Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE) - Volume 21 - Issue 1 - Evaluating Students’Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Online Intercultural Learning Experience via a SPOC

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by nayy☆

Evaluating Students’Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Online Intercultural Learning Experience via a SPOC examines how small private online courses (SPOCs) can support “Internationalization at Home” for university teaching assistants. Drawing on a collaborative 3-week online course between partner institutions in Hong Kong and Singapore, it considers how instructional design, cultural context, and prior e-learning experience shape learner perceptions and affect online interaction with overseas counterparts. The study applies a 3-phase strategic framework and uses mixed methods combining survey feedback with focus groups and open-ended responses.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryResearch & Report

FormatPDF

Pages24

Reading Time1 h 0 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Internationalization and intercultural competence

Internationalization at Home and SPOCs

Study context and course design

Current Issues in Comparative Education (CICE) Volume 21, Issue 1 Evaluating Students’Perceptions on the Effectiveness of Online Intercultural Learning Experience via a SPOC Lisa Law Hong Kong Baptist University Muhammad Hafiz Hong Kong Baptist University Theresa Kwong Hong Kong Baptist University Eva Wong Hong Kong Baptist University Introduction “Internationalization” has become a priority for many higher education institutions across the globe to raise the intercultural competence of their graduates. The major aim is for university graduates to become global citizens possessing essential attributes like a global mindset, intercultural competence, social responsibility and the ability to work in multicultural teams (Soria & Troisi, 2013) . Intercultural competence refers to intercultural awareness, intercultural sensitivity and intercultural behaviour (Chen & Starosta, 1996; Root & Ngampornchai, 2012). It is broadly defined as having the knowledge about several dimensions of global and international cultures; appreciation of cultural, racial, and ethnic diversity; understanding of the complexity of issues in a global context; and comfort in working with people from other cultures (Soria & Troisi, 2013) . Despite the good intention by universities in developing students’ intercultural sensitivity, awareness and maturity through overseas exchange programs (Braskamp et al., 2009) with their overseas partners, not all students can have the opportunity to partake in such programs due to factors like costs, possible delay in graduation, concerns to being in an unfamiliar environment, possible discriminations, etc. (Dessoff, 2006; Shaftel et al., 2007) . Notwithstanding, with advances in telecommunication technologies, many institutions are deploying various online learning platforms for curriculum designers to create opportunities for international contact and intercultural exchange for their students with less physical and time constraints. Thus, students’ learning contents can be enriched with the integration of intercultural dimensions which contribute to actualizing the concept of internationalizing the curriculum (Leask, 2013) . An increasing demand to develop small private online courses (SPOCs) and the emergence of new technologies which allow students to interact with their invited overseas counterparts without leaving their respective hometowns, have given to the concept of ‘Internationalization at Home’(IaH) (Landorf, Doscher, & Hardrick, 2018). IaH allows curriculum designers to incorporate the international and intercultural dimensions into the formal and informal curriculums for students to experience within domestic learning environments (Beelen & Jones, 2015) . © 2019, Current Issues in Comparative Education, Teachers College, Columbia University. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Current Issues in Comparative Education 21(1), 69-92. Law, Hafiz, Kwong, & Wong In order to provide students with the opportunity to learn with their overseas counterparts without leaving their homes, collaborative online learning could be a way forward. Two Asian partner universities located in Hong Kong and Singapore, with the same institutional strategic goal of “Internationalization” had worked together to enrich a diverse group of (n=93) research postgraduate students (referred as‘teaching assistants’[TAs] in this paper) by organizing a joint venture on collaborative online learning during the first semester of the 2018-2019 academic year. Participating TAs in this study had different levels of prior online learning experience. A 3-week online course was developed by a team from the teaching and learning office of a leading liberal arts university in Hong Kong (U1), using a proprietary e-learning platform. Out of the 93 TAs, 11 TAs from a leading technological university in Singapore (U2) enrolled in this online course. The purpose of the 3-week online course was to provide TAs with the key teaching and learning conce

FAQs

What problem does the paper address regarding internationalization opportunities?

It addresses that not all students can join overseas exchange programs due to factors such as cost, possible delays in graduation, unfamiliar environments, and discrimination concerns, so alternatives are needed.

How does the study define Internationalization at Home (IaH)?

IaH enables curriculum designers to integrate international and intercultural dimensions into formal and informal curricula so students can experience them within domestic learning settings.

What mixed methods does the study use to evaluate online intercultural learning?

It uses quantitative online feedback surveys and qualitative data from focus group discussions along with an open-ended question set.

Oct 15, 2026

Upload by nayy☆