Abstract:

With the growth of interest to the opportunities provided by ICT development and online instruction, Russian Universities have been experimenting with new educational practices. The article reports the experiences from the implementation of an online course "Intercultural Business Communication" which has been designed to internationalize teaching, students’ learning activities and assessment in Business education in Russia.

The study focuses on forming intercultural communicative competence as an intrinsic part of global competences increasing undergraduates' competitiveness on the global and domestic labor markets. The authors present a case study of internationalizing at home, solving the problem of accessibility to forming global competencies of all University students but not only of mobile minority.

Basing on the study of the best global and local practices of internationalizing the disciplines, the authors offer possible ways of using a Small Open Online Course (SOOC) for delivering multiculturally enriched educational experience. In comparison with Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) the study demonstrates how the SOOC deals with unsatisfactory completion rates, questionable instructional quality of MOOCs but sustains their flexibility and measurability. Being designed for a comparatively limited group of participants, the SOOC shapes learners’ engagement providing satisfied instructor support, collaborative problem solving and instructor-to-student(s) and peer(s)-to-peer(s) interactions.

The case presents a unique for Russian higher educational context practice of delivering the course in multicultural groups of undergraduates as a part of Curriculum Internationalizing. Traditionally, the communication of domestic and international students is established in extracurricular activities as a part of Campus Internationalization. The course was implemented on the base of blended learning model, when students are able to study a part of a subject online.

The article also reveals the instructional design and course management solutions that resulted in recognition of the outcomes of students’ online and in-class learning activities in the form of university credits.

Keywords:

Curriculum internationalization, blended learning, intercultural communicative competence, small open online course, intercultural business communication.