Last Monday, students from the University of Guelph-Humber in Toronto, Canada, where I teach a course on #Intercultural Communication and Fatih Mehmet Sultan Vakif University in Istanbul, Turkey, wrapped up an exciting four-week journey of Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL)! 🎉
COIL is a unique opportunity for students (and their instructors) to engage in virtual intercultural exchanges. Over 60 students from our two universities participated, diving into a world of cultural exploration and communication.
🗣️ Getting Started
The adventure began with students sharing a culturally relevant object from their home countries. This helped everyone learn about each other’s backgrounds and sparked meaningful conversations.
📚 Key Concepts Explored
To guide our discussions, I created an introductory PowerPoint covering essential intercultural concepts, including:
Culture 🌐
Ethnocentrism 🚫
Bias ⚖️
Communication Styles 💬
Verbal and Nonverbal Communication 👀
Intercultural Competency Models 📊
🌟 Collaborative Group Projects
Students were organized into small groups of 4-5 composed of students from both universities and connected virtually through platforms like WhatsApp. They collaborated to build proposals addressing various intercultural scenarios, focusing on:
Learning and Workplace Environments 🏢
Media and Popular Culture 🎥
Tourism and Travel ✈️
💡 Creative Insights
As I reviewed their proposals, I was amazed by the creativity and depth of their topics! Some highlights included:
Analyzing miscommunication in popular marketing campaigns 📈
Exploring idioms and metaphors in English and Turkish 🗨️
Negotiating different hospitality customs and workplace cultures 🍽️
🎨 Multimedia Projects
Last week, students submitted their multimedia projects on a shared platform called Padlet. They also shared insights of their COIL experience during our virtual meeting, which I captured using Mentimeter.
🌈 The Power of Collaboration
I was truly astounded by the breadth of their research and the innovative solutions they proposed to enhance intercultural communication. Most students were new to the concept of intercultural competence, which highlights the incredible potential of COIL as an engaging learning opportunity.
🚀 Conclusion
This experience not only showcased the power of collaboration but also emphasized the importance of intercultural understanding in our globalized world. 🌏 With guidance and support, we can all have the capacity to develop our intercultural competency and thrive in a more connected future!
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