Collaborative Online International Learning Experiences as tools to reduce stereotypes through Cross-Cultural Education

Abstract

In today's increasingly interconnected world, intercultural education has become essential to foster mutual understanding and cooperation, especially in countries where the internationalization of students is more complicated. When studying different cultures in business, we realized that there are many stereotypes and biases due to all the load of information and history that each of us has. As a professor of international business, I have had the privilege of participating in numerous intercultural experiences. I will share one particularly experience that not only broadened my horizons but also highlighted the importance of cultural sensitivity and empathy; not only in me, but in the students.

My research was to understand the cultural factors that influenced educational outcomes using collaborative online international learning (COIL) experiences. I have worked on several occasions using COIL doing role-plays where students interpreted a culture different from their own to identify cultural and business differences. In the last experience, I faced something that changed my perspective, I worked with a Canadian university that told me that due to intercultural stereotypes and their culture of respect, the roleplay cannot be done.

We decided to change the role play and do the project playing their own culture. The outcome of the collaboration was excellent. The students got to learn from working with other students from a different culture. They learned the importance of respecting their own culture, they changed their perspective on stereotypes and diversity. They are more prepared to face an international experience and an intercultural team in their workplace in the future.

Keywords: Educational Innovation, higher education, online, diversity, experiential learning, cross cultural education