USING CANVAS DISCUSSIONS TO FOSTER INTERCULTURAL

CONVERSATIONS

By Anne Tuominen, Lindsay Custer, Brandy Long

Senior Assoc. Faculty (Sociology), Full-time Faculty (Sociology), Asst. Director of

eLearning

Cascadia College

Building a

HOW to do this?

◦ Through organized study abroad

◦ Through engaging students’ private

experiences abroad

◦ Through cross-cultural online conversations,

the COIL model (Collaborative Online

International Learning):

◦Between students in two different societies

◦Between domestic and international

students

Cross—

cultural

bridge

Collaboration between

Japan Women’s University

and Cascadia College

Considerations for the cultural online exchange

◦Use Canvas, since U.S. students already in a Canvas

course

◦Choose topic that was familiar to the Japanese

students as the discussion would be in English

◦ Include opportunity to share both visual images and

discussion

◦ Structure discussion points

◦Model the exchange exercise with the two professors

The conversation topic “Borrowing Cultural Symbols”

Structuring the assignment

Technological set-up

◦Create new section in US Canvas course

◦Manually add 113 foreign student names

and emails

◦SIS Import feature

◦Manual adjustments

◦Locking quizzes and sensitive course items

Creating new accounts and using SIS import

Two choices: how to add the students to the course

Canvas course

roster, with section for Japanese students

Professors model the exchange

Hi everyone! I’m Lindsay Custer…in Tokyo,

Japan…..The Japanese have borrowed

many Western holidays including

Christmas, Halloween…

Hi Professor Custer and students…I’m Anne

Tuominen…at Cascadia College…What I see

in Prof. Custer’s selected images is a mixing of

cultural symbols….

Rich exchanges, despite the

numbers and small glitches

ResultsParticipation:

◦ 4 active Japanese participants, out of 28 who ultimately accepted invitation to the course (113 invitations sent)

◦ 16 out of 32 U.S. participants, including 2 International students

Problems:

◦ Bugs/glitch: Non US native computers some times have translation challenges in Canvas where files don’t upload properly or lock when uploading.

◦ Files not in students’ accounts, so couldn’t troubleshoot if it was Canvas or network

◦ Time difference/linguistic differences created challenges in mediating problems

Hello, my name is Tina*, U.S. STUDENT, and I am a student at Cascadia College…….I decided to use a photo that recently came across my Facebook feed (below). It is an appropriated by many Americans in today' society. The…photo is basically making fun of the fact that Americans always get tattoos of Chinese words or quotes, yet the Chinese culture never gets tattoos of words or quotes in English.

I thought this photo was interesting because I had never thought of using it as a reflection of appropriation in this class, but I believe that it is fitting.

*pseudonyms used in student examples

Hi Kimberly, I’m Mariko Japanese student

Hi everybody, I’m Lisa, U.S. student,The picture I chose for this was one of singer Keshawearing a feathered headdress like those of the Native American culture would. ….[It] is being appropriated in this example through United States pop culture.

Hi, I’m Yuki, Japanese student, This is an example of Western style wedding in Japan…..

Hi, my name is Calvin, International Student at U.S. institution….….and I am majoring in bussiness transfer in Cascadia.

I really like your example. Honesty, I alwasy thought that pizza is

orginal from US. I was quite shock that the pizza was from Italy.

(italians alwasy made delicious food, no doubt.) …… I dont really

expect that the US pizza is just a bigger version of Italy pizza. it more

likely suit to be here. Everyone…accetped this type of food. As

same as many Asian restaurant, it is unfortunately that they lost their

orgenal taste, but they have second chance to live in this land,

serve….here, and amuse here. it is a great example, and reminded

my a lot!! Thanks for share.

What did our Bridge accomplish?

√An online cultural exchange using a tool available in many institutions

√Increased access to cultural competency opportunities for community college students and women’s university students

√A lively exchange of images and discussion between students across societies on a topic of sociological importance

√An opportunity for International Students in U.S. to participate in a conversation in English comfortably