Cultural Implications of E-Learning Access (and Divides): Teaching an Intercultural Communication Course Online

Background And Setting The Stage

We begin by first discussing the backdrop and circumstances leading to this IC course development. The online course was first delivered as a face-to-face course (Elements of Intercultural Communication), an integral part of the department’s offerings - a popular major choice among undergraduates. The course is designed “as an introduction to the basic concepts, principles, and skills for improving communication across racial, ethnic and cultural differences.” The course has been offered each semester since Fall 2006. The course is always enrolled to the maximum capacity (30 students) and there is usually a waiting list of students. While the course is designed as an introductory level course, most of the students are juniors and seniors, a few sophomores and occasionally one or two freshmen. This is due to the fact that courses in this department are impacted in general and students are not able to enroll in required courses until late in their college career. The students in this online course have a variety of majors. Most are business or pre-business majors, a few communication students and the remainder represent a range of majors including pre civil engineering, anthropology, music, art, biotechnology. The cultural backgrounds of the student usually reflect the make up of the University (approximately 65% white, 35% international students, and ethnic and racial minorities)—the largest minority group is Latino and the smallest American Indian.