Abstract:

Online teaching and learning are not unprecedented items as previous studies provide various evidence on online courses from semi-online to fully online course trials. However, the insight into online courses lacks enough evidence due to limited practices especially before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The circumstances drastically changed due to the sudden outbreak that forced many educational institutions to significant shifts to fully online courses. This situation produced unexampled chaos to many institutions. However, it also offered us academics excellent opportunities to explore new knowledge and to acquire unexperienced pedagogies in the academic field of fully remote teaching.

This paper's main objective is to share the pedagogical evidence obtained from the all-online classes conducted during the spring of 2020. Notably, the courses employed intercultural and translanguaging approaches to online collaborative learning and this study examined students' learning outcomes. The main research questions are what challenges students faced in the fully online environments and what learning outcomes they achieved through those online classes. The surveys gathered data from two different courses from two universities in Japan. Both courses aimed at enhancing intercultural and international academic exchanges among university students from diverse cultural backgrounds. The surveys examined students' learning outcomes as well as challenges and the data analyses involved both qualitative and quantitative.

The primary analysis confirmed that students achieved various academic skills− discussion, presentation, leadership, teamwork and intercultural communication skills. The challenges involved improving ICT knowledge, information literacy, and utilizing Japanese and English for effective communication. The secondary analysis indicated that students had high satisfaction with the online settings and course designs for intercultural collaboration. These results suggest that all-online classes can provide students with the relevant and effective learning environment by extending autonomous and collaborative learning opportunities among students with diverse cultural backgrounds .

Keywords:

Online collaborative learning, student diversity, international academic exchange, translanguaging, intercultural communicative approach.