A study abroad program offers numerous benefits and holds significant importance in a student's educational and personal development. It offers a transformative and enriching experience that can positively impact a student's personal, academic, and professional life. We propose a short-term study abroad and cultural exchange program where one of…

This design case describes the design of a multimodal learning environment that took place in the context of a funded study on the development of an online, multimodal, and tangible cross-border exchange program aimed at creating experiences that closely simulate face-to-face study abroad (SA) experiences in the post-pandemic context. Although…

Intercultural competence (IC) is essential for fostering meaningful interactions and understanding in diverse environments, particularly in today's pluralistic societies. The impacts of both intercultural competence and incompetence are profound, shaping relationships and outcomes in various ways. Many definitions of IC emphasize being 'effective'…

With increasing global interconnectivity, effective cross-cultural interaction has become crucial for global citizens. However, learners in non-English speaking countries often lack practical English communicative skills and opportunities for authentic language practice. This study explores the effectiveness of a virtual exchange programme in…

Affordance refers to the opportunity available to a learning activity. Taking affordance as a theoretical and analytical construct, this exploratory study investigates learners' attitudes and the opportunities WeChat may provide for Chinese cultural knowledge (CCK) learning. The aim is to find out the potential new affordances and compare learners…

Virtual mobility experiences provide a valuable option to enrich student learning and development from home. However, there is a lack of evidence of how these online experiences are leveraged in STEM and their potential positive effect on students' critical thinking capabilities. This study explores and details the design of a short-term virtual…

In this qualitative study, we analyzed the processes of a collaborative online international learning (COIL) collaboration between two higher education institutions in Japan and the United States from the perspective of the technological, pedagogical, and content knowledge (TPACK) framework. The research question this study aimed to address was:…

Online program design is important for cross-cultural learning and cultural awareness and responsiveness. Because of the importance of these areas in journalism and similar fields, this research studies an intercultural "bridge" project with journalism and media-related students at a southwest U.S. university and four universities in…