Paper short abstract:

Students introduce their cultures to peers by multimedia and deepen their understanding in intercultural collaborative learning. By using Metaverse, students from many countries around the world can participate in the class and feel a sense of unity while domestic students participate face-to-face.

Paper long abstract:

This course is offered as an “Intercultural collaborative learning” program in which international and domestic students work together. “Intercultural collaborative learning” involves students with different cultural and language backgrounds working together to deepen their mutual understanding, and create new values by understanding and reflecting on diverse ways of thinking.

In this class, students acquire the skills/techniques necessary to effectively introduce their own/other cultures using not only print “monomedia”, but also visual “multimedia” such as manga, anime, plays, and film. In this way, students deepen their knowledge and understanding of their own cultures and reconsider them from the perspective of their peers. Furthermore, students cultivate an ethical viewpoint that enables one to contribute in an increasingly globalized future.

The class uses a social platform “Metaverse” which is a 3D virtual space. Domestic students participate face-to-face in the classroom while also communicating with international students abroad via Metaverse. Students use a Virtual Reality (VR) camera to collaborate on making videos that explain Japanese cultures. This is one of the attractions for students, as they can directly experience advanced VR technology, including wearing head-mounted displays.

Another attraction is the ability to study together with students from diverse cultural backgrounds, transcending space. In particular, students who cannot travel to Japan have the benefit of being able to learn the Japanese language and culture without having to physically travel abroad. Students are able to encounter the diversity of society that they did not know before, and to view their own culture from an outside point of view.

In the most recent semester, there were 130 students from 20 countries, making it one of the largest intercultural collaborative learning programs at a national university in Japan. This included students from different campuses and faculties at Tohoku University, students from domestic consortium participant universities and international students who could not travel to Japan.

We have found that group work and discussions become livelier through the students’ own avatars. Moreover, while not all students attend in person, the class format brought a sense of togetherness, presence and immersion that cannot be achieved in standard online settings.