5 Intercultural Competence in Online Learning

Building Intercultural Competence: Tools and Strategies

Instructing online classes requires a different set of skills than face-to-face classes to engage and motivate learners. Transitioning from a face-to-face course to an online course while using the same instructional methods is likely to lead to learner dissatisfaction and a decrease in learning. According to Karkar Esperat (2022), faculty teaching online should understand the best practices of online teaching pedagogy to increase student learning and satisfaction. While teaching international students in online courses, it is essential for faculty to apply online pedagogy practices while also incorporating cross-cultural pedagogy practices. Students can encounter feelings of being frustrated, overwhelmed, discouraged, and have less overall success in their online classes if their faculty are unprepared to teach online courses (Karkar Esperat, 2018).

Teaching online courses with students of various cultural backgrounds requires additional strategies that faculty should apply to ensure the success and satisfaction of learners in the course. Faculty teaching multicultural online courses need to be familiar with the best practices for online teaching and also be culturally knowledgeable of who the learners are in their class. According to Sadykova and Meskill (2019), online faculty need to better understand their own practices and their requirements so as to model, guide, mediate, and sometimes explicitly instruct international students in culturally appropriate ways of being and communicating in U.S. academic contexts if we wish to improve completion rates and slow attrition in online courses (p. 18). Numerous sources emphasize the need for faculty to be more proficient in online and cultural pedagogy to foster further collaboration among students, increase student learning, and improve student engagement and satisfaction in their online courses (Kung, 2017; Kumi-Yeboah, 2018; Sadykova & Meskill, 2019; Karkar Esperat, 2022; Wang & Reeves, 2007).

Strategies: 

1. Recognize your cultural biases and take time for self-reflection. Use the questions from Chapter One to guide you.
2. Acknowledge cultural differences in your class and make an effort to understand your students’ various backgrounds.
3. Learn about your students’ cultures by doing some research to better understand their perspectives.
4. Use culturally relevant examples throughout your course.
5. Keep communication simple and clear, avoid using jargon.
6. Set clear guidelines and allow flexibility when you can. Learners from different cultures may have different approaches to time management.
7. Encourage peer-to-peer and cross-cultural interactions.
8. Try to understand the challenges your students face by studying in a new culture and be patient and empathetic.
9. Provide individual support and resources to students who need them.
10. Ask your students for feedback to keep improving your course and your teaching.

Building Your Cultural Awareness Reflection Questions

1. How do you define “intercultural competence” in your role as an educator, and how does it impact your teaching practices?
2. How do you think your own cultural background influences your teaching style and interactions with learners?
3. What steps have you taken to become more culturally aware?
4. How do you ensure that learners from different cultural backgrounds feel valued and included in your classroom?
5. How do you address cultural misunderstandings that arise in your classroom?
6. How do you create a learning environment where all cultural perspectives are respected and celebrated?
7. In what ways do you encourage learners to share their cultural experiences and perspectives in the classroom?
8. How do you ensure that your course materials, examples, and resources reflect diverse cultural perspectives?
9. What strategies do you use to learn about the cultural backgrounds of your learners, and how do you integrate that knowledge into your teaching?