26 course participants from diverse disciplines conducted videotaped interviews about interculturality and global citizenship with people who have a different cultural background. The students also recorded their own understandings and then submitted the edited material to our Blackboard site, where they ‘unpacked’ the videos in an online Forum.
Deliverables and evaluation
All of the data collected before, during, and after the 2018-19 offering of the online course (e.g., administrations of the Intercultural Development Inventory, Global Citizenship Scale (modified), pre- and post-course interviews, questionnaire surveys, videotaped projects, Blackboard forum-fieldwork posts, reflective essay) were analyzed. The results pointed to meaningful growth in intercultural competence and global citizenship identities. Perceptions of the project were overwhelmingly positive.
Dissemination, diffusion, impact and sharing of good practices
Details about this project and the findings of the evaluative case study have been widely disseminated at local, regional, and international events. 15-16 May 2019, the project supervisor hosted a conference with the theme ‘Internationalization: Optimizing Student Experience’, which provided an opportunity for local and international educators to discuss innovations in intercultural/global citizenship education. The project was showcased and in a student panel, some online course participants shared their views about the intercultural intervention.
