Speaker
Description
Factors such as cost, time, an inward disposition, and more recently, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have reduced the number of Japanese students willing or able to study abroad. In the face of this situation, a number of universities in Southeast Asia, including Japan, have instead pursued Internationalisation at Home (IaH), or providing students with online learning opportunities without the need to travel abroad. IaH has been manifested, for example, through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), which can lead to developing learner language, intercultural and content skills. However, as a discipline of research, COIL is still relatively new. More research is needed for COIL in terms of how group work and individual learning situations can help promote learner motivation and cultural awareness, especially in inter-Asia COIL projects. This poster presentation uses both qualitative and quantitative data from 17 students enrolled at a mid-level Japanese university engaged in a COIL project based on their major of tourism over a 10-week period with students from a university in Hong Kong. This poster presentation may be of interest to educators who teach tourism majors and seek to develop or revisit COIL projects in Asia.
ABSTRACT
Universities in Southeast Asia, including in Japan, are pursuing online Internationalisation to provide students with more international and intercultural learning exposure, sometimes referred to as Internationalization at Home (IaH). One way of establishing IaH is through Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL), which is a process of learning to develop language and intercultural skills and content knowledge (Appiah-Kubi & Annan, 2020). However, as a research discipline, COIL is relatively new, and researchers have identified the need to investigate how intercultural competence develops, especially in non-Western environments (Pharaoh & Li, 2022). This poster presentation uses mixed methods data from 17 students from a tourism faculty at a Japanese university engaged in a COIL project over a 10-week period with students from a university in Hong Kong. Results on a pre- and post- survey saw significant changes in perceived motivation, content knowledge of Japanese and Hong Kong tourism issues, and key skills such as teamwork and timekeeping. However, changes in confidence and individual learning seem less affected by interactions with Hong Kong students, and more by groupings in the Japanese classroom. This poster presentation may be of interest to educators who teach tourism and seek to develop or revisit COIL projects in Asia.
KEYWORDS
COIL, Asian contexts, affective factors, Japanese university students
| TITLE | The effects of an Inter-Asian COIL program on Japanese university students’ |
|---|---|
| RELEVANT SIG | Learner Development |
| FORMAT | In-person interactive poster session |
