Course Description

• Meeting Time:

In this course, we will have local weeks and international connection weeks. For local weeks, we will discuss some cross-cultural learning theories and methods. For international weeks, we will meet with our partner school via videoconference and text-chat.

Classroom: SF 901 and online

About time differences and daylight saving:

Peru (USIL is in Lima, Peru)

• There is no Daylight saving in Peru.

• Lima, Peru is 13 hours behind Taiwan.

USA (ECU is in Greenville in North Carolina, USA)

• • • Daylight saving in the USA ends on Sunday, November 2, 2025, USA time. 

    • East coast of USA is 13 hours behind Taiwan after Daylight saving ends (12 hours behind TW before Daylight saving ends).

*Please bring your own laptop to class on connection sessions (for one-on-one chats in Zoom breakout rooms or other apps as Plan B).

• Grading and Requirements: 

• Attendance:
  Please note that attendance is compulsory. For every unexcused-absence (per session) will mean 3 points off the final average grade. A total of six excused absences of will lead to the failure of the course. You must be on time to connect with foreign schools.

• Text-chats and screen capture of Zoom Breakout Room and/or Google or FB messenger or IG or WhatApp chat records must be uploaded to Troclass area and will be the proof of your attendance of chat connection weeks.

• 1 Individual Paper 20%: Topic can be related to the culture or comparison of the cultures. 

• One or multiple collaborative projects 15%

• Oral Presentation 20% (this might be linked with the collaborative projects presentation or individual presentation)

• 3 Journals: 20%

• Participation: 25%
  Pre-Survey and Post-surveys & text chat records & all documents prepared for the connections (counted as part of participation)

Participation Arrangement

Please be prepared to speak and communicate in English with foreign students. 

Since we have around 15-16 students in our course (and possibly 16 students in the partner schools), we will divide you into two groups. Details of the arrangement will be announced later after the number of students enrolled in the class is finalized.

Journals: Each student is required to 3 journals for the entire semester (Journals may be replaced by some other collaborative activities by the instructor if necessary). This journal is used in a variety of ways to enhance learning and is part of the determination of the final grade. Keep regular journals (at least one page for each entry), reflecting the communication (i.e., chat or videoconference) with your partners or observation thoughts.

Required reading: In addition to being able to discuss matters relating to other cultures for which you should consult your local newspaper, students are required to read local newspapers for the participating partner universities. At the beginning of our cultural link, we will provide you web addresses for suitable newspapers and we will discuss topics in class that are based on some of the lead stories. We ask that you spend 20 minutes before each class period reading through the latest on-line paper to get a sense of important issues, daily life, international perspective, etc.

Individual Paper: When you are participating actively with your partner, starting from the beginning of the cultural link you can start thinking and choosing a topic that is related to areas covered in this class for your final paper. Use email, web 2.0 tools, and chat to ask partner questions to get answers for your paper if necessary. If you have any trouble corresponding with your partner; if your partner is not e-mailing you, or is refusing to work with you on your paper, please e-mail Doris within the first 2 weeks of the session. You may also choose to write a compare & contrast paper on different cultures that we connect this semester.

E-mailing your partner or communicate via FaceBook/IG/WhatsApp: You are expected to keep in touch with your partners, either through e-mail or you can establish friendship via FaceBook or IG or other apps. Ask each other questions and get to know about each other’s culture. Discuss options for topics for your joint paper and when the time comes, discuss the joint paper itself. If the e-mail account for your partner does not work, let us know immediately. If your partner does not respond to your e-mails, after 3 days of no response, let your teacher or technical assistant know so that they can contact the instructor at the partner university and inform them of the problem.